Rollie Carman’s Ithaca baseball team has had an impressive season so far.
The Yellowjackets got out to a 14-0 start and ended the regular season May 24 at 18-2.
In the last two games, Ithaca swept Breckenridge 12-4 and 12-2 to complete a perfect league season. Its TVC West record was 14-0.
As they have all season, the Yellowjackets prospered with excellent pitching, hitting, and defense. Mike Mallory fanned 13 batters in seven innings to win the first game, and Logan Hessbrook struck out 10 in five innings to do the trick in the second game.
Jordan Hessbrook had five hits, including a double and two triples plus four RBI, Logan Hessbrook had three doubles, and Sage DeMull two doubles and three RBI during the twin bill.
It was quite a regular season for Carman’s team. “The pitchers have been really good,” Carman said.
Mallory, a senior, got off to a 6-0 start. “He’s given up three hits or less in four games,” Carman said. He’s got good control. He pounds the strike zone and gets out in front. He basically knows what type of pitch he needs to throw to get the batter out. When the other team is good, he’s been able to do that pretty well.”
Mallory is a three-year starter for Ithaca and is having his best season. “He’s improved a lot from last year,” Carman said. “I never expected him to be anywhere near where he’s at.”
Logan Hessbrook started off with three no-hitters and a 6-0 record. One of those no hitters was a full seven innings.
“He throws very hard,” Carman said. “He has good movement on his ball. He pitched for us last year but not a lot. This was his first year throwing league doubleheaders.”
Carman recalls talking to his coaches last year about Hessbrook. “We said that this kid has a lot of raw talent, but we didn’t know where it’s going to go; we didn’t expect it to go this well, I guess,” Carman said. “We did see that he had a lot of ability. He’s certainly doing it.”
Carman calls his third pitcher, lefthander Max Cullinan, “the best No. 3 I’ve ever had.” Cullinan allowed only three runs in his first 13 innings of work.
“He has a good pickoff move,” Carman said. “He’s picked off four or five guys. He threw a whole lot harder than he did last year. The problem is, we’ve had so many rainouts this year we haven’t been able to use him too much.”
Senior shortstop Luke Bunting, a four-year starter, is a returning all-stater hitting .500. He’ll be playing college ball at Muskegon Community College.
Catcher Sage Demull, a three-year stater, is hitting .500.
Winning the league was a season-long goal.
“As far as our tournament, I don’t know,” Carman said. “Shepherd is in our district every year. Whatever happens happens. We never seem to have anything easy in our district.”
“This is the best start I’ve had in 22 years of coaching,” Carman said. “I have two four-year starters and two three-year starters. I knew going in we’d be pretty good. We didn’t expect to be 14-0. We’ve had tough games. We were down 6-1 to Valley Lutheran in the sixth inning and came back to win the game.”