We had many memorable wins at Lutheran High School over a long period of time and against strong opponents. When I consider the win that stands out as my favorite, I go back to April 16, 2019 against Cardinal Ritter. There are several factors in my thought process. The opponent, our team, the season, and that my son, Matthew, was pitching.
I knew that the 2019 season was going to be my last as the Lutheran coach. It was also Matthew's senior season. Our team in 2019 was going to play a difficult schedule, by my choice, and Ritter was our opponent.
About our opponent, Cardinal Ritter. There are a couple of things. Ritter had defeated us nine consecutive times beginning in 2010. Most of the games did not have scores that were close. In a great season for us, 2015, we lost at Ritter 5-4. We gave up 5 runs in the first inning, then fought our way back and even had the tying run on third base in the top of the seventh. But, we fell short. Our only ICC loss. In 2018 we lost 8-6 at LHS by committing 9 errors. Hard to win when a team makes that many mistakes.
In 2017 at Ritter, we lost 10-0. For some reason we did not have a couple of our starters and we did not play well. Matter of fact, we were no-hit by their pitcher. But how Ritter acted was very disappointing to me. During the game as they were well in command, they bunted on us. I thought that was pretty low. But the low point was after the game and going through the hand shake line, one of their players allegedly called our team "trash." A couple of our players heard it, though their player denied it. When I heard about the disparaging remark, I admit that I was very upset and said a couple of things I should not have. On top of how we played, Ritter bunting and the comment, I was not feeling too great about the situation. Needless to say, that game left a very bad taste in my mouth.
So here we are in 2019 at Ritter and the scene of that situation. Ritter had won the 2A State Championship in 2017 and they had a few players left from that team. We knew it was going to be a tough game to win. Going into the game we had a record of 3-2. We had defeated Morristown, Lawrence Central and Covenant Christian. We had lost to North Central (8-7) and to South Putnam (5-2) in the North Central Invitational.
Going into the season, I intentionally scheduled a difficult season as I wanted to give our team a challenge and I thought we had a chance to beat some good schools with Matthew pitching. I believed Matthew had a chance to pitch in college and wanted him to face good competition. Over the season he faced
North Central, Lawrence Central, Ritter, Scecina (against a D1 pitcher), Southport, Monrovia, Lafayette Jeff, Hauser (ranked #1 at the time) and eventual State Champions, University High School. I can safely say no other Lutheran pitcher faced such a schedule of opponents.
We should have beaten North Central in our season opener but we made 8 errors that gave them 4 of their runs. We lost to South Putnam in the 2nd game of the opening day with truly uninspired play. After that day we won our next three games and were playing well.
Going into the Ritter game, we were going to miss our starting second baseman, Zach Mitchell, due to a college visit but we were ready to go. Our line-up was:
Matthew Alter P SR
Brett Reid 3B SR
Noah Wood C SR
Matt Holm. LF SR
Jared Sneed. RF SR
Sean Moore. SS FR
Jonas Akers 1B JR
Bryce Lucas CF SO
Eli Boyd 2B JR
Ritter's starting pitcher on this day was Damien Wallace, a senior, who would go on to pitch at
Marian University.
In our top of the first, Matthew grounded out to the shortstop to lead off the game. Our next two hitters struck out, a sign of things to come. For Ritter, they flew out to RF, K, singled and then had a flyout to RF to end the inning.
We had three strikeouts around a base hit from Jared Sneed in the top of the 2nd inning. Ritter's first hitter in the bottom of the 2nd reached base on an error. Matthew then got two K's and a popout to Eli to end the inning. 0-0 after two innings.
For the top of the 3rd inning, Wallace struck out the side to give him 7 K's in three innings. Matthew also got Ritter out in order but with one strikeout and two flyouts. After 3 innings each team had one base hit and no runs.
In the top of the 4th we had a chance to score. Our first two hitters made outs and then Matt Holm was hit by a pitch with two outs. Jared Sneed then doubled with two outs for his second hit of the game. I rolled the dice and sent Matt home to try and score. Ritter made a nice relay from RF to 2B to the catcher for the out. In the bottom of the 4th, Matthew got a ground out to Eli, a strikeout and a ground out to Sean to end the 4th, still scoreless for both teams. We were playing very good defense, only one error. Matthew was locked in and had given up 1 hit and had 5 strikeouts. Wallace had given up 2 hits, both to
Jared Sneed, and struck out 8 hitters.
Jared Sneed
Wallace struck out the side in the top of the 5th to give him 11 strikeouts. Matthew also retired three batters in order but with two ground outs and a K. I think everybody knew the quality of game we were playing. Both pitchers were at their best and one run was probably going to win the game. At this point I have to think Matthew could have been feeling a lot of pressure. We had struck out 11 times of our 15 outs. We were not having much success against Wallace. Matthew was pitching his game. Only one hit, no walks and 6 strike outs in five innings.
The top of the 6th was more of the same for us, two strike outs and a ground out. Ritter began the 6th inning with a single from their number 9 hitter. Perhaps he had not been on base too often as he was then picked off first with a great throw from Noah to Jonas for the out. How fortunate for us. Joey Gruber, their lead-off hitter then came through with a triple on a 2-0 count with one out. The pressure was certainly on Matthew now. He had lost some focus and had to get it back quickly with Ritter's 2nd and 3rd hitters coming up. Matthew got the #2 hitter to pop out to Jonas at 1B on a 2-2 breaking ball for the second out. Next up was LeRon Fleming who had singled in the first inning. We decided to walk LeRon intentionally to bring up their clean-up hitter. Matthew had struck him out in the 4th inning, so we decided to go after him. Matthew struck him out on a 2-2 fastball for the third out and to keep the game a scoreless tie after 6 innings. Interestingly, LeRon would become Matthew's teammate and friend at Hanover College.
Another factor to consider at this point of the game was Pitch Count. The maximum number of pitches each pitcher had was 120. After 6 innings, Matthew was in great shape with only 76 pitches. Wallace had 86 pitches and he had 13 K's at this time.
Leading off the top of the 7th, Noah hit a sharp line drive but it was caught by their second baseman for the first out. Matt Holm was out on strikes and then Jared struck out but reached first base as the catcher could not handle strike three. Sean then hit a ground ball that the second baseman made a nice play on for the force out at 2B for the third out. In the bottom of the 7th, Matthew struck out #9 and Gruber, then got the third out on a ground ball to Sean at short to end the inning.
I do not recall another game that I coached where after 7 innings the score was 0-0. Both pitchers had been great. The team defenses had been very good. Each team had one opportunity to score but did not. Both offenses were struggling.
Going into the 8th inning, both pitchers were still below 100 pitches and were ready to go. In the top of the 8th, We went down in order with a ground out and 2 more K's, 17 in all. Matthew had to be wondering how we were going to score as we came out for the bottom of the 8th. Matthew was up for the challenge with a ground out, fly out and strikeout. 1, 2, 3. After 8 innings, 0-0.
After 8 innings Wallace had thrown 107 pitches. It seemed likely that this would be his last inning. He could go over 120 to finish an at bat, but perhaps we could get him over the limit. He struck out the first two batters but then hit Noah with a pitch after two outs. He was now at 119 pitches. The Ritter coach then decided that it was time to take out Wallace. He had given up 2 hits, 19 strike outs, 0 walks but two hit by pitch. In most games, a winning combination but for this game, he was not going to get a win.
Ritter brought in Aaron Roberts who had been at third base. Noah was able to steal 2B and Roberts walked Matt Holm on 4 pitches. We had runners on 1st and 2nd with two outs. Our next hitter was
Jared Sneed. Jared had our only two hits for the game so we were hoping for a third, perhaps a game winner. On the first pitch Jared saw, he hit a ground ball to shortstop. Joey Gruber, the Ritter SS, charged the ball but it went under his glove into leftfield . Noah, our fastest runner, was off on contact and there was no way I was holding him at 3rd so he was off toward home plate with the potential go ahead run. The left fielder had come in quickly and made the throw home. Noah was running hard and beat the throw standing up to give us a 1-0 lead. Roberts got Sean Moore out to end the top of the 9th but we had taken the lead.
Noah Wood
With the lead, Matthew had 100 pitches going to the bottom of the 9th inning. He got the first batter to ground out to Brett at 3B. The next hitter, LeRon Fleming doubled to give Ritter the tying run on 2B with one out. Matthew then struck out their clean up hitter, Roberts, for the third time. Two outs. The next hitter, DJ Boggs, was 0-3 so far. On a 1-2 pitch, he hit a fly ball to CF. Bryce Lucas settled under it for the third out. SAINTS WIN!
This win was very gratifying for me. We ended Ritter's winning streak against us, we won a Conference game, and we witnessed one of the best pitched games, from both teams, in Lutheran baseball.
IP HITS BB K HBP RUNS ER PITCHES W/L
Wallace 8.2 2 - 19 2 1 - 118 L
Alter 9.0 4 1 11 - - - 115 W
Some other highlights from the game:
Jared Sneed had two base hits and hit the ground ball that allowed us to score the game's only run
Jared also made a diving catch in short right field that helped give our team confidence in a close game
Eli Boyd made the plays he needed to make while stepping in for Zach Mitchell
Noah Wood being stealing 2B in the 9th inning set up our win. Noah went on to steal 35 bases during the season, a LHS Baseball record
Jonas Akers was ready for Noah's pick-off throw in the 6th inning and got the tag down for the out
Our team defense was excellent. Only one error.
When considering well pitched games in Lutheran Baseball history, there are many great examples.
Seth Hougesen vs Perry Meridian, Caleb Hougesen vs Perry Meridian and Chatard, Michael Longworth against Lapel, Jared Broughton vs Decatur Central, Seth vs Columbus North, Jake Reid vs Scecina, several no-hitters and others. Given all circumstances involved, I am thinking Matthew had the best pitching performance in one game. A nine inning shutout against a school that had beaten us 9 times in a row, our team striking out 20 times, on the road, and our team only scoring one run to win the game. Matthew being my son probably plays a role!
The team after the big win!
Kneeling: Jared Sneed
Standing (L to R): Matt Holm, Matthew Alter, Eli Boyd, Brett Reid, Jace Dugan, Jonas Akers, Bryce Lucas,
Sean Moore, Noah Wood
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