Wabash Valley pitching and the hottest bat in the Prospect League combined Saturday night to snap a six-game losing streak for the Rex, who held off the Illinois Valley Pistol Shrimp 4-3 at Bob Warn Field.
Rex first baseman Rob Weissheier, who leads the league in homers and OPS and is third in batting, ran his consecutive hit streak to six, three of which have been homers, and the Rex needed every one of them.
And on the mound, Shakamak's Braden Scott had another excellent start, Terre Haute South's Cole Whitlock took over until the ninth and South Vermillion's Kase Lawson picked up the save, albeit an exciting save.
"It feels better. A lot better," Weissheier said after his team's win.
"It's always good to win," manager A.J. Reed agreed.
Reed had said a night earlier that his team's hitters would soon find some holes, and Saturday night they found foul lines. Alec Atkinson led off the bottom of the third with a line drive that hit the right-field line for a double, Weissheier followed one out later with a shot that found the left-field line for another double, and Nate Wolf hit the third two-bagger of the inning to the gap in left-center that gave the home team a 2-0 lead.
"They were using the whole field and getting guys into scoring position," the manager said later.
Scott breezed through the first four innings, but walked the Shrimp's ninth hitter, Necumba Booker Jr., with one out in the top of the fifth and then things got weird.
Scott picked Booker off first, but he wound up at third when Weissheier's throw to second was missed. Booker scored on a smash up the middle by Nolan Clifford — although Scott nearly made a behind-the-back stop — and then Blake Atkins reached base on a dropped third strike. Clifford got overzealous rounding second, however, and was thrown out to end the inning.
Singles by Kaleb Hannahs and Weissheier opened the bottom of the inning, and a pair of fielder's choices brought Hannahs home to restore the two-run lead. It became a three-run lead the next time Weissheier came to the plate, when he hit one into the cemetery in the bottom of the seventh.
"I'm just seeing the ball well," he said after the game. "Taking good swings, getting hard contact and letting the ball go where it wants to go."
"It seems like every time he swings the bat it finds the barrel," Reed said.
Scott was nearing the 100-pitch mark in the top of the sixth and was lifted for Whitlock, a considerable contrast in size and velocity. Whitlock got out of that inning and the next two, although a running catch in deep center field by Tyler Nelson was helpful in stranding two Shrimp in the top of the eighth.
"He's a crafty lefty," Reed said of Whitlock. "He's not going to light up the radar gun."
Lawson, who was added to the team about a week ago to rejoin his lifetime teammate Canton Terry (South Vermillion and Wabash), was summoned for the ninth and was greeted rudely with three hard-hit singles. The Rex bullpen remained silent, however, and Lawson got three ground balls to end the game.
"I'm a calm person," Reed said when asked about the tense ninth inning. "We're trying to get guys into situations that make them better.
"Right now we haven't got a lot of options pitching-wise, so we're also asking guys to do things they haven't done before. [Lawson] has always been a starter, but we need him in relief."
So the Rex are back on the winning side of the ledger and host Chillicothe in a single game Sunday.
"If we keep hitting the ball hard, good things will happen," Reed said.
ILLINOIS VALLEY (AB-R-H-RBI) — Ogans ss 5-0-1-0, Clifford dh 4-0-2-1, Atkins 2b 4-0-0-0, Coca 3b 3-0-1-0, A.Nelson cf 3-0-0-0, Wuestefeld 1b 4-1-1-0, Souto c 4-1-1-0, Link rf 4-0-1-1, Booker lf 2-1-0-0, Maynard ph 1-0-0-0. Totals 34-3-7-2.
REX (AB-R-H-RBI) — Atkinson 2b 4-1-1-0, Hannahs 3b 4-1-1-0, Weissheier 1b 4-2-4-2, Brunson lf 4-0-0-0, Wolf rf 4-0-2-2, Harbison c 4-0-0-0, T.Nelson cf 3-0-0-0, Janke dh 2-0-0-0, Putnam ss 3-0-0-0. Totals 32-4-8-4.
Illinois Valley=000=010=002=—=3
Rex=002=010=10x=—=4
E — Link, Putnam, Atkinson. LOB — IV 8, Rex 6. 2B — Ogans, Atkinson, Weissheier, Wolf. HR — Weissheier. SB — Coca, T.Nelson, Booker.
Illinois Valley=IP=H=R=ER=BB=SO
Sullivan (L 0-1)=6=7=3=3=1=6
Benson=2=1=1=1=0=0
Rex=IP=H=R=ER=BB=SO
Scott (W 2-0)=5.2=3=1=0=1=7
Whitlock (H)=2.1=1=0=0=1=1
Lawson (Sv 1)=1=3=2=2=0=0
HBP — by Scott (Clifford), by Sullivan (T.Nelson), by Whitlock (Coca). PB — Harbison. T — 2:24.
Next — The Rex (9-12) host Chillicothe at 4:30 p.m. Sunday. Illlinois Valley (6-16) plays Normal on Sunday.
The Link LonkJune 20, 2021 at 09:58AM
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Rex hold off Pistol Shrimp, snap losing streak - Terre Haute Tribune Star
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