Too many walks, not enough offense for Linn-Mar

DES MOINES - So much for that theory about having to hit to win baseball games. What a bunch of bunk.Honestly, Johnston didn't even need a hit Wednesday afternoon to beat Linn-Mar, 2-0, in a Class 4A state tournament quarterfinal at Principal Park. The Dragons got one, just one, literally walking their way to the semifinals."It's tough to defend ball four," Linn-Mar Coach Chad Lechner said. "They didn't have to, we did a little bit. That's really what today's game comes down to."In a lot of ways, Linn-Mar (27-16) should have felt fortunate it still had an opportunity for its first state tourney win the way the first half of the ballgame went. Starter Justin Wyant (6-3) could not get into any sort of groove and was all over the place with his pitches.Through four innings, Johnston (27-12) had seven walks, three stolen bases and was the beneficiary of two Wyant wild pitches, yet had only one run. That came on a two-out wild pitch in the second."It's a little nerveracking when the strike zone's a little smaller," Wyant said. "One thing leads to another. I got mad at myself a couple of times. Try to battle through it as much as I can. There's nothing more I could do, I guess."Wyant was lifted for Austin Stroschein after a leadoff walk to start the fifth inning, and Stroschein gave up Johnston's only hit: a leadoff double off the wall in right-center by Trevor McCauley in the sixth. He scored on, what else, a wild pitch.Just one of those days for the Lions, who contrarily did very little offensively against hard-throwing Joe Hawks. The right-hander's fastball has been clocked as high as 91 miles per hour, though it didn't seem to approach that territory here.It was still good enough."I thought everything went well," said Hawks, who gave up three hits and struck out eight. "I was fine as long as I hit my spots and got ahead.""He throws a lot of strikes," Linn-Mar's Jimmy Roth said. "Locates a lot, outside and inside. Curveballs and changeups ... He's a good pitcher. We battled, but I guess it wasn't enough."Linn-Mar's best chance to score came in the second. Roth led off with a double, and the Lions had runners on the corners with one out.But Hawks struck out Caleb Reimer and Ben Larson to end the threat. Larson doubled with two outs in the fifth but was stranded.Banks walked with one out in the seventh, but Brandt Ollinger banged into a 6-4-3 double play that ended it."He just hit spots, mixed it up really well," Stroschein said. "That's all you can ask of a pitcher. We battled on the defensive side, we just couldn't do it on the offensive side. It sucks, but we battled."