Russia senior Zeb Schulze readies at the plate during the Raiders season opener against Lima Shawnee on Friday at Shawnee High School.
Ryan Harless | Sidney Daily News
LIMA — The Russia Raiders score three in the seventh to take a 5-2 victory over Lima Shawnee on Friday in their season opener at Shawnee High School.
“It feels good the way we battled back,” Raiders head coach Kevin Phlipot said follwing the victory. “We’ve been playing for basically 10 days. I had no idea how we would make it through this, we didn’t have but one scrimmage. The weather is never great so we had a bunch of makeshift practices.”
Russia (1-0) starting pitcher Maddox Goubeaux surrendured two runs in the bottom of the first, but was able to settle in for a scoreless second before junior Cooper Unverferth took the mound in relief in the third inning.
The Raiders put the ball in play all throughout the game and picked up their first run in the second when Micah Grieshop led off the inning with a triple to deep center and took home on a passed ball.
Russia’s plate dicipline was a high point in the game as it only struck out five times.
“Six or less is outstanding,” Kevin Phlipot said. “I tell our guys all the time that the guys who can give me productive at-bats are going to get the playing time. I don’t need you to hit .400, can you be productive with two strikes? Can you foul a few off, make a productive out, hit a ground ball and make them battle?
“Our guys battled and worked the count today, we slapped a few balls with two strikes. We want to keep the pressure on the other team and make them have to make a play.”
After giving up the two runs in the first inning, the Raiders’ pitching staff held Shawnee scoreless in the rest of the game and worked out of several jams.
Unverferth pitched four innings of relief through the sixth inning where he allowed just one baserunner on a hit and struck out five in 47 pitches.
“We were really only thinking about getting one or two innings with him,” Phlipot said. “We still have tomorrow and a league game Monday. Our guys aren’t stretched out yet and we wanted to make sure he stayed under the pitch count and be an option for relief on Monday. But as he was going it’s like, yeah, you’re good. It was outstanding.
“He was getting ahead with the curve ball and then dotting with the fastball. The umpires were giving us the corner and he was absolutely hitting it. That’s beautiful pitching for sure.”
Russia picked up its second run of the game in the top of the sixth inning after a double from Zeb Schulze followed by a walk and a hit-by-pitch, allowed Zeb Schulze to score on an error by the Shawnee shortstop.
In the top of the seventh, the Raiders continued to force Shawnee to make plays. Grant Bergman reached on an error by the third baseman and scored when senior Vince Borchers hit a chopper to third which was misplayed for another error.
“We’re always talking about resilience,” Vince Borchers said. “Putting the ball in play, making them make the play. Especially on a day like today, it’s cold, it’s windy and it’s wet outside. It’s hard for them to make plays, as long as we can do that, we’ll be good.”
Cooper Unverferth continued his big game with a single that scored Vince Borchers and extended the lead to 4-2 and later manufactured his own run, and scored on a passed ball to make it a 5-2 game heading into the bottom of the seventh.
Zeb Borchers took the mound in the seventh and slammed the door on the comeback after allowing the first two batters to reach base.
Russia has big plans for this season after winning three straight regional titles.
“We have a lot of guys with a lot of experience,” Vince Borchers said. “That’ll be big for us come tournament time when we’re playing in big games. I’m comfident that any of our guys can come through.”
The Raiders will play at home against Urbana on Saturday at noon before taking on Jackson Center on Monday in their first Shelby County Athletic League game of the year.
Reach assistant editor/sports writer Ryan Harless at 937-538-4651 or follow @RyanHarless_ on X (formerly Twitter).