Baseball notebook: Luke Smith pitches in for Princeton in time of need

The Princeton Tigers pitching staff is running out of arms.

Junior southpaw Tyler Forristall has been shut down for the season with a rotator cuff injury.

Senior Jordan Reinhardt is sidelined with a continuing elbow problem that has hampered him over at least the last two seasons.

Sophomore Braden Shaw also has a sore elbow and will finish out the season playing as a position player for the freshman/sophomore team.

That Tiger trio has combined for 50 of the team’s 127 innings pitched and a 6-4 record.

Luke Smith stepped up Thursday in Spring Valley when the Tigers needed him most.

The senior right-hander scattered eight hits and a walk over six innings, striking out four, retiring the last man he faced, Hunter Edgcomb, on a groundout as his pitch count ran out. Just three of the four runs were earned in a 4-1 loss to rival Hall.

“My job as a pitcher is just to throw strikes and use the defense behind me and get outs as quickly as possible,” he said. “I’m going to try to go as hard as I can before I can’t anymore.”

“I really liked the way Luke pitched. He battled them and that’s what you want,” Tiger coach Wick Warren said.

Warren planned to start senior Jace Stuckey on Friday at Rockridge. After that, he’ll try to work out a plan for the last week of regular season and the regional quarterfinal matchup with Kewanee on Monday, May 19.

Smith (29 IP, 3-2, 3.14 ERA), Stuckey (9 1/3, 5.25), junior Ryan Jagers (11 2/3 IP, 0-2) and seniors Noah LaPorte (6 1/3 IP, 13 K, 3.15 ERA) and Will Lott (17 IP, 20 K, 4.53) are the only remaining healthy arms he has outside of catcher Ace Christiansen, who Warren joked will be the closer.

“We just got to keep battling. We’re out of pitchers,” Warren said. “JR (Reinhardt) says he can pitch again, but I don’t know.”

Zrust excited for next adventure

Izzaq Zrust, who was the winning pitcher for Hall on Thursday, will be pitching for Des Moines Area Community College next year. He’s excited for the next chapter of his career.

“I’m super excited. It’s only junior college, but they’re sending a lot of guys to D1,” he said. “They just won their first playoff game today. They have the 3 seed. Hit a grand slam in the ninth inning. I’m super excited, especially coach (Nic) Mishler and coach (Chase) Brundage down there. They do some of the same stuff in terms of rehab and making us feel good with our arms (at Hall). I trust those guys. I’m in contact with them a lot of late and can’t wait to go down there.

Regional time

Bureau Valley (18-8) drew the No. 4 subsectional seed and will host its own 2A regional with a semifinal date vs. No. 5 Orion (14-12) on May 22. No. 7 Princeton (9-10-1) was also assigned to the BV regional, opening with a home game vs. No. 8 Kewanee (10-15) on May 19.

Hall (16-10) was sent to the Monmouth-Roseville Regional. The No. 3-seeded Red Devils will face the winner between No. 11 Knoxville (2-20-1) and No. 5 Rockridge (13-12) on May 22.

St. Bede (19-4) is the No. 1 seed for the Class 1A Stark County Regional and will face the winner of the May 19 game between No. 9 Stark County (7-19) and No. 6 Ridgewood (11-12) on May 21. The Bruins will host the 1A sectional at Schweickert Stadium in Peru.