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closePHILIPSBURG — As a shortstop, Matt Curtis is a heck of a pitcher.
The Philipsburg-Osceola righthander, who got most of his innings as the starting shortstop last year, has stepped into the rotation this year and Monday against Penns Valley, he had the look of an ace on the mound.
Curtis struck out 12 Rams, eight of them on called third strikes, as he threw a neat five-hitter and got the win in a 7-4 decision. When Curtis was lifted after five innings to return to shortstop, Colton Harris came on and rang up five more Rams, two more on called strikes.
“The coaches said something about 17 strikeouts but we didn’t believe them,” Curtis said. “I got in a real good rhythm early today. I wanted to finish the game but toward the end I lost a little off my fastball. We have four games this week and he (Coach Doug Sankey) wanted us all to go seven (innings). But I got up to about 90 pitches and I haven’t thrown that much in the last two years.”
He threw well enough Monday to strike out every Ram but Adam Brown at least once and struck out at least two in every inning he pitched. P-O did not have one outfield putout.
“He did a great job. He kept us off balance,” said Ram coach Kerry Shawley. “You have to give him a lot of credit. He does a great job of changing speeds. “
Sankey, who used Curtis primarily in relief a year ago, has bigger plans for him this year.
“Last year, we had to play him at shortstop,” he said. “But this year we have Paul (Hahn) who can play there. He’ll get his innings this year.
“He was pretty impressive today. He has three or four pitches he can throw for strikes. He throws faster than most people think plus he has a slow curve, a hard slider and a changeup. It’s pretty tough for high school hitters to hit those, especially when he’s throwing them for strikes.”
While Curtis was handcuffing the Rams through the first three innings and getting seven strikeouts, his teammates were staking him to a 5-0 lead against Taylor Wingard.
In the second inning, Hahn and Tim Gray hit two-out singles and Harris launched a bomb into the trees in left to make it 3-0.
In the third, they added two more the hard way as J.D. Mason led off with a double, took third on Kody Bennett’s infield single and scored on a passed ball. Luke Curtis was hit by a pitch, went to second on Bennett’s single, moved to third on the passed ball and scored on Hahn’s sacrifice fly.
The Rams got two runs in the fourth as Cory Neiderer reached on an infield single and Brown doubled down the left field line to score Neiderer. Brown, who had two doubles, scored on a single by Kevin Montminy.
P-O added a pair of insurance runs in the fifth on a walk, a fielder’s choice and a two-run single by Luke Curtis.
Penns Valley got to Harris for two runs in the seventh on a pair of walks and Brown’s second double of the day. “I was proud of our kids,” Shawley said. “We got back in this game. We showed we can be competitive.”
At the same time, Sankey was happy to see the Mountie bats come alive and provide some run support to back Curtis.
“Our situational hitting was better today,” he said. “Tim (Gray) singled on a 3-1 count and Colton hit his homer on a 3-1 count. And JD (who had two doubles) swung the bat well. We were a little more aggressive today.”
