After jumping out to an early lead, the Minooka varsity baseball team never looked back against Plainfield South. The win was marked by Minooka’s dominant pitching and hitting to extend their lead.

On April 13, Minooka was victorious at home against Plainfield South 10-0.

Junior Joey Rutz was the starting pitcher for the Indians and was very efficient in his 4 innings pitched. Rutz only allowed 1 hit on his way to a shutout. 

“Our fielding was really good in this game,” Rutz said. “Overall our defense was outstanding.”

The combination of outstanding fielding and pitching led to the Indians only allowing one hit in five innings. This game allowed the Indians to build momentum defensively and offensively as well.

The Indians offense was marked by timely hitting and patience at the plate as they had 7 hits and 7 walks en route to 10 runs. Their 10 runs were highlighted by a six-run fourth inning.

Senior Rhett Harris went 2-for-3 and added 2 RBIs for Minooka. Harris was the only Minooka player to record multiple hits in this game.

“I thought I played well,” Harris said. “I’ve had a rough start to my season so it was nice to get it going.”

Head coach Jeff Petrovic was satisfied with the performance and hopes that the team will use this momentum going forward.

“The guys played well against Plainfield South yesterday,” Petrovic said. “We got some timely hits and scored a bunch of runs so hopefully that will get our offense going for the rest of the season.”

Petrovic also acknowledged the dominant pitching performance that powered the Indians through this game.

“Joey Rutz needed only 37 pitches to get through 4 innings and only gave up one hit,” Petrovic said.

This win improved the Indians record to 10-2 on the season.