After struggling through a couple of rocky outings, junior left-hander Bryson Mello was moved to the bullpen last week by Oswego coach Joe Giarrante.
It was a decision with a design in mind.
“We put him there to work on some things,” Giarrante said. “I think last week helped with his focus a little bit. He was focusing more on throwing instead of pitching.
“He has a lot of growth to him mentally and learning how to pitch the right way. You can definitely see he has it in him to be a really good pitcher. He’s a good, heady kid.”
Whatever Mello ironed out in the bullpen worked out for a dominant performance Monday in a 2-0 Southwest Prairie Conference victory over host West Aurora.
In tossing the complete-game shutout, Mello struck out 11 without a walk and scattered three hits for Oswego (10-9, 3-4).
“For me to come out here and do what I did is a great confidence boost,” Mello said. “I think I’m back on the right track and ready for next week.
“I think I just hit a rough patch, but I bounced back and hopefully looking to continue it throughout the next few weeks.”
West Aurora (6-12, 0-7) got a leadoff single from Ben Wisniewski in the second inning but Mello retired the next three batters in order.
The Blackhawks’ best chance came in the third. Andrew Carman and Joe Pokryfke delivered one-out singles, but once again, Mello escaped the jam.
The only two runners for West Aurora the rest of the game reached on errors.
“Mainly the two pitches I threw were the fastball and slider,” Mello said. “I kept the slider outside to the lefties and made the righties swing and miss.
“Fastball, I located it, moved it outside to the righties and inside to the lefties. It worked well.”
Oswego needed everything Mello had Monday as Stevie de Chaud matched him pitch for pitch until the seventh.
“It was just an old-fashioned duel the whole way,” Giarrante said. “(De Chaud) had late run on his fastball that was running off our barrels. Really, the key was we just stuck with it.”
Still, deChaud also threw a complete game, allowing five hits. He struck out five and walked two. He was coming off an eight-inning effort against Yorkville.
“Stevie deserved a better fate,” West Aurora coach John Reeves said. “He pitched great last week, too. He didn’t take the loss in a 1-1 game, so hard luck for Stevie.
“It’s too bad. We have to find a way to score some runs.”
Oswego’s Trey Hernandez had a couple hard-hit balls that were caught earlier in the game.
Leading off the top of the seventh, Hernandez delivered the first hit for the Panthers that left the infield. Troy Vosburgh then walked. Ethan Valles bunted.
Everybody was safe on Valles’ bunt. A double play then drove in Hernandez, with Cade Duffin following with an RBI single for insurance.
“I was hoping we were going to score a run,” Mello said. “Knowing the offense was struggling a little bit, I had to go out there and shut them down to keep the game close.
“When we came through in the seventh, I had to shut them down and get the ‘W.'”
Mello followed through by striking out the side in the bottom of the seventh to finish off the win.
“What a gutsy performance,” Giarrante said. “Our offense didn’t give him much help. He just kept dealing, going out there and getting on the mound and throwing strikes.
“He’s always been a guy that can eat up innings for us. We know when we give him the ball he’s going to keep us in ballgames.”
Paul Johnson is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
