T-town's Smith Nabs Win For LLCC, Vote For Altamont's Klaiton Wolff

The Lincoln Land baseball team won 8-1 and 5-3 in a rain shortened double header against Lincoln College on Friday afternoon.
 
In game one, Logger lefty Tristan Weaver took his record to 6-1 on the year as he pitched six solid innings.  Weaver scattered nine hits, allowing one earned run while striking out nine Lynx hitters and walking three.  Noah Kesselmayer pitched three scoreless to finish out the 8-1 victory.  Offensively for the Loggers, tallied fifteen hits as a team and had six players with multiple hits.  Xavier Collier (3 for 4, triple) and CJ Fleming (3 for 5) collected three hits each and Nick Maton (2 for 5) added a triple.  Freshman catcher Johnny Steinwart (2 for 5) hit his first double of the season and drove in three runs.

 
Lincoln outhit LLCC 7-6, but Devin Smith (Teutopolis graduate) threw five solid innings in game two for the win and to extend his record to 7-0 on the season.  Smith allowed five hits, struck out eight, and walked two while allowing two runs, only one earned.  Freshman Jack Staten picked up his first save of the season.  Aaron Steinhoff was 3 for 3 for Lincoln Land with a double and a Triple.

 
The Loggers are now 21-7 on the season.

Vote For Klaiton Wolff

The D3 Baseball season is nearly halfway done, and that means we can start discussing some player accolades. Starting off the talk of awards, we go to the young guys making a difference in their first season of play in D3, the guys who are well on their way to nomination for Newcomer of the Year at season's end.

Cast your vote in the poll at Herosports.com, go to men's sports, D3 baseball and vote for Altamont native Klaiton Wolff. The poll will close it Monday, April 17 at noon Pacific, so be sure to get your vote in on time.

*All stats current prior to games of April 12

Klaiton Wolff
Klaiton Wolff, RP - Greenville

Current Stats: 1-1 / 1.42 ERA / 4 SV

Notching four saves in a season is a remarkable accomplishment in D3, as the stat does not get a lot of high numbers. Doing that as a freshman though? In half a season? That is spectacular.

Wolff leads all freshmen relievers with his four saves, and it is looking like we may have the next great closer to watch for the next few years based on his start. What makes Wolff so good is his ability to work out of jams, given that he has surrendered 11 hits in 11 appearances this year and only allowed two earned runs.

His strikeout totals aren't gaudy, but Wolff doesn't pitch all that many innings, so he's got a respectable average of 10.66 Ks per nine innings after his first 12 innings of work. With Greenville standing at 15-12 this season, we could start seeing moments for this young bullpen master to shut things down in the playoffs.