Harry Yeager put on a show against #3 Papillion-La Vista, pitching a complete game in his first start of the season allowing just four hits. The junior’s performance led the Warriors to a 2-1 win over the Monarchs. Coming into the game, Yeager had only pitched two innings and had only two strikeouts to his six walks surrendered. The complete game was a reverse of what the season on the mound had been for the right hander.
“The off speed worked, I threw a lot of strikes,” Yeager said. “I didn’t have any walks tonight. Usually I have a lot of walks and not a lot of strikes. Off speed is working well, curveball, slider, working well. When you can be on the ball and get ahead and count, it really helps win games and we haven’t been throwing strikes but I think when we are a strike first team, we win a lot of games.”
Yeager allowed only one run, coming on a wild pitch all the way back in the second inning. He finished the game throwing seven innings, allowing four hits, one run and struck out nine Monarch hitters. Head coach Otis Seals believes the amount of work Yeager puts in for the incredible performance.
“Harry’s worked really hard on his pitching,” Seals said. “No one gets to see the work put in, we see the two hours these kids play but nobody gets to see the countless hours they put in in the offseason. And these pitchers and Harry included has been working since October. To see him come out in his first start this year on the mound, and pitch the way that he did is just testament to his work in the offseason. He was when his number was called, he was ready for it. So super proud of him he couldn’t be more proud of right now. Harry made a couple of relief appearances for us. I think he would even tell you they hadn’t gone super well. He wasn’t throwing as many strikes as he normally does and didn’t have his slider working like he did today. And he’s never felt he’s never felt sorry for himself. He’s never made excuses. He’s got in the bullpen and worked.”
The Warriors only plated two runs against the Monarchs, but it still was enough to pull off the victory. Coach Seals isn’t displeased with the offense though. He says they track quality at bats and the team’s goal is to have 60 percent of at bats to be considered a quality at bat. The team charted 68 percent of the at bats as quality in the game.
“We chart our offense in the dugout every game,” Seals said. “We call them quality at bats. And so I’m not necessarily concerned about the runs. I’m concerned about our quality of bats and our goal is 60% in a game and today our quality is about 68% and so it didn’t show on the scoreboard. But if you were watching the game, you saw us line out in the outfielders a bunch. If any of those balls fall, we might break this thing open a little bit more so not concerned with the run production today. I was proud of the way the kids came out. After an emotional win last night at Bellevue.”
The win against Papio-La Vista marked the second win in a row against a top three ranked team. After going on a three game skid, the Warriors bounced back with wins against #2 Bellevue West and #3 Papillion-La Vista. Later in the week the Warriors will take on Papillion-La Vista South in the first round of the Metro conference tournament on Thursday April 11. When they head to Papillion to take on Titans. The game will be the sixth straight game facing a top 10 team. The message from coach Seals has not changed.
“We want to treat this first round of the metro kind of like a district tournament,” Seals said. “We’ll see Papio South on Thursday and they’re another top 10 team. So this will be our sixth game in a row, six top 10 teams in a row. And so we’re just going to continue to try and do what we’ve been doing and play good ball.”
