The Opole Bears shut out the Pierz Bulldogs 7-0 on Saturday night at Hellie Field but the storyof the night was Opole starter Tate Lange, who retired the first 24 batters he faced to take a Perfect Game into the bottom of the 9th, but the Bulldogs Aeden Janson broke up Lange’s bud for perfection with a bouncing ball single between 3rd and shortstop. Lange then got 3 straight ground ball outs to finish off his 1-hit shutout. Lange struck out 8 in his gem.
Opole struck first by stringing together 4 hits in the top of the 2nd, including a 2-run single from Dominic Hoikka to take a 2-0 lead.
The Bears then made it 4-0 in the top of the 4th when Dominic Hoikka singled with 1 out and eventually scored on a wild pitch to make it 3-0. Brodi Huls walked with 2 outs , stole 2nd and he also eventually scored on a wild pitch to make it 4-0.
It remained 4-0 until the top of the 9th when the Bears tacked on 3 more runs on rbi singles from Chris Ebnet and Alex Lange and a Bulldogs error to make it 7-0.
How effective was Tate Lange on this night? His pitch count was at 64 through 7 innings with onhly 3 balls out of the infield on fly outs to the outfield. But as impressive as those numbers are, his best inning was probably the 8th when Lange struck out the side. It was also the first time all night that Lange even went to a 3-ball count against a Bulldogs batter.
In the bottom of the 9th, the Bulldogs brought up Aeden Janson to lead off. Janson had entered the game as a defensive replacement 2 innings earlier and this was the first time his spot in the order came up. On a 1-1 pitch, Janson, a left-handed hitter, sent a ground ball between shortstop and 3rd and into left field for a clean single to break up Lang’e bid for perfection. Lange then got the next 3 hitters to hit into force outs to end the game and complete his 1-hit shutout as the Bears won 7-0.
Opole 7 7 0 – 7
Pierz Bulldogs 0 1 3 – 0
WP: Tate Lange 9.0 IP 0 runs 1 hit 8k 0bb
LP: Reese Young 6.0 IP 4 runs 5 hits 6k 1bb 1hp
Link Toops 3.0 IP 3 runs 2 hits 2k 5bb
Bears:
Brodi Huls 0-3 2bb, 3 sb, 2 runs
Chris Ebnet 1-5 rbi, run
Alex Lange 1-3 bb, hp, sb, rbi
Luke Bieniek 0-5
Mavrick Novitski 1-5 run
Tate Lange 0-5
Max Posch 1-3 bb, run
– Austin Lange 0-0
Dominick Hoikka 2-4 2 rbi, run
Dierks Opatz 1-3 2bb, run
– Jordan Schmitz
Bulldogs:
Reese Young 0-4
Cooper Grashorn 0-3
Teddy Dehler 0-3
Cody Weiss 0-3
Sawyer Lochner 0-3
Kyle Hastings 0-3
– Nathan Posch 0-0
Brayden Haberman 0-2
– Aeden Janson 1-1
– Ashton Poser 0-0
Link Toops 0-3
Craig Luberts 0-3