In his six appearances previous to this game, Ryan Tapani has been lights out for the Jays, tossing 36.1 innings of 34 hit ball, holding a 1.49 ERA, with a 4-0 record.
Tonight, with an electric 2-seam fastball as his primary weapon, Tapani managed to battle through 8.2 innings of 2 hit ball while allowing just a single run in the 4th inning. Evansville manufactured their only run by utilizing a free base on a hit by pitch, then sacrificed the runner to second, then singled him home after their 3-hole hitter – Tanner Craig – struck out.
The strikeout, as it turns out, was more of a turning point in this ballgame than the subsequent RBI single, considering Tapani faced a 3-0 hole before working his way back to force a full count. With the count full, Tapani blew a fastball right by Craig to strike him out.
“3-0 is a thing we preach as a pitching staff of ‘make them earn it,’ so if they’re gonna get on first make them get a hit, don’t give them any free bases,” Tapani said of the situation after the game.
Facing a 1-0 hole, and the Evansville starter Adam Lukas throwing a gem, the Bluejay offense tried to get something going. But it wasn’t until the 6th inning when the offense managed to put something together. After a Mike Emodi strikeout, Will Robertson worked a walk on five pitches. When Tommy Luevano managed to work the count to 2-2, failing to lay down a sacrifice bunt, Robertson took off for second and swiped the bag.
Luevano would eventually strike out, but Robertson had moved himself into scoring position for DH Ryan Mantle. Mantle, hitting just .200 on the year, slapped a sinking liner to left field, where Purple Aces’ left fielder Troy Beilsmith botched the catch. This allowed Robertson to score with ease, knotting the game at 1 a piece.
With Tapani seemingly growing stronger with each inning and each strikeout, the Bluejays seemed to capture all of the momentum, and capitalized on another Evansville goof to put themselves ahead. This came in the 7th inning where, with one out, Parker Upton catapulted a dead red fastball into the left center gap, landing the ball on the warning track, where the trajectory of the ball jettisoned it into the gray fence that separates the general admission seating and the field.
Upton, as he’s known to do, dug in and tried to take the extra base, sliding in at third only to get tagged out. Luckily for Jays fans and our own collective sanities, an umpire noticed the ball carom off the grey fence, thus giving the sophomore left fielder a double.
With one out and a runner in scoring position, Clark Brinkman approached the dish and worked a 9 pitch at bat, only to strike out. This left Isaac Collins at the dish, game tied, two outs, and an opportunity to do some damage.
He did just that.
On the second pitch of the at bat, Collins shot a grounder up the middle. The Evansville second baseman – Stewart Nelson – seemingly froze momentarily, then panicked to field the ball cleanly. It dribbled away into right field, giving Upton more than ample time to score from second, and to give the Jays the lead.
Tapani came back out in the top of the eighth and recorded two quick outs. It was then, because of a poor matchup, that Ed Servais pulled him and inserted super-reliever Mitch Boyer into a holding role. Boyer threw just one pitch – a slider – that got catapulted high into the night’s sky, only to settle into Jack Strunc’s glove.
In the bottom half of the eighth inning, Tommy Luevano roped a double down the left field line, settling in at second base. After watching Ryan Mantle fly out to left, Jason Allbery approached the dish and slapped a liner to left field. Luevano, with two outs, was sent home by Servais, and was beat by a few strides.
Inning over.
Jonah Smith took over pitching duties for One-Pitch-Mitch, and put all three potential tying runs at the dish to rest. The Jays, for another day, pull off a monumental win over a former Valley foe.
