Wednesday, August 8, 2007 11:02 PM CDT
'Fidgety' Rock Island pitcher beats the heat
AMERICAN LEGION STATE TOURNAMENT
BY BRIAN NIELSEN Sports Editor
bnielsen@jg-tc.com
MATTOON - By his own admission, Josh Gibbs needed someone to cool him off, if that was possible in Wednesday afternoon's heat.
"I've got to give credit to my catcher Tyler Radosevich," the Rock Island Post 200 pitcher said.
"May attitude gets the best of me sometimess and he settles me down."
After keeping a lead if not his cool in a fourth-inning in which two unerned runs scored, Gibbs found a way to complete a six-hitter and 5-2 win over defending champion Arlington Heights Post 208 in the first round of the American Legion baseball state tournament at Grimes Field.
"Gibby threw a great game," Rock Island coach Tom Teager said.
That was even if his former Rock Island High School teammate Radosevich had to calm down Gibbs when Arlington Heights took advantage of an error but wound up leaving the bases loaded.
"He was a little bit pumped," Teager said. "He gets a little fidgety out there."
Before he ever had to take the mound, Gibbs was in a good mood thanks too his team's three-run, two-out rally in the top of the first inning. Noah Wethington started things with a double down the left field line, Gibbs kept things alive reaching on an error, Ryan Allison drove in the first run with a single to right field and Jake Hemmen's two-run single to right made it 3-0.
"Oh, it was huge," Gibbs said of the early run. "You just pitch with confidence and go out and throw strikes."
Zach Paustian's run-scoring single in the third and Wethington's hit driving home Caleb Rangel who had doubled in the fourth made it 4-0 before Arlington Heights' two- runs in the bottom of the fourth that included singles by Will Hagel and Scott Winters, an error and Matt Lorenz's sacrifice fly.
Gibbs threw shutout ball from there and saved Rock Island's bullpen going into today's 3:30 p.m. winners' bracket game against St. Charles despite an afternoon not conducive to going nine innings.
"It was hot out there," Gibbs said. "I don't think I've ever thrown with it like this.
"But it doesn't matter to me. I'm just going to throw strikes."
Gibbs, who is going to be a sophomore at Indian Hills Community College, has pitched a nine-inning game in the district and went eight in a division game so Teager was looking for such a performance again..
"Absolutely," the Rock Island coach said. "We knew what he's thrown. Kids this age, 17, 18 or 19, can do that. We thought he would go deep into this game. He's thrown against some good teams."
Rock Island is 31-9 going into today's action while Arlington Heights is 38-10 and is to play in a 7 p.m.
elimination game.
Rock Island AB R H BI
Rangel, cf 5 1 2 0
Allison, 2b 4 0 0 0
Wethington, ss 5 1 2 1
Gibbs, p 3 2 1 0
Allison, 3b 3 1 2 1
Hemmen, 1b 3 0 1 2
Paustian, rf 4 0 1 1
Radosevich, c 4 0 1 0
Mack, lf 3 0 1 0
Totals 34 5 11 5
Arlington Hts. AB R H BI
Churchill, rf 3 0 0 0
Butkus, c 3 0 1 0
Gaedele 3 0 1 0
Ganek, ss 4 0 1 0
Serna, 1b 4 0 0 0
Hagel, dh 3 1 1 0
Winters, cf 3 1 1 0
Scanlan, 3b 4 0 1 0
Lorenze, 2b 2 0 0 1
Smith, ph 1 0 0 0
Totals 30 2 6 1
Rock Island 301 100 000 - 5-11-2
Arlington Heights 000 200 000 - 2-6-2
Pitchers IP H R ER BB SO
Rock Island
Gibbs, W 9 6 2 0 3 6
Arlington Heights
Ruffie 3 6 4 1 1 1
Pugliese 5 5 1 1 1 1
Henning 1 0 0 0 0 0
Contact Brian Nielsen at bnielsen@jg-tc.com or 238-6856.
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