Jesse Sturman handled pitching in a crowd quite well.
The Grand Forks Red River baseball pitcher had Grand Forks Central players on the basepaths in each of his six innings on the mound Monday. Yet Sturman pitched out of numerous jams in a 6-2 Roughrider win at Kraft Field.
"This wasn't Jesse's best night," Red River coach Mark Varriano said. "He's usually pitching low in the strike zone. Tonight, his pitches were up high. But he's a gamer, he knows how to pitch, to mix things up.
"He made good pitches in key spots. And we made a couple of double plays to get him out of jams."
Central left runners on base in every inning; four times, the Knights stranded two runners in an inning. Sturman allowed nine hits, walking two while striking out four. But all he gave up was single runs in the first and fifth innings.
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"It wasn't my best start, that's for sure," said the senior, who is 2-1 with a 1.22 earned run average this season. "I wasn't throwing strikes as consistently as I've been. A few times, I was feeling a little nervous (with Central runners on base).
"But I didn't do anything different. I worked the zone and tried to make them hit my pitch. I just let my defense back me up. For the most part, we've played good defense."
Central took a 1-0 lead in the first inning. But Taylor Steen lined a double to right field, driving in two runs to highlight a 3-run third inning that put the Riders ahead 3-1.
Steen, who has 13 RBIs for the season, finished the game going 2-for-3. Brock Thoreson was 2-for-2, scoring three runs, while Chaise Anderson was 1-for-3 with two RBIs.
Taylor Cantrell, Nick Moe and David Olson each had a pair of hits for Central, which had a season-high nine hits.
"I was really happy with the way we hit the ball," Central co-coach Tim Gregoire said. "We haven't done that all year.
"But we couldn't string a few hits together, and a couple base-running mistakes really hurt us. We had trouble getting hits with guys on base. That was frustrating."
Red River 2, Central 0: In the non-conference second game of the doubleheader, Jakoby Ripplinger pitched a five-inning complete game, allowing two hits, to get the pitching win.
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Red River also managed only two hits. The Riders broke open a scoreless game in the bottom of the fourth, taking advantage of three Central errors and a run-scoring single by Thoreson to score twice.
