The Belfield/South Heart Knights had their ace on the mound in Preston Walter, and some late game help from the Hettinger Bears allowed them to come away with a 5-1 victory on Wednesday night.
“We had a couple timely hits,” the Knights head coach Kurt Silbernagel said. “They kind of started throwing the ball around and making errors that are uncharacteristic of them. It is funny because we don’t always keep our composure late in the game, but this time we did. That was the difference in the game.”
Jacob Svihovec gave the Bears an early lead as he scored the lone Hettinger run of the night in the first inning.
The game stayed lifeless for several innings though until a couple of errors by the Bears gave Belfield/South Heart the lead. They plated two runs in the top of the sixth inning, and Silbernagel said he would have been confident had it only been a 2-1 lead going into the bottom of the seventh.
Thankfully for Belfield/South Heart though they gave Walter some insurance with three more runs in the top half of the inning.
ADVERTISEMENT
“He is one of two pitchers we have that I can put on the mound, and I know that nothing will rattle him,” Silbernagel said. “We had a few miscues early and gave up a run, but he doesn’t get rattled. It is amazing the change over our entire team the last couple weeks since we got him back.”
Walter is coming off an injury from the fall and winter and Silbernagel said it is amazing the burst of energy that he has brought to the team after returning to the lineup only a couple weeks ago.
He went the entire way giving up only three hits and two walks. He also struck out five.
For Hettinger, Mason Defoe went toe to toe with Walter on the mound.
He also pitched seven innings and gave up only one earned run with eight strikeouts.
Ian Silbernagel was the only player in the game with multiple hits as he had two hits and scored two runs.
ADVERTISEMENT
