Lutheran South Wins at Busch Stadium

Behind the five-hit performance from starting pitcher Gary Yearout, the Lancers posted an 8-5 win over Lutheran North on Thursday evening at Busch Stadium.

The win for Lutheran South (14-9, 4-3 ABC League) marks the Lancers’ sixth win in the past seven games. Their lone loss during that stretch was a 9-3 setback at home against Westminster.

“This was a great experience and great opportunity for our guys,” Lutheran South head coach Steve Pfund said. “I think we came out nervous in the first inning and gave up a few runs, but once we settled in, the guys did a great job at the plate and Gary (Yearout) did a great job pitching.”

Yearout completed six innings in which he gave up two earned runs on five hits. The senior left-handed pitcher also walked four batters and retired three via strikeout for his sixth win of the 2011 season. He’s currently 6-0 overall with a 3.61 ERA.

“Gary just came off Tommy John surgery, so he didn’t get to pitch at all last year,” Pfund said. “He’s getting ahead most of the time and when he’s locating his pitches, he’s very tough to hit. We’re looking for great things from here at the end of the season.”

The Lancers’ Jordan Stoulp had the best day at the plate for Lutheran South as he went 3-for-4 with two runs batted in and two runs scored.

“Jordan had a great day,” Pfund said. “He had a double and a triple and he hit a couple to the wall.”

Lutheran North (10-7, 2-4 ABC) found itself down 8-3 going into the seventh inning before rallying with two runs in the top of the inning. But it just wasn’t enough to overcome the Lancers’ four-run outburst in the bottom of the sixth.

“Our guys will be excited about this game when they look back at it years from now,” Lutheran North head coach Mike Russell said. “It’s tough in the short-term, because we didn’t win the ball game, but in the long-term they’ll remember today.”

One scary moment during the game occurred when Lutheran North starting pitcher Tyler Branneky had a pitch belted right back at him in the fourth inning. The ball hit his nose and his upper lip.

“It was a hanging slider that caught all of the plate and he tagged it right back at me,” Branneky said. “I tried to knock it down in self-defense basically, but it clipped my glove and got all of my nose and my upper lip as well as everything in between.”

The one-on-one meeting with the baseball didn’t keep Branneky from pitching 5 2/3 innings in which he gave up six earned runs on eight hits. The senior hurler walked three batters and retired two via strikeout for his fourth loss of the season. He’s currently 3-4 overall with a 4.85 ERA.

“Tyler pitched very well today and I thought he pitched well enough to win,” Russell said. “Things got out of control in the sixth inning. But up until then, we played really well against Lutheran South.”

Thursday’s game against Lutheran South was the fourth year in a row that Branneky was able to play at Busch Stadium.

“This is the fourth year that I’ve gotten to play at Busch and it’s a cool experience,” Branneky said. “Last year we got blown out and to be in the game all the way through was exciting. We had a couple of unlucky breaks and we could have easily won that game.”