Blue Jay baseball team finds success at Jack Brown Stadium Saturday
May 4—JAMESTOWN — Adam Sortland got all the way to third on his second at-bat on Saturday
"I knew he was a pitcher I could hit so I stood up in the box a little bit and then I hit it," Sortland, a senior for the Jamestown High School baseball team, said. "I have never hit a ball that far in my life so I was kind of surprised. I shouldn't have watched it as long as I did but then I got going and was lucky enough to get that triple."
The senior went on to score on an Ethan Oettle lineout to put the Jays ahead 2-0 heading into the fourth.
The Blue Jays picked up their first home win of the season, defeating Watford City 3-1, 3-1 to improve their record to 3-7 overall. Jamestown is slated to head to Williston on Tuesday. First pitch of the doubleheader is scheduled to come at 3 p.m.
"We needed that," JHS head coach Jack Bowman said. "We won our first one and have lost the last seven so it's good to be back in the win column."
The pair of wins against the Wolves came approximately 20 hours after the team dropped a pair to Mandan.
"(Friday's) games were interesting," Bowman said. "We were in the first game and actually played pretty well and just lost a close one. The second game, we didn't pitch. We walked too many guys and fell behind and there wasn't much to the rest of that game.
"Coming home and being able to play another game right after that mess is good for us," he said.
In the bottom of the second, Kaiden Hakanson took advantage of an error by Watford's shortstop Colton Hufnagel and scored the Jays' first run of the afternoon to make it 1-0 after two complete.
Tyson Jorissen notched the Jays' second hit — another triple — in the bottom of the fifth. The senior's run drove in Ethan Oettle to extend the Jays' lead to three.
The Jays' aggression at the plate might have resulted in three runs but really the difference was on the mound.
"Pitching was dominant," Bowman said. "Thomas (Newman) was spot-on. He walked the first guy but after that — they couldn't touch him. We expect Tom to be like that. Now our younger guys, we have to see if they can be consistent like that."
Newman didn't give up any runs or hits and only walked one batter. He retired 10 batters through five innings pitched. Bowman said Newman was on a pitch count which is why the head coach pulled the ace after the fifth inning and put in freshman Brenner Weber for the sixth and Jaden Prochnow in the seventh.
"He's probably the best pitcher I've seen with my own eyes," Sortland said of Newman. "It's hard when pitchers throw balls — it gets the defense off — but Tom doesn't do that. He just fills up the zone. The way he goes out and commands the mound and throws strikes — it's crazy.
"We had two hard-fought games (Friday) and just couldn't get either of them but we knew this was a team that we could beat and we just had to go out there and play our game and take it to them," he said.
Jamestown 3, Watford City 1
WC 000 001 0 — 1 0 2
JHS 011 010 X — 3 2 0
WC: Braylen Tolbert. JHS: Thomas Newman, Brenner Weber (6), Jaden Prochnow (7). W — Newman. L — Tolbert.
Highlights: JHS — Newman (5 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 10 K); Adam Sortland 1-3, 3B; Tyson Jorissen 1-3, 3B, RBI; Ethan Oettle RBI.
Jamestown 3, Watford City 1
WC 100 000 0 — 1 1 1
JHS 200 010 X — 3 5 2
