As a general piece of advice, tendencies tell you it’s better to get to an elite pitcher early as opposed to late.
Getting an opportunity to face Naperville Central left-hander Ryan Eiermann on Saturday for the first time, Metea Valley can certainly attest to that fact.
Eiermann tossed his second straight complete game in leading Naperville Central to a 2-1 DuPage Valley Conference victory over Metea Valley at Boomers Stadium in Schaumburg.
In moving his record to 4-0 for the Redhawks (11-4, 5-2), Eiermann struck out a season-high 11 – which marks his fourth career game with at least 10 strikeouts.
“I didn’t think my velocity was there, but I was definitely able to locate,” he said. “I think that’s what was able to help me the most – being able to locate all three pitches and getting them to swing and miss.”
At one point, the TCU-bound junior retired 15 straight Mustangs – spanning Conner Lovely’s RBI double in the first inning to Blake Honda’s single with one out in the sixth.
Honda’s double to start the game for Metea Valley and Lovely switching places with him two batters later may have stunned Eiermann a bit.
But it didn’t shake him for long as he recorded at least two strikeouts in five of his seven innings.
“Just settled down,” Eiermann said. “I think I was a little out of a funk, I guess you could say. I couldn’t find my pitches right away. But then once I settled down and these guys got me the run (in the third), then I started to see that this was going to help and we were going to be able to hit the ball and help me out.”
No two strikeouts were bigger than the two he got after allowing a one-out double to Anthony Greco in the seventh.
With Greco in scoring position representing the tying run, Eiermann got Jack Feeley swinging and Ashton Creal looking to preserve the one-run victory for Naperville Central.
A Conor Joyce RBI groundout in the first and a two-out RBI single from Joyce two innings later in the third off Metea Valley starter Joey Coryell is all the offense the Redhawks would need.
“He was good,” Naperville Central coach Mike Stock said of Eiermann. “He’s always good. Ryan competes. Fun day. It’s tough not to get up for a day like (Saturday) where we get to play in a stadium against Metea, conference rival, and Ryan came up and matched that challenge – and so did their kid. We got enough across early and made the plays behind him.”
Coryell, a senior left-hander, went the entire way for the Mustangs (6-6, 3-5) in allowing one earned run on three hits.
For a team who had averaged 11.3 runs in their last three games coming into Saturday, pitching efforts like the one they got from Coryell (0-1) only helps.
“We had that performance (Friday), we would have won,” Metea Valley coach Craig Tomczak said of Friday’s 14-13 loss to the Redhawks. “We need to be better on the mound and we needed a good performance and Joey did it. He threw the ball very well.
“If we get some pitching, we’re going to win a lot of games. I like our lineup. I like our approach. Our boys are swinging the bat very well. If we get consistent pitching out of people like Joey (Saturday) or Matt Vass has been all year, we’re going to win some games.”
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