LyBarger’s 1-hitter leads Bulldogs to 4-0 win

Published 8:35 am Monday, June 14, 2010

Pitch after pitch the anticipation began to build for Lake Mills junior pitcher Drey LyBarger.

Through 4 innings, LyBarger held Garner-Hayfield hitless until the top of the fifth when the Cardinal’s Nathan Hrubes smacked a single just out of the reach of third baseman Royce Byrnes to end the no hit bid, as the Bulldogs defeated Garner-Hayfield 4-0 in a North Iowa conference game on Friday in Lake Mills.

“It’s a win,” said Lake Mills coach Jason Blaser. “Like I told the guys after the game, it’s good to win a ball game. But its a team we should have been able to score 10 or 15 runs against.”

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With LyBarger’s pitching performance, the Bulldogs didn’t need to count on their offense as much as in past games.

Lake Mills struggled at the plate but took advantage of Garner-Hayfield pitcher Damon Quandt’s control problems in the second inning.

Drey LyBarger and Chris Throne both drew walks to score runs in a three run second inning, while Taylor Throne scored an RBI ground-out that provided more than enough runs for a 4-0 lead.

“We were fortunate they missed the strike zone a couple of times,” Blaser said. “We like to be aggressive early in the game and that helped us a lot.”

While the Bulldogs cruised through most of the game, they ran into trouble in the top of the seventh inning.

LyBarger started the inning getting a ground-out before walking three Garner-Hayfield batters in a row to load the bases with one out.

Lake Mills then brought in senior Chris Throne as he pitched the final 2/3 of an inning to preserve the win for the Bulldogs.

LyBarger earned the win as he went 6 1/3 innings and struck out eight.

“Well I tried to mix it up a little bit,” said LyBarger, of his pitching approach. “My change up was pretty good tonight, we got some easy pop ups and a couple strikeouts with that.”

Lake Mills is in action on Saturday at Northwood and play Forest City in a North Iowa conference doubleheader on Monday in Lake Mills.

Lake Mills 4, Garner-Hayfield 0

Garner-Hayfield 000 000 0 — 0 1 1

Lake Mills 130 000 0 — 4 5 1

WP— Drey LyBarger 6 1/3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 8 BB, 8 K

LP— Damon Quandt 6 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 5 BB, 1 K