Rob Ewald's Bat, Arm Leads Ladue to 8-3 Win Over Lutheran South

Next stop for Ladue’s sensational pitcher Rob Ewald is Lafayette College, Easton, PA. But there’s more to be done before he packs his bags.

Ewald came up with the 15th Ladue win (17 games) with his right arm and his bat. Proof positive in the 8-3 Thursday romp over a strong visiting team, Lutheran South.

Ewald went five frames, allowed just 4 hits and 3 runs while striking out 8.

Down 3-2 in the early going, Ewald sparked an uprising in the home half of the third.

Ewald struck out the side in the visitors’ half of the fourth, then delivered the game-winning blow in the home half of the same frame.

With runners on the corner (Gabe Grand singled and went to third when Dylan Barstow reached on an error by the right fielder), Ewald smacked a double to center field, scoring both runners ahead of him. Suddenly, the Rams led 4-3, and built the lead from there, not allowing the Lancers to score anymore that day.

“Their pitcher (Dirk Otterstein) gave me a pitch to drive, and I hit it,” said Ewald.

Ewald likes the progression of the Rams.”We’re a pretty good team. We’ve fought back in some pretty tough games. We’re fine. I wasn’t worried.”

Lex Kaplan, who gathered 3 hits in 4 appearances at the plate and drove in a pair tipped his cap to the starting pitcher.

“Rob is always pitching good. We just gotta keep him like that and we can make a state run. We need to keep working hard, be producers and we can make that run. We’ve beaten some good teams, and we need to keep doing that,” said the center fielder, headed to Miami of Florida.

Ladue had their moments. They scored 2 runs in the home half of the first.

Kaplan and Grand both delivered solo RBIs in the opening frame.

In the top of the third, the Lancers had their momentary lead; Otterstein drilled a 2-RBI double to center tying the game, then star Dalton  Schumer came through with an RBI double to left and a 3-2 lead.

“That was a little frustrating, I got the ball up,” said Ewald who keeps enemy batters mostly  in check.

Ladue added 1 more in the 5th and 2 in the 6th to salt away the victory.

C.J. Goeckner, a leftie looked sharp in relief, putting down the last six Lancer batters.
“That was a nice win for us. Our kids responded well, swung the bats well and played good defense,” said coach Rob Garrett.

Ladue is very strong up the middle with Turner Miller behind the plate, Ewald on the mound and Kaplan patrolling center.

“Rob was a little off today, he battled through it, and the rest of our guys came through for him,” said Garrett.