Mancuso tosses five scoreless innings

Pitcher Josh Mancuso’s first start of the season was excellent.

The Anderson-Shiro High School graduate earned the win for Nicholls State University by allowing two hits in five scoreless innings against St. Thomas. He struck out 12, including fanning the minimum three batters in the second inning and striking out three in the fifth inning.

“Anytime you go out and perform like that, it’s a real confidence booster,” the junior left-hander said.

The movement of his fastball allowed him to dominate a team he said Nicholls had not faced. He attacked the strike zone. “I was just throwing at the guys,” he said. “I was going right at them.”

“From the first inning, I had great control of my fastball,” Mancuso said. “It hard for them to hit when you work that in and out.”

The four-seam fastball has been “having a lot of late break on it,” he said.

And his two-seam fastball has been “running a little bit more” lately, too, he said.

Because his fastball was so effective, he didn’t have to work in his offspeed pitches much. He throws a changeup and slider.

Prior to the start, Mancuso said, he entered games as the first lefty out of the bullpen. He was battered for four hits and five earned runs in his debut of two-thirds of an inning. That rocky outing is a big reason his earned run average was 8.10 through six appearances, although he was tagged for two earned runs in one-third inning of relief against Memphis, his shortest outing of the season.

He said his parents attended the season-opening home series and plan to attend games at Houston Baptist during April.

More baseball

Kiwoom Heroes pitcher Tyler Eppler, a Navasota High product, allowed two hits in three scoreless innings of a March 18 exhibition against SSG Landers in the Korea Baseball Organization.

Women’s track and field

Previously at Navasota, Concordia University Texas freshman Tamia Dailey ran the second leg of the 4-by-100-meter relay that placed sixth and scored at the Trinity meet. Her best individual finish was 16th in the long jump.

Send updates about area athletes to Barbara Boxleitner at jdanddoc@ gmail.corn.