Rocket arms heat up

The hot weather came with plenty of hot pitching.
The Portland Rocket starters scorched the visiting Lima Buckeyes, sweeping Saturday’s doubleheader 6-0 and 9-2.
Temperatures climbed into the 90s but the heat couldn’t slow down Mitch Waters and Ethan Daggett, who shut down the Lima lineup in their respective starts.
“Pitching is where it starts,” said Rockets manager Randy Miller. “(Waters) controlled the pace of the game. He was masterful and we all feed off that.
“Ethan Daggett, his first start of the year, that’s the most he’s pitched … since he’s entered college … and he was masterful.”
In game one, Waters one-hit Lima and surrendered just one walk while striking out seven.
“It felt good,” said Waters, a 2002 Jay County High School graduate. “I attacked the zone. This team likes to swing early so it helped me out keeping the pitch count down and helping me stretch it out a little more than I have.”
Billy Wellman, a 2009 JCHS graduate who led all hitters at Ball State University this season, put Portland on the board first with a two-run single in the third inning.
The Rockets got another two runs in the next frame as catcher Chris Miller crushed a ball over the fence in left-center.
“It was a 2-2 pitch and he threw me a hanging curveball,” said Chris Miller, who also hit a double to give Portland some power from the No. 9 slot in the lineup. “I turned on it and luckily it went out.”
In game two, Daggett started slow but caught fire in the middle innings to turn in a strong performance.
In the first, he put runners on second and third before coming up with a pair of two outs to get out of the inning. Lima loaded the bases in the third with two outs, but Daggett iced the Buckeyes’ No. 5 hitter with three breaking balls to work out of it.
That strikeout started a streak of five in a row as the Indiana Wesleyan hurler went five innings, giving up one run on three hits and striking out seven.
“I felt like I had a lot of my stuff going,” Daggett said. “I was able to keep them off balance especially with my slider. … I just kept working the ball low on all of their hitters. If they weren’t swinging and missing … they were hitting ground balls and it was easy for the defense.”
The Rockets put one run up in the first on a Wellman RBI single before exploding in the fourth for six runs. Designated hitter Adam Wilson keyed the big inning with a two-run triple that was effectively turned into an in-the-park home run after the throw to third base sailed high and out of play, allowing Wilson to take the plate. He finished 3-of-3 with a single, double, triple and four RBIs in game two.
On the day, Wellman keyed the Rockets offense by hitting 4-for-6  with two singles, a double, a triple and a walk.
“The pitchers … were keeping it mostly around the zone so I knew I was going to get a pitch to hit,” Wellman said of his effort at the plate.
Dalton Tinsely also turned in a strong performance collecting two singles and an RBI and reaching base in five of his eight plate appearances.[[In-content Ad]]