Baseball: Bureau Valley’s Bryce Helms earns win over Amboy, helps himself at the plate

MANLIUS – Bryce Helms did a little bit of everything for the Bureau Valley baseball team Monday.

The Storm sophomore pitched four shutout innings and drove in three runs, including a key two-run triple, to lead the Storm to an 8-2 nonconference win over visiting Amboy.

Helms scattered three hits while striking out three and walking one on 56 pitches.

“Bryce went out and threw a ton of strikes. That’s what we ask out of a young guy like him. He’s been pretty consistent throwing strikes. I thought he pounded the zone,” BV coach Ryan Schisler said. “Our defense was good early. Had a couple of slip-ups late. Our pitchers, to their credit, were able to battle through them. Nice job by them.”

“I got a little tired. It was kind of hot out. Then I got a little tired in the fourth inning, but finished it out,” Helms said. “I felt good early on. Breaking balls were breaking good. Felt good overall.”

Helms also got a little winded running the bases in the bottom of the fourth when he raced around for a two-run triple to put the Storm up 8-0.

“It got to a full count, [it was] just wait for your pitch and drive the ball,” he said. “I got my pitch. A little late on it, but worked out pretty well. Hit the gap. Couldn’t really see the ball very well. I was running and didn’t know when to stop.”

Schishler knew Helms had that kind of swing in him.`

“That was a big hit. Drove in two to help himself. That was a big two-out hit,” he said. “That’s was a swing we expected to see from him all year. He’s starting to get in the zone [pitching], and he’s done a nice job at the plate, too.”

Helms said the win was just what the Storm (7-3) needed after dropping three straight before Saturday’s 10-0 win over Polo.

“Felt like it will set us off for the rest of the week. Give us a little confidence. Got us over the edge,” he said. “We went on a little losing streak, but hopefully we’ll go on a winning streak for the rest of the season.”

The Storm broke the game open with three runs on four hits in the third inning to go up 6-0.

Attig and Corban Chhim each singled and stole second. Helms brought Attig home with a sac fly to right. Ethan Freeman blooped an RBI single to center, and Cooper Balensiefen added a two-out single to make it 6-0.

Balensiefen led the Storm with a 3 for 3 day out of the 9-hole, while Attig (RBI) and Rouse had two hits each.

“We’ve been stressing to our guys, we’ve got to have better approaches at the plate. Cut down the swing,” Schisler said. “Today, we saw more of that from our guys. We were shorter, quicker, and that’s the goal for us as we get into kind of the bear of our schedule.”

Amboy had three hits, all singles by Landon Whelchel, Tucker Lindenmeyer and Jackson Rogers, and scored two unearned runs in the fifth.

Helms gave way to classmate Elijah Endress, who pitched two innings with Isaac Attig closing out the seventh. The Storm have a busy week ahead with home games Tuesday vs. Annawan-Wethersfield and Wednesday vs. Riverdale and a trip to Orion on Friday, and Schisler wanted to keep as many arms available for rest of the week.

“We got a busy day this week. Four games this week. We wanted to limit pitches,” he said. “It was good to see [Helms] get through four and just wanted to be able go bring him back later this week. The other guys needed some work.

“Second time Isaac has thrown this year, so it’s good to get those guys on the mound. Busy week, you never know what might happen.”