Prep baseball: Martin Ledbetter strikes out 11, Hinckley-Big Rock holds off Newark rally

HINCKLEY – Hinckley-Big Rock’s Luke Badal boomed a shot into centerfield, Saje Beane seemed to tag up and the Royals appeared to have a run-rule win over Newark in six innings.

But Beane was called for an illegal tag up, ending the sixth. Then the Norsemen made things interesting in the bottom of the seventh before the Royals closed the door in the 9-4 win on Monday in a Little 10 Conference battle.

“I definitely think through six innings we played pretty good,” said H-BR starter Martin Ledbetter, who struck out 11 in 5 1/3 innings of no-hit baseball. “Then we dropped off, got too loose, let them get a few runs.”

[ Photos: Newark, Hinckley-Big Rock square off in conference baseball action ]

The Royals (4-3, 2-0) took a 7-0 lead in the bottom of the sixth on a single by Jacob Orin that scored Skyler Janeski, who started the inning with a double. Orin’s hit ended up chasing Newark starter Jackson Walker. Justin Wentzlaff drove in two more runs on a single off reliever Payton Willis, with Beane - who reached on a walk - moving up to third.

But Willis got a strikeout for the first out of the inning, then the popout by Badal and the too-early tag by Beane ended the inning.

“We just lost a little bit of focus at the end,” Royals coach Matt Olsen said. “We got a little over-confident and lost a little attention to detail. We drill that in practice waiting for the ball to catch on sac flies. It’s a base-running drill we do. He just left a tick early. ... I was hoping they weren’t going to appeal it, they did it, and that was the right decision.”

Willis kicked off the rally for Newark (2-11, 2-1) with a double to right field in the top of the seventh off Hinckley-Big Rock reliever Badal. Walker reached on an error, then Badal hit Jacob Syller in the head with a pitch. After another error, Olsen pulled Badal and brought in Joe Bazan.

Kaleb Carlson singled home a run, then scored on an error by Badal in left field. After hitting Seyller, Olsen said Badal was rattled and thinks that may have been a factor in his late jump on the ball that twisted up when he tried to make a play.

But after a walk, Bazan got the first two hitters in the Newark lineup to pop out to end the game.

“You could feel the momentum swing when those things happen,” Olsen said. “When one makes [an error], another guy is worried about making another one. You just got to be short on that and move on to the next one.”

With the teams playing again Tuesday, Newark coach Josh Cooper said after Ledbetter left, he wanted his team to show what it is capable of when the Royals’ ace isn’t on the mound.

“You like to see that fight,” Cooper said. “The talk we had right before that inning was that we see these guys tomorrow. ... Let’s go make a statement of what tomorrow’s going to look like. I know it’s a lot to ask for nine runs in an inning, although we’ve done it this year, but the biggest thing I want to see is make a statement going into tomorrow. We’re not going to back down, and that’s just the nature of this team. That’s the kind of team I want, that’s the kind of team I’m going to ride or die with. I want those guys that are going to fight until the end.”

Walker was the only Norseman to reach off Ledbetter, drawing a walk and getting hit by a pitch. He also settled down after a rocky start. The first four Royals all got hits and came around to score in the first, but he only gave up three hits over the next four innings. He left allowing nine runs, seven earned, and eight hits.

Newark threw its top two pitchers in a doubleheader sweep of Indian Creek on Saturday. Cooper said he was very pleased with how Walker pitched.

“He’s going up against their ace and he shows what he needs to do to get outs,” Cooper said. “He had that rough first inning but he settled down and ate up innings so we now have enough arms to go for tomorrow, and that’s what we needed from him.”

Beane was 2 for 2 with a pair of walks, two RBIs and a run scored. Orin had two hits, two RBIs and two runs while Ledbetter was 3 for 3 with two runs scored. Janeski had two runs and scored twice.

David Ulrich had a sixth-inning single right after Ledbetter let the game and went to catcher, but was picked off by Ledbetter from behind the plate to end the sixth as Newark had three hits, two off Badal and one of Bazan.

“You get these games where you run into a really good pitcher,” Cooper said. “Ledbetter is someone we knew was going to come in and throw hard. We ran into him, we were fortunate he came out of the game and my team could show that we can hit. So we’re excited going into tomorrow.”

“We definitely didn’t expect that,” Ledbetter said. “We got to clean a lot up for next game.”