Posted: June 16, 2009 |(0) Comments

Their best pitcher had Tommy John surgery today and their starting second baseman is still recovering from a devastating onfield injury that ruptured a kidney.

Further, another top player for the Germantown baseball team just returned for this game after serving a suspension for the first portion of the season.

But the Warhawks had senior pitcher Tyler Wester plus a little hitting and that was more than enough for them to knock red-hot host Homestead out of a tie for first in the North Shore Tuesday night, with an impressive 3-1 decision.

"Tyler has been just ice-cold for us all season," said Germantown coach Parrish Wagner. "He wants the challenge. He wants the ball."

Wester, who had to step into the number one spot on the Warhawk rotation after junior ace Tyler Thicke was knocked out by surgery, now has 38 strikeouts in his last three outings, including an impressive 10 against Homestead (5-2 in North Shore play and 10-3 overall).

"He was a good pitcher last year, but he's outstanding now," Highlander coach Ernie Millard said. "He's the best we've seen all year. I really liked the way he carried himself. We had opportunities to rattle him, but he didn't let it happen."

Especially in the fifth and sixth innings, with the Warhawks (2-5, 5-8) nursing a 3-1 lead. A single and two walks loaded the bases for the Highlanders in the bottom of the fifth with one out, but Wester got a strikeout swinging and a groundout to first to end the threat.

Then in the bottom of the sixth, Homestead started out with a walk and a single, but Wester, who could throw an inside letter-high fastball and a deftly breaking curveball for a strike anytime he wanted to, got two successive strikeouts and a fielder's choice to get out of that jam.

"He could get three pitches over for strikes consistently all night," Wagner said. "He shows the curveball, throws the fastball and then spots it for a strike consistently."

Wester also got help from his defense, as in the one inning when the Highlanders roughed him a little, he got out of it without any damage.

That was in the second, as Homestead got three singles, the last with two out. On that play, Millard sent Joey Stoll in for home from second, and Warhawk leftfielder Thomas Ciano missed the cutoff man with his throw. But Ciano got lucky when veteran catcher Derek Strasser made a deft catch of the one-hop toss and tagged a leaping Stoll as he went by to end the inning.

Strasser had a great night behind the plate blocking many balls that bounced in the dirt, keeping Homestead runners from advancing.

"If I had to do it 100 more times with our nine hole hitter coming up, I would send the runner again," Millard said. "It was just a great play."

Mitch Andrus gave Germantown the lead for good with a bomb of a home run in the first inning off of Homestead starter and loser Casey Barnes (six strikeouts, no hits allowed after the second inning). The lead went to 2-0 in the second inning as Strasser singled home Wester, who had led off the inning with a double.

After Homestead closed the gap to 2-1 in the third on a hustle triple by Barnes (a pop fly to right was lost in the lights) and a perfect suicide squeeze by Andrew Holtorf, the Warhawks got an important insurance run in the fifth on two infield errors by Homestead.

"Talking about taking advantage of every opportunity that you get," Millard said, "but that's what we didn't do. When you see a good pitcher like we did, you have to take advantage of every chance you get because they're going to be few and far between."

"And it wasn't like we were throwing dogfood out on the hill too. Casey was getting ahead in the count and mixing his pitches well. The home run was one of only two or three times he got a ball up all night."

The win was very heartening for Wagner and the Warhawks, who were pre-season favorites in the North Shore before the injuries to Thicke and to infielder Jordan Infield, who damaged his kidney in an on-field accident some weeks ago. He is currently recovering and was at the game, cheering Germantown on.

"We're a team of momentum," Wagner said. "If we get ahead, we play hard and we're fine, but if we don't, we lay back a little and have problems."

"This was a good win. We're on an upswing."