It's hard for his Silverdale Baptist teammates to one-up Spencer Mossburg. As SBA coach Jonathan Adcock said, they tend to take him for granted because he's always there.
Fellow senior Reed Clements came close Monday, throwing just 75 pitches as the Seahawks defeated South Pittsburg 8-1 and advanced to Wednesday's Region 3-A championship game.
Mossburg, the winning pitcher last week as the team secured Silverdale's first boys' district championship, was in the middle of another win by going 3-for-4 with an RBI and three runs scored.
Clements, who improved to 6-0, was equally effective from the mound although he had no idea how dominating he had been in his a three-hitter.
"Strikeouts? I have no idea. I don't count them," he said. "As long as we're getting the outs, it doesn't matter."
For the record, Reed had nine strikeouts and just one walk and held the Pirates without a baserunner in the final three innings. He had one five-pitch inning and ended the game with a three-pitch seventh.
"Reed was fantastic," Adcock said. "It was an awesome performance. He was throwing strikes, he was getting his curveball over for strikes and his changeup was a good off-speed pitch for him."
Silverdale shortstop Joey Szollosi had a good day, too, but gave much of the credit to Clements.
"He was phenomenal. He came out throwing strikes and walked just one guy," Szollosi said. "Give him a couple days' rest and he'll be ready again."
Clements agreed that it was one of his best outings this year but quickly added, "Defense wins everything for us."
The Seahawks (24-2-1) also had compliments for South Pittsburg pitcher Tyler Reed, who suffered just his second loss this season.
"He kept us on our toes," Clements said.
"Reed did a good job of keeping us off-balance. We were able to get guys on and take advantage of a mistake or two," Adcock added.
Szollosi led the Seahawks offense, which had just one run until breaking the game open with a four-run fourth.
"We struggled, but we struggled in the beginning of the season. The offense came to life about a month ago and hasn't stopped," said Szollosi, who had a two-run home run in the sixth.
Silverdale will host Marion County on Wednesday.