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No-hitter highlights Craig's two wins

JANESVILLE — Pitching continues to be the early-season story for the Janesville Craig baseball team.

The Cougars allowed no earned runs in two victories Tuesday afternoon at Riverside Park, including a combined no-hitter from Brett Fredricks and Mike Davis against Beloit Memorial.

Fredricks struck out 10 in six innings of work against the Purple Knights, and Davis added a hitless seventh as Craig won its Big Eight Conference opener, 4-1.

The Cougars blanked Waunakee, 7-0, in a nonconference game earlier that was a make up from last week.

In improving to 4-0 overall and 1-0 in conference, Craig pitchers struck out 15 in 14 innings and allowed only four hits.

“We got ahead early in both games, and I think that allowed our pitchers to relax and just worry about throwing strikes,” Craig High coach Vic Herbst said.

Fredricks, a senior righthander, breezed through the first six innings. Beloit did not hit one ball hard off of him and the only run he allowed was unearned.

With his pitch count at 92, Herbst decided to pull Fredricks after six innings.

“I’m sure Brett wanted to finish, but this early in the year, I wasn’t going to push his pitch count any higher,” Herbst said. “If he’s going to be our horse this year, I don’t need him throwing over 100 pitches in our fourth game.”

Craig jumped on the Purple Knights with two runs in the bottom of the first. Christian DeCremer, who went 3-for-3 with three stolen bases, singled to start the inning and advanced to second on an error.

With one out, Zach Bayreuther walked and DeCremer moved to third on a wild pitch. Bayreuther and DeCremer then executed a perfect double steal to give Craig a 1-0 lead. Bayreuther scored on a Zach Whalen RBI single to push the lead to two.

Craig added another run in the second on a Beloit error, and Keith Wright concluded the scoring for the Cougars in the fourth with a sacrifice fly.

The Cougars finished with nine hits against Beloit and eight against Waunakee to give the pitching staff plenty of support.

“We got a lot of run support from the bottom of the order, and that’s what you need to be successful in this league,” Herbst said. “We’re into the conference season now, and so everybody on the team has to realize that you have to raise your level of play a little bit higher.

“This was a great way to start the conference season. We got good pitching, some timely hitting and got the win.”

The Cougars scored all seven runs against Waunakee in the first two innings. Fredricks, Geller and Charlie Meyer had two hits each for Craig against the Warriors, while Geller and Ben Olin limited Waunakee to four hits.

Craig High will be at Madison La Follette in a Big Eight game Thursday.

CRAIG 4, BELOIT 1

Beloit (ab-r-h-rbi)—Hammes, 2b, 1-0-0-0; Guttschau, 2-0-0-0; Reiger, rf-3b, 3-0-0-0; Little, 3b, 3-0-0-0; Reed, dh, 3-0-0-0; Wolfe, 1b-p, 3-0-0-0; Benson, ss, 1-1-0-0; Mueller, cf, 3-0-0-0; Larson, p-rf, 2-0-0-0; Summers, lf, 3-0-0-1; Klinkle, c, 0-0-0-0. Totals: 24-1-0-1.

Craig (ab-r-h-rbi)—DeCremer, 3-1-3-0; Fredricks, p, 3-0-0-0; Bayreuther, 2-1-0-0; Grall, 1b, 3-0-0-0; Whalen, 3b, 2-0-1-1; Weber, lf, 3-0-1-0; Geller, 2b, 3-1-2-0; Meyer, c, 3-0-2-0; Graves, cr, 0-1-0-0; Wright, 2-0-0-1. Totals: 22-4-9-2.

Beloit Memorial 000 010 0—1

Janesville Craig 210 100 x—4

E—Beloit 4, Craig 4. LOB—Beloit 5, Craig 6. DP—Craig. SF—Wright. SB—Reigle, Bayreuther, DeCremer 3. 2B—Geller.

IP H R ER BB SO

Beloit

Larson (L) 2 5 3 3 1 3

Roegner 2 3 1 0 1 2

Wolfe 2 1 0 0 0 1

Craig

Fredricks (W) 6 0 1 0 2 10

Davis 1 0 0 0 1 1

CRAIG 7, WAUNAKEE 0

Waunakee 000 000 0—0 4 4

Janesville Craig 340 000 x—7 8 2

Fallen, Lyght (3), Lee (6) and Bezemek; Geller, Olin (5) and Meyer.

Leading hitters—Fredricks (C) 2x3, Geller (C) 2x3, Meyer (C) 2x3. 2B—Meyer (C).

SO—Fallen (W) 2, Lyght (W) 4, Lee (W) 1, Geller (C) 3, Olin (C) 2. BB—Fallen 3, Geller 2, Olin 1.