Preston Wallis stood with his back toward home plate and engaged in a brief conversation with his first baseman, Landon Pearson.
The two shared a quick exchange followed by Pearson laughing and shaking his head while walking back to first. Wallis allowed himself to smile – only for a couple of moments – as he returned to the mound still with one more out ahead of him.
Was it strategy? Maybe. Perhaps a joke to lighten the severity of the situation? Potentially. But what ever it was, it worked as Pembroke’s senior right-hander tossed one more pitch for a routine groundout as the Spartans grabbed a 7-3 Division II baseball win over Bow on Friday afternoon.
Wallis got to work early for the Spartans when he retired the Falcons’ first three batters in the bottom of the first inning, one of them his first of six strikeouts for the game. An earned run in the second off an RBI single by Bow’s Evan Provost came right before Wallis’ second strikeout.
His confidence only grew with another 1-2-3 inning in the third, and it didn’t show in the high-fives he exchanged with the guys behind him or those waiting in the dugout but the coolness in which the next pitch was thrown.
While aware of his own achievements, Pembroke’s captain – who pitched a complete game – also knew he couldn’t get there by himself.
“I definitely wanted to go all the way,” he said. “The team was making plays, so I knew I could go all the way. I knew they would back me up.”
In tandem with Wallis’ performance were the Spartans’ bats; in sync with the pitching, the offense got rolling early, too. Over half of Pembroke’s lineup took the plate to start the game, with Wallis and Matthew Wagner each earning hits in their first at-bats. Two walks shifted the baserunners, and Wallis walked on home for the Spartans’ first run of the game.
Three innings later, Pembroke tacked on another run when Andrew Chiavaras stole home. The following inning, the Spartans scored four more courtesy a sacrifice fly from Brent Clooen, an RBI by Owen Stewart and two more runs batted in from Cam Plumb.
A sac fly in the final inning capped the Spartans’ performance, one that completely differed from their season-opening 9-2 loss to Sanborn on Wednesday, according to coach Joshua Coughlin.
“We came out today and definitely controlled the rhythm of that game,” Coughlin said.
Pembroke was strategic in its decisions to bunt or hit the ball and, on more than a few occasions, the bunt hugged the first-base line, making it difficult for Bow’s infielders to track the ball. Toss in Wallis’ mixed arsenal of pitches, and you get a complete and confidently played game.
The Falcons in their own right had some bright moments for a relatively inexperienced varsity team. They turned an early double play with a force out at second and a tag of Clooen by first baseman Owen Petretta. Three different pitchers took the mound for Bow; they each had solid moments, including Owen Webber’s two first inning strikeouts, Ethan Gray’s strikeout against his first batter and Zachary Cross’ no-earned-runs effort.
While it’s only the second game of the season, Bow coach Ben Forbes looks forward to seeing more of a complete effort.
“You battle, you battle, and we just haven’t been able to hang on,” he said. “It’ll come as the experience develops. We have moments of brilliance where things are just working, and that’s great. It’s just the consistency that needs to happen.”
In this particular game, Bow wanted what Pembroke had. Anything can happen in the remaining 14 games for each team, but as far as Friday went, Wallis and company can keep on smiling.