ORDER GAME PHOTOS
With the baseball season finally starting to heat up, it's time to start focusing on the individual players that make this game so exciting.
With that, we've launched a new feature this spring: Primetime Pitchers. Every Tuesday, we'll recap the five most dominating pitching performances from the past week of competition.
Why five? Because most pitching rotations carry five players.
I should note that these are single-game performances only. I don't have the math skills to pull off calculating weekly totals.
If you'd like to nominate an athlete for our Primetime Pitchers list, send an email to brandon@idahosports.com.
With that said, here's our debut list of Idaho baseball's Primetime Pitchers, from the week of March 27th to April 1st. The performances will be listed in chronological order.
1. Sam Yeakley, Sr, Gem State
Gem State and Greenleaf Friends are co-oping once again this baseball season, with the two schools competing under the Gem State name. Yeakley attends Greenleaf, though, and the Jaguars are glad to have him on the diamond. In a 10-4 Western Idaho Conference win over Wilder on Tuesday, March 28th, Yeakley fired five innings of no-hit baseball. Three walks were his only undoing, as it led to the only run Yeakley allowed, but he offset that by striking out eight Wildcat hitters.
2. Nolan Hardesty, Sr, Twin Falls
Twin Falls took home second place from last year's 4A state baseball tournament, and have their sights on finishing high again, led by their exceptional pitching staff. Hardesty is just one piece of a stacked rotation, but on Tuesday, March 28th, he shined against Great Basin Conference rival Wood River in a 12-0 shutout win. In four innings, ten of the twelve outs Hardesty recorded came via the strikeout. He only allowed one hit as well.
3. Parker Stringham, Jr, Kimberly
Stringham took the hill on Tuesday, March 28th, against Sawtooth Central Idaho Conference rival Gooding, and proceeded to twirl a two-hitter. Stringham also notched six strikeouts with no walks in the 13-0 triumph.
4. Jason Jones, Sr, Marsh Valley
There's no doubt that Stanton Howell leads the rotation for defending 3A champion Marsh Valley, but Jones is a solid number two starter, and could be the number one guy for a lot of teams. Case in point: Wednesday's 11-2 non-conference win over South Fremont. Jones went the distance, pitching all seven innings. He allowed two runs (only one earned), while notching ten strikeouts.
5. Colter Bodily, Fr, Melba
The only freshman to make our list, Melba's Colter Bodily sizzled on the bump against McCall-Donnelly in a 5-0 non-conference win on Saturday, April 1st. Bodily yielded just three hits in seven innings of work (a .130 batting average for the Vandals.) He also struck out 13 hitters in the win.
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