BELLVILLE — Madison starter Blake Lampert did his best Cliff Lee impersonation on a sun-soaked Thursday afternoon at Clear Fork High School.
Colts’ skipper Rusty Staab likened the senior left-hander to another Philadelphia Phillies ace.
Lampert struck out a career-high 12 batters and threw a whopping 79 percent of his pitches for strikes as the Rams rolled to a 12-4 Ohio Cardinal Conference victory.
Madison (7-1, 5-0) and Clear Fork (5-3, 2-3) will complete the home-and-home series today at Madison.
“I told (Madison coach) Doug Rickert that Lampert looked like Steve Carlton out there,” Staab said, referencing the former Phillies great who won four National League Cy Young awards in the 1970s and ’80s. “He was awesome.”
Like Lee, the former Cleveland Indians star who threw a Major League-leading 70 percent of his pitches for strikes from 2009 to 2013, Lampert pounded the strike zone Thursday. Of the 102 pitches he threw, 81 were strikes. He threw a first-pitch strike to 24 of the 33 batters he faced.
“Strike one is the best pitch in baseball,” Lampert said of working ahead in the count. “When you get ahead like that, you are in control of the game. It sounds simple, but working ahead in the count is the key.”
Lampert whiffed at least one Clear Fork hitter in every inning and struck out the side on 11 pitches in the sixth. The Colts loaded the bases with one out in the fourth on a pair of infield base hits and a Madison error, but Lampert wriggled off the hook with a strike out and induced a ground out to second to end the frame.
“What makes him so effective is that two-seemed fastball or cutter, whatever you want to call it. It just bites,” Rickert said. “People look at it and they think it’s just a fastball. He’ll throw his regular, four-seam fastball and then he’ll throw his cutter and all those guys will beat it into the ground.
“To throw 81 strikes is just incredible. He was really locked in.”
Madison gave Lampert all the run support he would need in the first two innings, scoring five runs. Hunter Ackerman led off the game with a ringing double to the base of the wall in left field and eventually scored on a ground out by Kyle Galco.
The Rams tacked on four more runs on four hits in the second as Kyle Blust, Ackerman and Alec Keen all drove in runs. Madison took advantage of two Clear Fork errors in the frame.
“That has been our story all year. When we play bad, we play atrocious,” Staab said. “I have some seniors who need start looking in the mirror.
“We made some mistakes early … and once they got up five-to-nothing it was like 10-to-nothing.”
Madison added three runs in the fifth. Lampert and Ackerman both drew bases-loaded walks to drive in runs while Bo Curvin singled in a run.
Lampert drew another bases loaded walk in the sixth to drive in a run before the Rams scored three in the top of the seventh to take a 12-0 lead. Zane Harris knocked in a run with a single and Blust stroked a two-run double.
Blust had three hits and three RBIs, while clean-up hitter Harris had a pair of safeties.
“It was nice to see Kyle Blust get three hits and Zane Harris get two because those are two kids who have been struggling a little bit early in the season and they both hit the ball well for us last year,” Rickert said. “They are going to come around and it’s a night like tonight that can get them going.”
The Colts finally got to Lampert in the bottom of the seventh, scoring four runs on two hits and two Madison errors.Travis Born had the big blow, lacing a three-run double down the right field line.
Ohio State recruit Ridge Winand and Born each had two hits for the Colts.
Lee Snyder, the first of six Clear Fork pitchers, took the loss. The right-hander gave up five runs on five hits in four innings of work.
The Colts will try to salvage their OCC season on Friday at Madison.
“This is gut-check time for us because we’re in a position now where the OCC is just about done for us,” Staab said. “If we don’t get our act together, all we have to look forward to is the tournament and that is a shame because we have too good of a team to be out of it already.”
The Rams, meanwhile, are alone atop the OCC standings.
“Are we in the driver’s seat? Not by a long shot,” Rickert said. “It’s still too early. A couple of years ago, we beat Ashland 13-nothing over spring break then turned around and got beat 13-nothing the very next day. That’s baseball.”
Follow Curt Conrad on Twitter @curtjconrad.
