Cincinnati Steam

Steam Use Dominate Pitching,
Hamilton Miscues to Blank Joes 2-0

HAMILTON, Ohio—Cincinnati scored two unearned runs and rode the stellar pitching of Reece Asbury (Miami), Ryan Martin (Michigan State), and Michael Schum (Wright State) to shut out the Hamilton Joes 2-0 Wednesday night at Foundation Field. After 5.0 shutout innings from Asbury, Steam starting pitchers have now hurled 18.0 consecutive scoreless innings dating back to game one of the doubleheader at Southern Ohio on June 21. The shutout was the first for the Steam (5-4) since July 11, 2008, when they blanked the Lima Locos 13-0 at Western Hills High School.

Asbury continued his dominance of the GLSCL in a 65-pitch effort, allowing just three hits and striking out three without a walk. Asbury (1-0) has now thrown 10.0 scoreless innings to begin the season, lowering his career ERA to 1.53 in 29.1 innings with the Steam. He has also struck out 27 and walked just four in his career for a 6.75 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Asbury could challenge Matt Winterhalter (Northern Kentucky) for the Steam career ERA record later this season (40.0 innings needed to qualify). Winterhalter notched a 1.83 ERA in 59.0 innings in his three-year Steam career.

Former Steam player Bill Kitchen (Sinclair C.C.) was the hard luck loser for the Joes (1-6), throwing 6.0 innings and allowing just two hits and two unearned runs. Kitchen struck out six and walked two, falling to 0-2 despite a 0.57 ERA in 15.2 innings this season.

Martin followed up Cody Elliott’s (Ball State) six-strikeout relief effort against Grand Lake with a six-strikeout outing of his own. Martin retired nine of the ten batters he faced in 3.0 innings of work and struck out the side in the seventh inning. Ironically, neither Elliott nor Martin threw a single inning for their respective schools in the spring.

Schum worked out of a jam in the ninth to record his third save. He walked Alan Mathis (Northwest Mississippi C.C.) with one out, and Colton Cattani (Lincoln Trail) followed with a ground ball to Ben Thomas (Xavier) at first, who threw the ball over the head of Brad Gschwind (Miami) for an error. Patrick Jones (St. Catharine College) then singled through the left side to load the bases. Schum showed the poise that made him one of the nation’s best closers this season, inducing Joe Sullivan (Miami Hamilton) to pop out to third for the second out and getting Phillip Bauer (Xavier) to ground to catcher Ryan Bellamy (Xavier), who tagged out Mathis to end the game.

Gschwind went 1-for-4 with a run scored for the Steam, who managed just four hits on the night. Ryan Strausborger (Indiana State) stole his fifth base of the season and scored a run, and Drew Schmidt (Xavier) recorded his first extra base hit of the season with a ninth-inning double.

Jimmy Brenneman (Lincoln Trail) led the Joes with two hits in three at bats, and Sullivan doubled in just his third at bat of the season.

Cincinnati scored a run in the first inning for the second consecutive game but missed an opportunity to plate more. Strausborger reached on a throwing error to begin the game and Jon Edgington (Miami) followed with a walk after falling behind 0-2. Thomas blooped a single to center to load the bases, but Kyle Bluestein (Jacksonville State) grounded into a 5-3 double play and Travis Shaw (Kent State) flew out to end the inning. Strausborger scored on the double play to give the Steam the early 1-0 lead.

When Gschwind struck out swinging to begin the second inning, it marked the first time that either Steam hitter from Miami University has been sent down on strikes this season. Gschwind’s strikeout came in his 28^th plate appearance, while Edgington still has not struck out after 38 plate appearances this season (Edgington went 1-for-3 with a walk and no strikeouts in the game).

Asbury escaped trouble in the second inning, benefiting from a great throw by right fielder T.J. Jones (Cincinnati). Tyler Elkins (Bowling Green) singled to right with one out, and Sullivan followed with a drive into the left field corner that hit off of Edgington’s glove after a long run for a double, putting runners on second and third. Bauer then hit a short fly ball to Jones, who gunned down Elkins easily with a perfect one-hop throw to the plate.

The Steam took advantage of another Hamilton miscue in the fourth inning to extend their lead to 2-0. Kitchen retired the first two batters of the inning before Gschwind reached on a throwing error by third baseman Mathis. Kitchen essentially scored a run for Cincinnati when he walked Schmidt, moved both runners up a base with a wild pitch, and balked home Gschwind when he failed to come to a stop before delivering a pitch to Bellamy, whom he eventually struck out.

Edgington was thrown out stealing for the first time in his Steam career in the fifth inning (his 17^th career attempt and third this season) after hitting a two-out single. Elkins, playing in his first summer game after a nasty hamstring injury, threw a bullet to second to nail the speedster.

Cincinnati loaded the bases with two outs in the seventh inning but was unable to score. With a runner on first and two outs, Jerry Young (Lipscomb) hit Jones with a pitch and walked Strausborger, but Brent Suter (Harvard) entered the game and retired Edgington on a fly ball to center to end the inning.

Ian Kadish (Marshall) was honored by GLSCL commissioner Dr. Kim Lance before the game for winning the GLSCL Pitcher of the Week award this past week. Kadish held opponents to a .083 batting average during the week, including a 7.0-inning, one-hit performance at Southern Ohio.

The Steam play their third game in three days on Thursday night when they face the Xenia Scouts for the first time in 2009. First pitch is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at the AIA Sports Complex in Xenia, Ohio. Cincinnati returns home on Sunday afternoon for a 2:05 doubleheader with the Stark County Terriers.