McCook hurls a no-no vs. district foe Holdrege
McCOOK, Neb. — The stare was quick, cold and painful as a Florida Gator feasting on College World Series foes.
The glare into Holdrege’s dugout only arrived after these visitors thought they were rattling McCook National Bank’s No. 1 pitcher.
Kaden Sitzman’s nerves were surely frayed following a leadoff walk.
Surely, Holdrege could heat Sitzman up when the next count reached three balls, no strikes.
“He’s getting rattled, he’s getting rattled,” could be heard around the dugout while visiting noise grew louder.
Surely, Holdrege hitters discovered they would be wrong.
“Kaden doesn’t get rattled,” McCook coach Scott Smalley said. “He might have got pissed off a bit.”
Sitzman’s reaction meant absolute silence for the Post 66 attack. He rallied from 3-0 down to “freeze” that batter on a called third strike — then fired his one quick icy stare at Holdrege’s dugout.
Inning over and the game was all but over from a competitive standpoint.
McCook promptly plated three more runs to lead 5-0, then tacked on another three while finishing an 8-0 six-inning win at the Jaycees Complex.
Holdrege’s only crooked number would appear in the errors column as Sitzman threw a no-hitter while striking out 10.
“After his last start at Wahoo (where McCook only won one of fourgames), we knew the big keys for Kaden were hitting his spots and getting ahead in counts,” Smalley explained. “He did that with a lot of 0-1 and 0-2 counts. And when Holdrege did put a ball in play, we were ready to make the plays.”
Crooked behavior was simply unacceptable with Kaleb Taylor behind the plate.
Payton Schmalz got greedy after drawing a rare Sitzman free pass, but his stealing attempt of second base was wiped out by one perfect Taylor strike.
“That’s what Kaleb does,” Smalley said.
Shortstop Colton Stevens and first baseman DJ Gross both robbed Holdrege of potential hits.
Gross rose to his toetips while stopping Reese Jones’ line drive from reaching right field.
McCook (15-5 record) didn’t pepper hits all over the diamond like last week’s 16-4, 10-3 doubleheader sweep of Lexington. The Seniors totaled 19 hits during both of those wins.
However, the Seniors delivered timely hits to gradually pull away.
Taylor singled home McCook’s first run before Logan Greenlee and Spencer Krsyl both smashed doubles past Holdrege outfielders.
Krsyl’s RBI-shot put the Seniors in front, 2-0.
“He’s starting to hit the ball well like we expect,” Smalley said about Krysl.
Colton Stevens walked, stole second and cruised home thanks to Sitzman’s rocket single.
Not even a “pickle” tasted good on this night for Holdrege or coach Dwayne “Turkey” Kudlacek.
Although Drew Harvie dashed home on a Taylor sacrifice fly, the visitors had Sitzman caught between second and third base.
Yet the pickle rundown turned rotten with an errant throw while Sitzman scored McCook’s fifth run.
Cameryn Berry, Stevens and Sitzman drove home those final three scores to enforce an eight-run mercy rule.
McCook moves on to play at Imperial tonight in a juniors-seniors doubleheader. The Seniors won 19-0 during their first meeting at McCook.