MERIDIAN — Timberline just had to get back on the field.
Fresh off a 15-2 loss to the Vikings Thursday night filled with self-inflicted mistakes, the Wolves hit the diamond again Friday night for a battle with Mountain View. Whereas Thursday’s game was filled with walks, passed ball and batters hit by pitches, the pitching and defense was much cleaner Friday night, led by Haiden Delong.
He went the distance for Timberline, throwing all seven innings in a 7-2 over the Mavericks. It was a near-perfect night through six innings for Delong, allowing just one hit. The lone knock came from Mountain View’s Will Grizzle. Outside of that at-bat, every other batter was retired.
“He’s a competitor,” Timberline head coach Casey Coberly said. “He filled the zone up early. I can’t ask for much more than that.”
But it wasn’t just his pitching that paved the way for a win. Delong had two strikeouts, with the defense behind him cleaning up almost every ball in play. Shortstop Solomon Catt and third baseman Logan Thistle had a few impressive scoops in the infield to keep the bases clear.
“Sharing the baseball, that’s all you have to do,” Delong said. “Pitch to contact and good things will happen.”
Mountain View (7-8, 1-4 SIC) tacked on two runs in the bottom of the seventh, but the damage was already done. Delong’s pitching performance didn’t go to waste with the offense striking early.
In the top of the first inning, Rylee Chu earned a walk in the first at-bat of the game, followed by a single from Aidan Messerschmitt. Two batters later, Everett Lynn sent them both home on a two-run single. They didn’t score in the second but Messerschmitt delivered again in the third inning with a solo home run. It was hit high but caught the wind blowing out to left field, going just over the wall.
“He (Aidan) told me it shouldn’t have gone out,” Coberly said. “It was awesome to see him break out. We had Everett Lynn break out, Logan Thistle broke out again. … We’ll take double digit hits all day.”
The next bunch of runs came in the fifth inning. Messerschmitt started it off again with a single, his third hit of the game. Thistle followed with a double before Isaac Mills connected on a two-RBI single, bringing the Wolves lead to 5-0. Dean Woods added an RBI-single three batters later. Catt reached in the top of the seventh inning and scored their final run on a fielding error by the Mavericks.
Overall, it was a much more positive evening than the one prior, capitalizing on Delong’s success on the mound.
“The bounce back feels awesome,” Aidan said. “We were upset last night. We dropped it. Can’t go into the new day upset about last night, can’t change it. We came ready to play and we showed it.”
The Wolves had 11 hits as a team, led by Messerschmitt with three. Lynn, Thistle and Catt had two hits apiece. Both of Thistle’s hits were doubles.
Delong has thrown the most innings for the Wolves this season, 23, compiling a 2.43 ERA with 21 strikeouts.
The win snapped a short two-game losing streak for Timberline (8-5, 3-2 SIC), which had followed a five-game win streak. While the loss to Middleton was filled with mistakes, their loss to Meridian came by one run. It felt good for them to piece together a more complete performance.
“Huge bounce back,” Coberly said. “We had better energy but obviously the wild pitches, walks, hit by pitches hurt us. We dropped two games this week and after losing those first two and coming back, we’ll take it.”
The Southern Idaho Conference schedule doesn’t let up as league play ramps up in the next few weeks. The Wolves still have games against Eagle, Owyhee and Boise, who all have at least 11 wins on the season.
Mountain View’s struggles continued, as the Mavericks have lost six of their last seven games, scoring two runs or fewer in five of those.
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