Fremont, Nebraska – Quality pitching took center stage Monday night when the Fremont Moo opened a two-game series with the Casper Spuds In ILB action at Historic Moller Field. Making his Fremont debut, Dylan Driessen, an Omaha native at South Dakota State, struck out ten Casper batters over six innings, and led Fremont to a 3-0 win over the Spuds.
The Moo got on the board in the bottom of the first. With one out, Wyatt Yetter reached on an infield single off Casper starter Hayden Mullins. The next batter, Cooper Fuchino, drew a walk before Parker Mooney hit an rbi single, scoring Yetter, to put Fremont ahead, 1-0.
The score remained the same until the bottom of the seventh. Fremont’s Dylan Brandenburg led off the inning with a single, which chased Casper’s Mullins from the game. Facing Spuds reliever Cooper Hack, Miles Meadows drew a walk to put runners at first and second. Then, Yetter laid down a sacrifice bunt advancing the runners to second and third. Fremont capitalized on a pair of Hack wild pitches, which scored Brandenburg and Meadows, giving Fremont a 3-0 lead.
Fremont took the three-run advantage into the top of the ninth, where Alex Oliver entered the game. The right-handed reliever worked around a one-out walk and got Dylan Schlotterback to ground into a game-ending fielder’s choice, giving Fremont the 3-0 win.
Fremont (8-5) scored three runs off nine hits and committed one error. Casper (10-3) had no runs off two hits and committed one error.
Moo starter Driessen (1-0) earned the win, pitching 6.0 innings, giving up two hits, striking out ten and walking one. Justin Bowman, a Suwanee, Georgia native at Columbia University, pitched 2.0 perfect innings, striking out four. Oliver (1), a Grove, Oklahoma native headed to Colorado State-Pueblo, earned the save, pitching 1.0 inning, struck out one and walked one.
Casper starter Hayden Mullins (1-1) took the loss. He pitched 6.0 innings giving up two runs off eight hits, struck out four and walked three. Cooper Hack pitched 2.0 innings, giving up one run off one hit, struck out two, walked one and had two wild pitches.
Offensively for Fremont, Parker Mooney, an Omaha native at Augustana University, was 1-for-4 with an rbi. Grant Nottleman, a Lincoln native at Barton County Community College, was 2-for-4. Dylan Brandenburg, a San Carlos, California native at Skyline College, was 3-for-3.
With the win, Fremont took the first game of the short two-game series, which is being made-up as part of a rainout from May 30th and 31st. Fremont climbed within 2.0 games of the league-leading Spuds, and moved into second place in the ILB standings. The final game of the series is Tuesday night at 7:05 p.m.
