Hartland, Howell split baseball rivalry doubleheader
HOWELL — When David Zilch racked up his 10th strikeout against Hartland Wednesday, he pumped his fist, kicked his left leg in the air and let out a scream.
His reaction had the air of finality to it, but nobody rushed the mound to celebrate with him.
There was more work to be done for Howell to secure the victory, but someone else would have to get those final outs.
Zilch had reached his pitch count and, naturally, there were two outs in the sixth inning.
It was the fifth straight start in which Zilch has pitched 5⅔ innings. It took a tidy 1⅓ scoreless innings from reliever Logan Leppek to put the final touches on Howell’s 6-4 victory in the first game of a doubleheader.
Hartland earned the split with an 8-2 victory in a game called after five innings because of darkness.
Since going six innings on 86 pitches in a season-opening victory over Milford, Zilch has averaged 107 pitches in five starts in which he’s come one out short of getting through the sixth. If a pitcher reaches the limit of 105 pitches in the middle of an at-bat, he can continue throwing until the at-bat is complete.
“We have a joke on the coaching staff that I can only throw 5⅔ innings this year,” Zilch said. “I just did that again. Hopefully next week against Brighton, they’re a good team, I can come back and throw a little bit more than 5⅔.”
A high volume of strikeouts and walks has kept Zilch’s pitch count high. He has 54 strikeouts and 30 walks in 38⅓ innings this season. He had 10 strikeouts and five walks against Hartland, allowing five hits and four runs.
Hartland scored three runs in the third inning to take a 3-2 lead, but Zilch was able to prevent the damage from being even greater. With runners on first and third, nobody out and three runs having been scored in the inning, Zilch picked off a runner at first base, then got two strikeouts.
“We have a lot of plays that we use,” Zilch said. “We’ve been practicing them ever since we’ve been able to get outside. We know what we’re going to get with these teams and know they’re going to stay aggressive with us. We use it against them.”
Zilch was able to maintain his cool in a pressure situation that had the added intensity that comes with a rivalry game.
“This is what we practice all offseason,” Zilch said. “We have guys yelling in practice. We know what we’re going to get. We played these guys last year. It was the same type of game. I knew they’d be out here coming for me. I participate in some of the chirping, too. I knew they were going to give it back at me.”
Howell coach Jason Ladd was impressed with how Zilch battled through adversity in the third.
“When the going got tough, he made some great pitches for us,” Ladd said. “He kind of weathered the storm there early and settled in and gave us 5⅔ innings of very nice baseball.”
Down 3-2, Howell (14-8) scored four runs in the fifth to take the lead for good. A groundout by Nick Hoorn tied the game, a bases-loaded walk to Landon Allen put Howell ahead and a two-run single by Curtis Dell extended the lead.
Hartland (10-7) had four errors, leading to five unearned runs off Gannon Grundman. Grundman struck out seven batters and walked five in 4⅔ innings.
The Eagles bounced back in the second game behind the pitching of Gavin Nash, who allowed three hits, one walk and two runs in five innings.
With the game tied 2-2 through three innings, Hartland scored three runs in the fourth and three in the fifth. A two-run triple by Grundman highlighted the fourth inning and a two-run homer by Ty Kraut was the big blow in the fifth.
“In game one, that guy did a great job keeping us off balance,” Hartland coach Brad Guenther said. “He’s a heck of a competitor. That guy was competing against us. We kind of got to their pitcher in game two, just put some good at-bats together.
“Sam (Clay) started the first game off with an absolute barrel shot and it was hit right at someone; that’s kind of how game one went. It was tough to get something going. Game two, it was all contagious and working together. It was one of our better offensive games.”
Grundman drove in three runs in the nightcap.
Contact Bill Khan at wkhan@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @BillKhan.
This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Hartland, Howell split baseball rivalry doubleheader
