Baseball: Nolan Kloepping sends Princeton home with split at Hall

SPRING VALLEY - Senior pitcher Max Bryant got the Hall Red Devils off to a good start with a five-inning, 12-strikeout effort in a 7-0 win over Princeton on Saturday afternoon at Kirby Park.

Princeton junior Nolan Kloepping, however, ended things on a good note for the Tigers with a walk-off, game-winning single for a 2-1 victory in the nightcap as the Bureau County rivals split a Three Rivers Conference doubleheader.

“Coming into that last at bat, I knew I had to make it a good one,” Kloepping said. “The first pitch I was given a bunt sign to move the runners over. After that pitch I was given the green light and I was just waiting on my pitch. I finally got mine, and I drove it into right.”

It’s the third straight year the Bureau County rivals have split their two conference games.

“It’s always good to play Hall. You know it’s always going to be a challenge and they lived up to that,” PHS coach Wick Warren said.

Hall 7, Princeton 0: The Red Devils gave Bryant all the runs he would need early, scoring three runs in the bottom of the first and two in the second.

The senior right-hander took it from there, spinning five scoreless innings with relievers Izzaq Zrust (1.2 IP) and Joel Koch (0.1 IP) finishing off the shutout.

“I felt pretty good. Good to have good defense behind me, though. Really helped,” Bryant said. “It’s always nice to beat Princeton. We love playing them. It’s always fun. It’s nice to get out and play baseball especially after all the rain this week.”

Keegan said Bryant pitched a gem.

“He missed a lot of bats. Both sides, honestly, you can tell it’s still early. Offenses are kind of sputtering. But Max missed a lot of bats today and that was good. Very efficient,” he said.

Hall (5-4) struck for three runs on two hits and three Tiger errors in the first inning.

The Red Devils tacked on two more runs in the second, including a steal of third by freshman Luke Bryant, who kept coming all the way home on a wild pitch. Hall would have had more had it not been for the Tigers’ center fielder Noah LaPorte and right fielder Ace Christiansen throwing out runners at third base. It was the second in as many innings for LaPorte.

Luke Bryant smacked a deep, two-run double to the left field fence in the sixth inning to make it 7-0.

“Thank goodness we got the 5 spot in the first two innings. (Princeton’s Tyler) Forristall settled in as the game went on and he’s going to be OK as the game progresses,” Keegan said. “We were thankful to get those five. Luke was able to ambush a fastball and take it to the fence and tack on a couple more.”

Keegan said he’d never had three base runners thrown out at third base in one game before and joked, “You’d think I’d learn. To their credit, they made some plays.”

Luke Bryant went 2 for 3 with two RBIs from the leadoff hole for Hall. Payton Dye went 2 for 2 with a RBI.

Jordan Reinhardt had a 4 for 4 game to lead Princeton with Christiansen and Kloepping collecting two hits apiece.

In addition to their 12 strikeouts, the Tigers left 10 runners on base.

Princeton 2, Hall 1: With Luke Bryant in to pitch for Hall, Forristall reached on an error to lead off the bottom of the seventh for the Tigers, who were the home team for the nightcap. He stole second and Hall elected to intentionally walk LaPorte. Bryant fanned Braden Shaw, but Kloepping delivered with his game-winner to right.

The Red Devils got on the board first in the second inning. Jack Jablonski was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning, Greyson Bickett walked and Evan Stefaniak brought Jablonski home with a single.

The Tigers (2-3) pulled even in the sixth with hits by Ace Christiansen and Reinhardt before Will Lott brought home the tying run on a ground out to second.

Christiansen led the Tigers with a 2 for 3 game.

Warren pulled Lott, the Tiger starter, after two innings and the move paid off with Reinhardt shutting down the Red Devils the rest of the way with five scoreless innings in relief, striking out nine.

“It’s very exciting, I feel like I haven’t been pitching my best so far, so to come and do that against a really good Hall team felt really good for me,” Reinhardt said. “It was good for the team as well, it felt like forever since we actually got to play a game so to come off of a long break like that and get a win felt good.”

“Jordan pitched well. Frankly, I’ve never seen Jordan pitch that well,” Warren said.

Luke Bryant was tagged with the loss. Dye, the Red Devils starter, scattered four hits over six innings with one earned run and two walks and striking out six.