The Valle Catholic Warriors have had an up and down start to the week, but it’s certainly been more good than bad. They knocked off the 12-3 STL Patriots on Monday with a 2-0 shutout to kick things off, but then stumbled against Jeff City two days later with a rare 7-3 loss.
Things picked back up again on Thursday though, with a cool 7-0 victory at Valley. The shutout of the Vikings was the sixth of the season for the Warriors and moved their record to 12-2 on the year.
The game against the Patriots was an old school pitcher’s duel, with Clayton Drury getting the start. He fired off six scoreless innings of one-hit ball and fanned 12 against three walks. That’s an impressive outing no matter how you slice it, but this Patriots squad has been mowing down great teams all season, so it’s even more spectacular against such a stout opponent.
The game was a scoreless affair for the first five innings, but Valle finally broke through in the sixth. Rylan Fallert drew a walk to get things started and then with two outs Isaac Viox smoked a ball to right field that got into the corner. He turned on the jets and transformed a hard groundball into an inside the park home run.
That put Valle up 2-0, so in the 7th they turned to flame-throwing fireman Chase Fallert to close it out. He promptly stuck out three batters in order and earned the save, giving the Warriors a 2-0 victory.
Viox and Drury were the heroes with 2-for-3 performances at the plate. Viox drove in the only runs of the game and Drury got the win with his stellar performance on the mound.
There wasn’t much to write home about in the next game, as the Warriors fell 7-3 to Jefferson City. Their defense betrayed them in this one as four errors led to the bulk of the runs. The biggest factor was a five-run fifth for Jeff City, and despite three runs in the final two innings Valle couldn’t rally big enough.
C. Fallert had a nice night on the mound with four innings where he didn’t allow an earned run. He gave up five hits, walked one and struck out six. He also had the only extra-base hit for the Warriors with an RBI double.
R. Fallert, Alex Viox, I. Viox and Carson Tucker each had multiple hits for Valle. They put up 11 hits in total, but just couldn’t seem to get the ducks off the pond in this one. The loss dropped them to 11-2.
Things turned around quickly though, as the game against Valley on Thursday couldn’t have gone better. The Warriors took an early lead in the third on an RBI single from R. Fallert, before adding three more in the fourth inning to go up 4-0.
Then in the seventh they put the game completely out of reach with three more runs, highlighted by a booming homer to center by A. Viox. That was more than Valle needed to dispatch the Vikings for a 7-0 victory.
R. Fallert got the start and the win with four shutout innings that featured six Ks. Cannon Wolk cleaned up the last three innings for the save. He allowed a pair of hits and walks, but fanned two while keeping the sheet clean.
Bryce Giesler was the hit-leader on the day with a 3-for-4 performance, but wasn’t the only player to have a big day at the plate. C. Fallert went 2-for-4 with two RBI and two stolen bases, R. Fallert was 2-for-4 as well with an RBI and Aaron Eftink was 2-for-3 with a pair of RBI, a walk and a run scored.
It was a complete effort by the Warriors and upped their record to 12-2. They still have a busy week ahead of them though with games against Cape Notre Dame and a red-hot Hillsboro team.
