MIDDLETON — Two hits. One run. One win. That’s all it took for Middleton to win the battle of unbeatens in the 5A Southern Idaho Conference.
The contest between two of the best teams in 5A played out as expected. Runs were scarce, pitching was excellent, and one team scored a big win in the final week of the regular season. The Vikings defeated Eagle 1-0 Tuesday night to remain undefeated (8-0) in SIC play. Their lowest-scoring game of the season turned out to be the most exciting.
“A lot of times people love to see offense and they love to see guys scoring. Who doesn’t?” Middleton head coach Bryan Swygart said. “Then there’s nights like tonight where you’re rooting for a 1-0 ballgame and two absolute competitors on the bump.”
Both starting pitchers — who went the distance — commanded the game from the start. Eagle’s Caleb Zawadzki threw six strikeouts in six innings, allowing two hits. But on the other side, Ian Lenius one-upped him on the mound.
The junior totaled 12 strikeouts, one walk and one hit in seven innings. He took his game to another level against Eagle (16-2, 8-1 SIC) with a season best in strikeouts, lowering his ERA on the season to 0.45.
Once he found out he was going to pitch against the Mustangs, he was locked in.
“The second I heard that I’m pitching against Eagle, I changed my mindset to I have to dial in and focus,” Lenius said. “I went out there having a great mindset. I started throwing strikes and kept that energy the whole way.”
The Vikings (17-3, 8-0 SIC) needed every out they could get with Zawadski pitching a gem as well. The smallest mistake on either side could have been costly, given the fine margins.
After three scoreless innings, Middleton finally broke the deadlock in the bottom of the fourth. Kellen Viehweg connected on an RBI-triple. Michael Armstrong, in the game as a courtesy runner, scored from first base to give the Vikings a 1-0 lead.
That’s all it took for Middleton to walk away with a win, but there could have easily been more runs on the board.
Both teams missed a golden opportunity early in the game to put some serious damage on the scoreboard. In the bottom of the first inning, Middleton loaded the bases with no outs. Boomer Collins and Trey Swygart reached on a walk and Lenius hit a single.
But Zawadzki wasn’t fazed. He struck out the next two batters and popped out the third to end the inning.
Eagle’s wasted bases-loaded opportunity came in the third inning with one out. Just as Zawadzki did for the Mustangs, Lenius struck out the next two batters to keep the game scoreless.
“They got hits, we made an error or two,” Lenius said about the bases loaded jam. “But I didn’t change my mindset. I didn’t get down. I was focusing on getting the next out and not letting that bother me.”
Those two moments provided the biggest fireworks of the night from both benches. The game had the feel of a postseason matchup — where a meeting between these two is possible.
“You watch Zawadzki do it,” Swygart said. “We load the bases in the first inning and Zawadzki mans up. Strikes the next three guys out and our guy says I can do that too. The competitive juice gets you excited.”
As it stands, Middleton sits atop the conference standings with four conference games remaining. Three of them are against Kuna, Nampa and Meridian, but one big test remains — at Owyhee (8-1) this Saturday.
There is the potential for all three of Middleton, Eagle and Owyhee to finish the season 11-1 in league play, creating a tiebreaker that would be settled by the margin of victory against each other.
Local News
Comments / 0