Although St. Anthony and DeLaSalle have overwheled opponents with their offenses this year, winning by combined scores of 32-1 and 69-4, respectfully, it was the starting pitchers who stole the show at Palm Field on Friday afternoon.

Huskie ace Justice Spriggs hurled five innings, struck out seven, and surrendered only one run to an Islanders team that has won its previous five games by 11 or more runs.

“It was a lot of defensive plays,” Spriggs said after improving to 3-0 with the 2-1 victory. “I was off a little bit with balls and strikes but just giving the defense a chance to make a play, and that’s what won us the game.”

Islanders starter Jake Tank pitched six innings, surrendered two runs and registered nine strikeouts. Tank entered the game with a 2-0 record, 20 strikeouts and a spotless 0.00 ERA.

Tank said DeLaSalle couldn’t find the big bat it was looking for.  

“We came out here and did our best today,” Tank said. “Just didn’t get that big clutch hit. We scored that first one in the first inning. Just nothing you can do about it. You got to wash it away and come back tomorrow and fire back.”

All three runs were scored in the first inning, with Tank hitting a double to left field and adding another RBI to his state-leading total leading total which sits at 21. St. Anthony's Zach Siggelkow answered by smacking a two-run home run to right field.

The Huskies aren’t used to this type of scoring output. They had scored more than five runs in four of their previous five games.

“Their pitcher kept our guys off balance,” St. Anthony oach Troy Urdahl said. “They didn’t put anyone on for free through errors or by walks.”

Tank said he wasn’t frustrated with his team’s lack of scoring.

“You can’t hold it against them,” Tank said. “They’re your brothers. They’re your team. I got to do my part as pitching, they do their part as hitting, but sometimes it just doesn’t work together.”

These teams square off again on May 19 in the season finale for both. Urdahl said the win boosts his team’s morale.

“It gives us the confidence to know that we can play with teams in the top half of our conference, but certainly not overconfidence, because we know that we need to work hard and play the right brand of baseball every day if we want to come out on top,” Urdahl said.

The Huskies leapfrogged the Islanders for the top spot in the Tri-Metro conference with the win.

“We’ll see these guys again later in the season, so looking forward to it,” Tank said.

Spotlight Game Coverage