Troy’s Jake Reinhardt threw 104 pitches in 6.2 innings to beat Piqua, 3-1, Wednesday afternoon at Market Street Field. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
Sophomore Jake Reinhardt scattered eight hits, and gave a glimpse of the future, in a 3-1 winning effort Wednesday to lift the Trojans over rival Piqua.
Troy, OH – Troy coach Ty Welker and pitching coach Heath Murray watched sophomore righthander Jake Reinhardt pitch good, better, and best Wednesday afternoon, scattering 8 hits in a 6.2 inning 3-1 win over the Piqua Indians – in fact, outdueling Piqua ace Hunter Steinke.
“Not bad for a sophomore,” Murray winked as he assembled the post-game ‘rake’ crew to groom the mound and the infield. “Wait ’til you see him in a couple of years.”
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But glass half-empty, their smiles were probably tempered with the hope that Reinhardt will actually be here in a couple of years – that he won’t transfer out. He looked that good…that desirable!
In fact, he showed everything you want to see from a promising pitching prospect (ah, the alliteration).
Piqua touched him for a first inning run on a pair of hits and an error by shortstop Matt Kempker. Not the way you dream of starting out, but he didn’t seem to be bothered. In fact, he would regroup from that point to pitch the next 5.2 innings, striking seven and walking three.
It took his offense four innings to finally scratch a run, a leadoff single by Colton Aikins in the bottom of the fourth, later to score on an RBI double to right by centerfielder Aidan Gorman. Pitching with a deficit, he didn’t seem to mind that, either. He just did his job.
“I just focused on throwing strikes,” he later said.
It’s all he was asked to do. Do that, and you’re competing…job #1 for a starting pitcher.
Piqua starter Hunter Steinke deserved better support, allowing just one earned run in Wednesday’s 3-1 loss.
And, he showed some durability and length, throwing 104 pitches to go two outs deep in the top of the seventh before Ty Welker came out to get him in favor of reliever Colton Aikins, who retired the 21st out of the game on one pitch.
“And he faced a great pitcher (Hunter Steinke),” added Welker in his post-game comments. “Hunter’s a great pitcher, he goes out there and deals, and he did that tonight. It took us a while, but we finally found a way. We had guys in scoring position the first four innings, but we just couldn’t get the hit.
“But Jake pitched a heckuva game for us. He kept us in the game. That was his longest outing of the year, he was just over 100 pitches and we wanted him to finish the game, but we got to that last batter and we did something different.”
He kept them in the game…indeed. After that first inning run he tight-roped things a couple of times – runners on base in scoring position, and twice Hunter Steinke lined out to right (fourth inning) and to the shortstop in the sixth inning for the final out.
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And perhaps best, it seemed that the longer he went the better he became – late finish on the fastball along with added bite and command of the breaking pitches. He recorded six strikeouts over his final 5.2 innings of work.
The essence of pitching, of course, is to hold serve until you finally break through against the opposing pitcher. And the Trojans finally did that in the sixth, scoring twice on three costly Piqua errors, a pair of hits, and of course…an RBI single by none other than Jake Reinhardt. Needless to say, it was his best pitching performance to date, and he wasn’t shy about stating the obvious.
Troy right fielder Logan Akers make this catch for the third out in the fourth that saved a run.
“And it came against Piqua,” he beamed.
Troy improved to 7-7 on the season (per MaxPreps) with 3 runs on 7 hits and no errors.
Piqua stumbled to 10-9, with 1 run on 8 hits and 4 errors that doomed an equally impressive performance by senior, and Gannon University recruit, Hunter Steinke, who deserved a better fate than the 4 errors and two excellent at bats where he made hard contact, enough to have at least tied the score. Snagged by the Trojan defense, that…as they say…is baseball.
“We like to think we’re a pretty good defensive team,” smiled Welker. “But we’ve also lost a lot of athletes that last two years who were very good on the defensive end of things. So to have guys step up like they did, they did enough. And they’re working hard.”
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Reinhardt would obviously rather pitch than talk. But like throwing the curve, the more you do it the better it becomes. Get him started talking and he does just fine.
“It was a relief when he (Hempker) caught Steinke’s line drive in the sixth,” Reinhardt said.
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“But you have to lock in and throw strikes, and let your defense work,” he added, talking about his patience to compete after falling behind in the first inning.
“I guess I’m kind of a strike thrower. Just throw it to the glove.”
Lord, if it were only that easy! But some can, and some can’t. And to Welker’s point about Hunter Steinke, he’s one of them that can, finishing six innings Wednesday with 4 strikeouts and just 1 walk.
What an omen, and compliment to the future of Jake Reinhardt. To Heath Murray’s point, the best is surely yet to come.
That is, if he stays.
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