Wede wows on mound, Harrisburg baseball beats Jefferson 7-3

HARRISBURG — Kade Wede had some of his best stuff working on Thursday, April 16, mixing his three pitches often in a dominant showing and a 7-3 win over Sioux Falls Jefferson. Wede's fastball was buzzing by guys and drawing some uncomfortable swings, his cutter was a magnet for weak contact and foul balls and his slider was buckling knees and punching tickets. That led to a six-inning performance with 13 strikeouts while allowing five hits, a hit batter and one earned run.

"I was getting good swing and misses as well as rollovers," Wede said. "I was trying to keep the ball down, really allowing my defense to work. Pitches were executed and I was putting it in the zone, allowing them to try and put swings on it.

" Wede was able to mix up his sequencing, sometimes working with the traditional hard then soft to get batters out and other times starting with his breaking balls to finish guys off with his fastball. No matter how he did it, the fastball was just too much for most Jefferson hitters. The junior righty went to it frequently and was able to command it most of the day.

"I would say it's my two pitch because I have a lot of confidence in my cutter, but I throw it pretty hard so I would say that's a hard pitch for a lot of hitters to hit in South Dakota," Wede said. "I rely on that and I have a lot of confidence in it. " Harrisburg head coach Tony Lanier felt Wede was near his best, and his workhorse delivered just another dominant outing.