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COLUMN: It wasn't just the offense that shined for the Fighting Squirrels this summer
CHARLESTON, Mo. — What a summer it was for the Charleston Fighting Squirrels.
Overall, the team won 41 games, won the Missouri Senior Babe Ruth state title and capped off the season by winning the Southern Invitational Series in Mobile, Ala., against top competition.
Even though the offense garnered most of the attention, pitching also played a critical role in the Fighting Squirrels stellar season.
Charleston had a cumulative team earned run average of 2.62. Pitchers fanned a total of 378 batters while walking 168.
On the bump, the Fighting Squirrels were led by a pair of hurlers that plan to attend Southeast Missouri State University. One, Anthony Klein, will attend this fall and play in 2021, while Dawson Crawford has one more season of high school baseball left, before heading to Cape Girardeau — he is a verbal commit to Andy Sawyers squad in 2022.
Headlines went to the offense of Charleston for the most part, and rightfully so. They scored 399 runs over 46 games, clubbed 408 hits and drove in 333 runs batted in, but the work done on the mound, should not go unnoticed.
Klein led the team in earned run average with a dazzling 0.96 mark in 51 innings pitched. He went 9-0 in his 13 appearances, gave up 28 hits, seven earned runs, struck out 90 batters and walked five.
Crawford pitched 36 1/3 innings and finished with a 6-0 record. He yielded 27 hits, 12 earned runs, struck out 50 and walked 23 for an earned run average of 2.31.
Both of those individuals weren’t alone, though.
Luke Nichols — who plans to play his final year of high school athletics at Charleston after transferring from Bell City — also showed dominance.
In 33 1/3 innings, Nichols posted 1.68 earned run average, while going 4-1 and giving up 23 hits, eight earned runs, fanning 55 and walking 16.
Typically a corner infielder, Chase Crosnoe had some work toeing the slab for the state champions as well. Pitching to the third-best earned run average on the team with the minimum number of innings, he gave up 11 hits, seven earned runs, fanned 21 and walked 13 for a 2.07 mark.
Others that saw time included Marshall Brown, a former Kennett Indian, who now plays baseball at Arkansas Tech University, Michael White — who pitched at College of the Ozarks last season — and Carter Heuring, from Oran.
Brown finished with a 2.35 earned run average, giving up 35 hits, 13 earned runs, fanning 47 and walking 20. He had a 6-0 record in 11 appearances.
White pitched 28 innings this season, going 2-0 with a 2.50 earned run average. He struck out 40 batters, walked 20, and yielded 20 hits and 10 earned runs.
Lastly, Heuring saw 19 1/3 innings of work, going 3-1 with a 3.62 earned run average. He gave up 19 hits, 10 earned runs, fanned 15 and walked 16 during his eight appearances.
When you talk about how great and unified this team was, don’t forget to mention the work done on the rubber this summer. The pitching staff also deserves a lot of praise for how well they performed, especially in big moments.