The Clintonville Diamond Cats continued their recent surge by picking up a 4-0 win over Bonduel behind a dominating performance on the mound from Hunter Vollmer. He tossed a complete-game shutout while limiting the Bonduel lineup to just three hits.
“That’s the best Hunter has looked all year, even with high school baseball,” said Clintonville head coach Randy Finger. “He pitched his butt off tonight. He looked fantastic. He had them guys guessing all night long.”
Vollmer struck out nine and only issued one walk over the seven frames. He echoed the statement by his coach, saying early on he knew it was going to be a good night on the mound when he had sharp command of his curveball.
“I knew I was finishing the game after the first three innings,” Vollmer said of his outing. “My curveball, that really made the fastball look better. ”
The Clintonville bats had been white hot coming into Thursday night. They had been averaging just under 12 runs over their last four games, but weren’t able to match that kind of production against Bonduel pitcher Jordan Boldt.
Still, they did enough to support their pitcher, who was working a 1-0 game heading into the sixth inning.
“We didn’t hit the ball that good tonight,” Finger said about the team’s offense. “We manufactured some runs tonight. We had a stolen base to home, got bunts down, got a timely hit here and there. Everything went great. Everything went our way, but I have to credit their pitcher Jordan [Boldt]. He pitched a [heck] of a game tonight.”
Kyle Finger-who reached base three times-led off the sixth inning with a walk and would come around to score, as did Vollmer, who finished the game with a pair of runs scored. Logan Liesenfelder also collected a pair of hits for the Diamond Cats.
With the win, the Diamond Cats moved to 8-3 on the year and seem to have everything clicking at this point of the season. Although the Legion State Tournament (hosted by Clintonville) is still about a month of way, there’s reason to be optimistic for a run from the Diamond Cats.
“It feels good,” Vollmer said of how the team has been able to win games this season. “Knowing we host state and we can probably go somewhere.”
Coach Finger credits the group of players he has for keeping things loose and just enjoying the game.
“They are extremely loose, as you can see they’re making fun of me,” Finger joked while conducting his interview with TCHDailyNews. “This is fun coaching right now, it is because they’re having a blast.”