More than one veteran major-league scout has observed through the years that a high school pitcher invariably falls in love with his curveball.
This may have happened to Minooka’s Collin Walker on Saturday, but he broke up the romance in time to win his four-hit, 14-strikeout game 3-2 over Batavia.
The win improved his record to 6-0 and his team’s to 13-2.
Minooka scored the winning run in the top of the seventh inning when designated hitter Darren McEvilly’s ground single to right broke a 2-2 tie by scoring Eric Alberico, who had reached base with his third hit and second double of the day.
“It may be true what they say about high school pitchers and their curveballs,” Walker said. “But when they started to hit it, I decided just to throw as hard as I could with everything I had left and see if they could hit the fastball.”
Walker, one of the best high school pitchers in the state, made his fastballs-only decision in the home half of the sixth inning after Kyle Clark’s RBI single tied the game 2-2 and Nick Morris’ single moved Clark into scoring position with one out.
Walker then struck out the last five batters he faced, two to strand two runners in the sixth and all three men he faced in the seventh. The five outs required 20 pitches, and the 6-foot-4-inch right-hander with the 90 m.p.h. heater fired 16 of the 20 pitches in the strike zone.
“Collin obviously had something left,” said Minooka coach Bob Tyrell after Walker’s 119-pitch complete game.
“It was a nice outing. He battled the weather, the cold and rain. Best of all, he competed.”
Walker struck out five of the first six men he faced and his 14 strikeouts gave him 75 in 50 innings this season.
“This was not one of my best performances,” Walker said. “I didn’t have my best stuff. But I battled.”
Batavia (10-6, 2-3) bunched all its hits into its two scoring innings, the fourth and sixth. The Bulldogs took a 1-0 lead in the fourth when Clark doubled and scored on Tim Ryan’s single.
Minooka took a 2-1 lead in the fifth on Alberico’s single, McEvilly’s double and a two-run double by Matt Joiner.
