Walker pitcher Charlie Pellitier threw his first complete game of the summer, allowing two hits in an 8-2 victory over Denham Springs at North Park.
Denham Springs reliever Hayden Sills releases a pitch against Walker at North Park on Thursday.
DENHAM SPRINGS – Walker junior pitcher Charlie Pellitier gave his coach Randy Sandifer plenty to consider toward his candidacy in next year’s starting rotation.
Pellitier, primarily a junior varsity pitcher a year ago, made quite case for himself, throwing his first complete game of the summer in an 8-2 victory Thursday over Denham Springs in Metro League action at North Park.
“I’ve been trying this summer to work to have a spot in the varsity rotation,” Pellitier said. “They wanted me to go a certain amount of pitches (Thursday night), but they ended up riding me out the rest of the game. When he (Sandifer) asked how I felt, I said I felt pretty good and that I could finish this one.”
Pellitier allowed two hits – a double in the 1st and a single in the 7th – walked four and struck out four and allowed two earned runs.
“That was by far his best outing,” Sandifer said. “He needed that confidence wise.”
Denham Springs scored twice in the 1st on Matt Delaney’s sacrifice fly to left and Brennan Hall’s RBI-double down the left-field line.
Pellitier didn’t budge and went on to retire the next 12 consecutive batters with a two-out walk in the 5th spoiling the dominant stretch.
Walker center fielder Seth Richardson also turned in a highlight-reel grab to conclude the 4th inning, converging on a sinking liner that required a diving effort off the bat of Reese Smith.
“It feels good, knowing that I can trust my defense behind me to make plays,” Pellitier said. “I struggled a little bit in the first inning. I was trying to do it all myself. I had to learn to let my defense make plays behind me.”
Sandifer came into the game with the idea of having Pellitier throw between 35-40 pitches or 3 innings in an effort to conserve him for a weekend game.
“After the first inning I thought that what we were going to do and the second inning was a little better,” he said. “Once he got into that groove, that’s kind of what we’ve been waiting for all summer. We decided to just ride him and we’ll bring him back again next week.”
Walker gave Pellitier the lead in the 2nd, batting around against losing pitcher Dalton Diez.
The first 5 batters for the Wildcats successfully reached base with Richardson’s run-scoring infield single to deep shortstop triggering a 5-run inning for a 5-2 lead.
Second baseman Gabe Inman, the team’s eighth-place hitter, doubled in a pair of runs to left and Inman capped the inning by scoring an unearned run on a fielding error.
“He’s been kind of up and down all year,” Sandifer said of Inman. “He’ll have these games. He doesn’t strikeout a lot, so when he’s putting it in play, he found a hole which was big.”
Diez, who had enjoyed a solid summer, was the first of 4 pitchers and allowed 5 runs on 4 hits. He walked 2 and struck out 2 with Hayden Sills and Brandon Kohn each working 2 innings and Josh Preston closed out the 7th inning.
“He had a good first inning and came out the next one and kind of lost his release point,” Denham Springs coach Mark Carroll said of Diez. “We made some mistakes that we’ll have to get back, coach and teach and get this group back on the same page.”
Inman (2-for-2) drove in his third run of the game in the 3rd inning with a RBI-single that dropped fair next to the line in right field.
The Wildcats added a pair of runs in the 7th when Armond Daigre and Dakota Wilson, who each singled, scored with one out.
“Four weeks ago this is what we were looking for and I think it’s kind of starting to happen where we’re getting more comfortable,” said Sandifer, who played 5 sophomores. “To me it was our most complete game. We’ve been playing closer to this on a more consistent level.”
