Jacobs blanks Dundee-Crown

Jacobs baseball coach Jaime Murray was jogging back to the dugout Wednesday after the bottom of the second inning and asked his team, “Are we going to swing the bat today?”

The Golden Eagles had struck out five times — four looking — in the first two innings. They swung the bat enough in the third, despite striking out three more times, and scored a run on their first 2 hits of the game.

That was enough as Jacobs defeated Dundee-Crown, 5-0, after scoring 4 insurance runs in the sixth.

“We want to be aggressive,” Murray said. “I didn’t want us to take those third strikes. We really haven’t done that. This is by far the most strikeouts in a game we’ve had against us.”

The Golden Eagles (19-9, 11-7) struck out 11 times, all against D-C starter Ahren Ludwig. Jacobs starter Reilly Peltier matched Ludwig strikeout for strikeout. Peltier (3-0) struck out 10 in 6 innings. The right-hander allowed just 2 hits and walked 3.

“It feels nice when everything is working for me,” Peltier said. “I was locating my fastball and mixing in the curveball and change. I was just hitting my spots really well.”

Austin Sickel and Nick Ledinsky each got an out in the seventh to complete the shutout, which was the third in four games for Jacobs.

“That’s our strength, pitching and play good defense,” Murray said.

In the bottom of the third, Matt Hickey led off with a walk. Ben Murray followed with an infield single for Jacobs’ first hit. After a strikeout, Grant Kale drove in Hickey with a single to right field.

Those hits were all the Golden Eagles had until the sixth when they had four more to plate 4 runs to give them some breathing room. Joe Rizzuto and Tim Hubner each drove in a run and Hickey added a 2-run double.

D-C (7-17, 4-14) had just 3 hits. Luis Garcia had a ground-rule double with one out in the fourth for the Chargers’ first hit.

Ludwig went 5 innings with those 11 strikeouts. He allowed 4 hits and 4 runs, walked 3 and hit a batter.

“We couldn’t muster any offense today and string any hits together,” D-C coach John Anderson said.