Selsor grinds out win over Smithson Valley
By Mark Kusenberger
tsrnsports.com
Special to SAsports.com
Although Reagan senior Casey Selsor has been on the varsity since his sophomore year, he had only pitched 50 innings for the Rattlers going into 2008.
This year, he’s the Reagan ace, and he is reveling in the role.
In a battle for first place in District 26-5A, Selsor struck out 13 in a complete game victory over the Smithson Valley Rangers Wednesday night, before a crowd of around 1200 at North East Stadium.
Selsor kept the Rangers off-balance with breaking balls and changeups. Selsor gave up just 5 hits, but he walked 8 and hit one batter. Of the 34 Rangers Selsor faced, only 12 put the ball in play, 5 of them in the 6th inning.
Reagan began the scoring in the 2nd inning when Vinny Postert smashed a hanging curveball to the left field wall for a double. After a hit batsman and a sacrifice, Postert scored when a 1-2 pitch to Brad Hall bounced away from the Ranger catcher. Losing pitcher Cory Bafidis struck out Hall and Robbie Van Cour to end the threat.
Selsor retired the first 7 Rangers he faced, 6 on strikeouts, but gave up the lead in the third. Dakota Mawyer drew a one-out walk and was sacrificed to second by Derek Moczygemba. Ben Woodchick and Josh Jahns walked to load the bases, then Justin Beck hit a first-pitch single to center field to drive in Mawyer and Woodchick and make it 2-1 Smithson Valley.
Derrick Walls led off the bottom of the third with a controversial infield hit. Walls hit a grounder to first baseman Mawyer and was ruled to have won the race to the bag. Walls stole second, then Jordan Mengele walked and Selsor sacrificed them both into scoring position. Santiago Ruiz got an RBI single to center field as the throw home was too late to catch Derrick Walls; when the catcher threw the ball wide of second trying to prevent an advance by Ruiz, Mengele scored on the error to give Reagan the lead 3-2. Bafidis then struck out Postert and Josh York to end the threat.
Reagan extended their lead with two in the fourth. Ben Mrachek walked to lead off the inning and stole second base. Two outs later, Walls was hit by a pitch. Mrachek and Walls scored when Mengele doubled to the left field wall; Reagan now led 5-2.
In the top of the fifth, Josh Jahns scored on a Kevin Keeton groundout, to cut the margin to 5-3, then Reagan courtesy runner Taylor Morris scored on a Mrachek groundout to build the Reagan lead back up to 3. Dominic Hamilton scored on a two-out single by Woodchick in the sixth to bring the Rangers back within 2.
In the seventh, Selsor’s pitch count was high, but so was his effectiveness. With Drew Martineau warming up in the Reagan bullpen, Selsor struck out Justin Beck, walked Zac Russell, struck out Kevin Keeton, walked David Pawelek, then struck out Dominic Hamilton to end the game. Selsor finished the game having thrown 143 pitches, but in the seventh, Smithson Valley only got a bat on the ball once, when Beck fouled off a 1-1 pitch.
Reagan is now 7-0 in District 28-5A and 17-2 overall; Smithson Valley falls to 5-1 in district and 15-4-1 overall.
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