Bellevue's Dennings, Brown combine on two-hit shutout

BELLEVUE — Depending on how Drew Dennings did on the mound, Ike Brown was an option to replace him. Dennings was twirling a perfect game in the fourth inning for Bellevue when his arm started to hurt a bit. Out of the abundance of caution, the Redmen went to Brown earlier than expected. Brown responded for the Division IV No. 5-ranked Redmen, shutting down Sandusky from there in an 8-0 Sandusky Bay Conference Lake Division win Friday. "I tried to make sure I stayed calm," Brown said. "I wanted to throw as many strikes as I could from the start. The first inning is always the hardest. Once I got past the first inning and got consistent with the strike zone, I tried to get ahead and work from there." Dennings went the first 3 1/3 innings, striking out five. He had two strikes on Sandusky's No. 2 hitter Mykell Ott when he exited the game. Brown went the final 3 2/3 innings, allowing two hits while adding eight strikeouts. Bellevue (7-1, 3-0 SBC Lake) trailed 3-0 when Thursday's home game against Perkins was suspended until May 1 due to weather. "I felt pretty good until my arm started hurting," Dennings said. "I thought today was a big one for us because yesterday's game is not over, but we had to find a way to bounce back from the pitching difference. (Perkins starting pitcher Kash) Koch threw good, but it was a big speed difference to today." Earlier this week, the Redmen lost on the road to Ontario, 3-0. Getting a win at the end of the week felt big for Bellevue. "We scored in four of the six innings, so we were pretty happy with that," Redmen coach Andy Dennings said. "Getting off to a good start was what we really wanted to do. We wanted them to chase and put a little pressure on them." Bellevue did jump on the Blue Streaks (3-5, 0-3) early. Sam Bollinger walked and went to second on a sacrifice bunt by Dennings. Brown followed with a run-scoring single into center to make it 1-0. Reid Claus then doubled before Caden Lindsey's RBI single pushed the lead to 2-0. Bellevue took advantage of two Sandusky errors to score in the second inning. Cooper Winke reached on a throwing error on a ball hit to shortstop. Bollinger singled before Dennings hit a ball to second. The throw to Ott covering second was bobbled and trickled away. That allowed Winke to hustle home to score and make it 3-0. Winke doubled in the fourth inning, but Bellevue couldn't cash in. Bollinger doubled to lead off the fifth inning. He stole third and scored on Brown's sacrifice fly. "We had a tough time staying back at times," coach Dennings said. "I thought we did a pretty good job. We hit a lot of backside gaps and I know when we're hitting and driving the ball that way that we're seeing the ball well." Bellevue piled it on in the sixth inning. Lindsey doubled and scored on Tatum Gore's RBI single. Grant Musser added a run-scoring single before Bollinger walked with the bases loaded. That was more than enough help for Dennings and Brown on the mound. Dennings put down the first 10 hitters before leaving the game. After Brown finished the strikeout of Ott, Deyker Inciarte walked and Jordan Harris singled. But, a strikeout ended the inning. In the fifth inning, Sandusky starting pitcher Ja'Sayre Poole singled before Braylon Scott drew a walk. Brown bounced back with consecutive strikeouts to avoid damage. "I thought we attacked," coach Dennings said. "We were pretty efficient, which is part of attacking the zone and letting our defense play. We were able to get ahead a lot of times. That's what we wanted to do — get out and challenge hitters and let our defense play. We played really well behind them today." The Redmen entered the week undefeated, but leave with a key win in league play that keeps them tied atop the standings with Perkins (5-2, 3-0). Bellevue is scheduled to host Lexington on Saturday. "This week was a reality check, which is good for us," Drew Dennings said. "We can't expect to come out and blow everyone out. Every day is different in baseball. People can be good one day and the next day, not so." Sandusky 000 000 0 — 0 2 2 Bellevue 210 014 x — 8 11 0 WP: Dennings. LP: Poole. 2B: (B) Lindsey, Winke, Claus, Bollinger