Virden's Moonshot Highlights Explosive Day for No. 4 Wall

WALL, TX-- The fourth-ranked Wall Hawk baseball team utilized their explosive run-scoring ability to down 2A foe Stamford 12-0 in five innings on Friday.

In the bottom of the first, a strikeout by leadoff batter Caleb Heuertz and a ground out by Tanner Seider were the bookends around a single from senior Brock Rosenquist.

"Early on I thought their kid, [Zachary Duran], did a good job throwing strikes," Wall Head Coach Jason Schneirs said of the Stamford starting pitcher. "He got some calls that kind of went his way and he used that to his advantage. He got two quick outs on us. We went to work with two outs and were able to get four runs across."

Dryden Virden started the two-out rally by working a walk on five pitches from Duran to put runners on first and second. Junior Gage Weishuhn took the first pitch he saw to center field to score Rosenquist from second. Weishuhn (2-for-3) finished as one of two Hawks with a multi-hit game.

Sutton Hurst got in on the action with an RBI single to left-center to score Virden. Starting pitcher Jake Jansa helped out his own cause with a two-run double on the first pitch following a nine pitch at-bat from Will Brown to cap off the scoring in the first.

"That shows a lot about our team," Schneirs said of the four runs scored with two outs. "That's why we play three outs in baseball. We're going to make you earn all three outs. We did a good job of battling at the plate in that first inning and I thought, once we were able to score some runs and put four across, it affected the way [Stamford] played a little bit."

Jansa would strike out the side in the top of the second inning. The right hander retired eight batters in a row after allowing a leadoff walk to Duran. Jansa went four innings where he allowed two hits and struck out four.

"Jake hadn't really thrown a whole lot for us," Schneirs said. "But we're still looking for arms and guys that are going to help us down the road. I knew he was capable, but I wanted to see him in the starting role today. He came out and gave us four good innings. He struck out four batters, but he let his defense make plays behind him. That's all you have to do. As long as you throw strikes, you're going to be successful."

Duran only lasted two innings on the mound for the Bulldogs.

The Hawks wouldn't score again until the third inning when they sent 11 batters to the plate and scored another six runs. 

Virden notched another home run on the season when he took a 2-2 pitch the opposite way over the right-center field wall to begin the monstrous inning for the Hawks.

"I always tell [Dryden] that I like when he hits it to right-center," Schneirs said. "That means he's staying through the baseball and he's using the whole field. Earlier in the year he was pulling the ball to left field. He was grounding out a lot to third base and shortstop just because he wasn't staying through the ball."

The Hawks improve to 13-3-1 on the year. Wall will travel to Big Spring to face the Lubbock Christian School on Saturday at 1 p.m. before opening District 4-3A at home against Sonora on Monday at 4 p.m.