BELOIT — Sam Hoium showed a knack for getting out of trouble throughout Thursday’s American Legion regional elimination game between Janesville and Mukwonago at the Stateline YMCA Youth Sports Complex.
The Janesville starter’s ability to navigate through some tricky spots, especially early on, helped him finish a 3-0 complete-game shutout that allowed Post 205 to live and see another day of baseball.
Mukwonago saw its first two batters in each of the first two innings record base hits, but in both situations, outs on the base paths unraveled any scoring chance the team had.
“He’d get in a little bit of trouble, they’d feel like they had a little bit of momentum, and he’d just find a way out of it,” Janesville coach Kerry Michaels said of his starter.
In the first, Jack Karrels led off the game with a soft liner to left field for a single. Hoium, a left-handed hurler, caught Karrels cheating toward second base with a pickoff move, and the runner was officially caught stealing for the first out of the inning.
In the second, after Janesville shortstop Charlie Kober had given Hoium a 1-0 lead with an RBI base hit, Mukwonago started with a single by Noah Yocum.
Easton Ahrens bunted up the third-base line, where Janesville’s third baseman Tyler Horkan and catcher Tony Greco watched it roll to see if it would go foul. It did not, and instead of stopping at second, Yocum dashed for third with no one covering the bag.
Horkan realized what was happening in time, scooping up the ball and beating Yocum to the bag to tag him out. Mukwonago’s next two hitters popped out, and that was the end of that inning.
Hoium’s greatest escape came in the third. He started that inning by striking out Mukwonago’s No. 9 hitter Dillon Kay but then hit Karrels with a pitch. Gavin Reilly hit a ground ball down the third-base line for a hit, and then Ben Contreras hit a ball that bounced through Horkan’s legs for an error that loaded the bases.
But Hoium got another strikeout and then got Yocum to hit a lazy fly ball to left that was caught for the third out.
The Janesville pitcher’s final stat line included seven hits and two walks. He struck out three and benefited from double plays that ended the sixth and seventh innings.
“He did exactly what we needed him to do, and now we’re OK with pitching” for the next game, Michaels said.
Post 205 extended its lead in the next half inning with a pair of runs. The rally started with Brett Appel taking a walk. After a flyout, Kober picked up his second hit of the game, and he and Appel moved to second and third base when Mukwonago’s left fielder let the ball get by him for an error.
Mathias Treinen hit a line drive right at Mukwonago’s first baseman, who then tried to throw to second to complete a double play with Kober trying to scramble back to the base.
The Mukwonago defense mishandled the ball, however, and as it rolled away toward the back edge of the infield dirt, Appel scampered home to make it 2-0. Horkan followed that play with a solid line-drive RBI base hit to left to score Kober and make it 3-0.
All three of Janesville’s runs were unearned, and Mukwonago starter Gavin Reilly also threw a complete game. He gave up just five hits but walked four, hit four other batters to put them on and watched his defense commit three costly errors behind him.
“Their pitcher did a good job of keeping us off balance,” Michaels said. “He threw maybe 12 or 13 fastballs. Everything else had a little dipsy-doodle on it that kept it off the sweet spot.”
Hoium turned one more trick in the seventh inning, which started with Ben Wilson pounding a double into the gap in right-center field. Mukwonago put runners at the corners on Kay’s base hit and brought up Karrels, who represented the tying run.
He worked the count to 2-1 in his favor before hitting a line drive right to Kober at short. Kay took off running on contact and didn’t realize the ball had been caught, so on his way back to the Janesville dugout along the first-base line, Kober tagged Kay about halfway between first and second for the last out of the ballgame.
“I almost hollered at Charlie for being too much up the middle,” Michaels said. “Had I moved him, it would’ve been a base hit, a run in, maybe runners on first and third. Sometimes you just have to let them play.”
Janesville now faces another elimination game at 5 p.m. Friday against regional host Beloit, which lost to Milwaukee 2-1 later Thursday night. The winner of the Beloit-Janesville matchup will take on the Pipemen immediately following the first game.
If the Beloit-Janesville winner beats Milwaukee in Friday’s second game, the teams will meet again at 1 p.m. Saturday with a state tournament berth on the line.
JANESVILLE 3, MUKWONAGO 0
Mukwonago 000 000 0 — 0 7 3
Janesville 102 000 X — 3 5 2
Leading hitters — Reilly (M) 2x3, Kober (J) 2x3. 2B — Wilson (M).
Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-k) — M: Reilly L, 6-5-3-0-4-4. J: Hoium W, 7-7-0-0-2-3.
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