Van Matre Ks Decatur

With the Dirty Birds in town Thursday, Eric Van Matre brought his filthiest fastball. He had a nasty slider and a rotten change-up to go with it.

Decatur had a hard time hitting any of them.

Van Matre struck out 14 batters for the second start in a row and limited the visiting Dirty Birds to just four hits in a 4-1 Portland Rockets victory at Runkle-Miller Field.

With three swinging and three looking, Van Matre (Ball State) struck out each of the first six batters he faced. He walked Travis Case to start the third inning, but immediately induced a double-play ball as he faced the minimum through three.

The Wapahani High School graduate had a no-hitter until Kraig Miller singled with two outs in the fourth inning. He struck out at least one batter in every inning before turning the ball over to South Adams High School graduate Daniel Bollenbacher, who struck out one in the ninth inning as he earned the save.

All four Rocket runs - two in the first inning and two in the fourth - came after walks.

In the first inning Jay County High School graduate Heath Williams led off with a walk and Bryan Brudi added another. Jensen Painter followed with an RBI double to left-center field, and Ryan Shell drove in Dustin Woods, pinch running for Brudi after an injury, with a ground out.

Cameron Branock and Woods drew back-to-back walks to start the third inning, Chris Gottschall loaded the bases when he was hit by a pitch. Riley Muhlenkamp drove in two runs with his second hit of the night, a singled to center.

Muhlenkamp finished a perfect 4-for-4 with a double to lead Portland, which improved to 10-8. Branock had a single to go along with his run, and Thomas McCowan (JCHS) also added a hit.

The only Decatur run came in the fifth inning after Eric May hit a one-out triple to right-center. Travis Case followed with an RBI single to center, but the Dirty Birds managed just one hit, a single from Jordan Steiner (SAHS) the rest of the way.[[In-content Ad]]