Tamaqua is blessed with outstanding pitching.

It’s one of the reasons the Blue Raiders have been undefeated so far this season.

But when many think of their hurlers, the names Mason Ligenza and Cooper Ansbach usually come to mind.

On Friday, in a matchup of unbeaten teams, Jake Yenser proved his name belongs right there with his teammates.

The sophomore relieved Ansbach in the second inning against Lehighton and pitched six shutout innings, allowing just two hits and striking out nine to lead Tamaqua to a 5-0 non-league victory.

“We were starting with Cooper, he came in and pitched the last inning (Thursday) and wanted to pitch today,” said Raider head coach Jeff Reading. “This morning we asked him how he felt and he said he was good. He came in after the first inning, he had thrown a bunch of pitches (27) and said he was feeling some tingling in his hand.

“So we warmed up Jake Yenser and he just did a fantastic job. He came in the game and gave us six great innings. He kept them off balance. (Lehighton’s) stats show that they’ve lit it up this season. They’ve scored double-digit runs how many times (six). And for him to come in and hold them to nothing is incredible.”

Yenser had no idea he’d be on the mound so soon, but was prepared just in case.

“Definitely not,” said Yenser when asked if he anticipated being in the game that early. “But I have to be ready for any situation with our pitcher’s arm not feeling too great. So I had to go in quick.

“The change-up worked for me today. If I hit the spot with the change-up, it’s really nice. And my off-speed was good, the curve ball. The fastball I was locating really well ... I like to focus on just throwing strikes and let my defense work. They can put the ball in play, and as long as we make the plays we’ll get out of it perfectly fine. And it saves other arms, as well, keeping the pitch count low.”

Lehighton, unfortunately, was not making some plays in the field and it cost them in the long run.

Two errors in the second inning led to a Tamaqua unearned run, while two more in the third helped the Raiders score three more times to take a 4-0 advantage. Ansbach did deliver a sacrifice fly in the third, while Noah Mateyak contributed an RBI single.

“Literally, Tamaqua did to us what we did to the other seven teams to start the year,” said Lehighton mentor JC Dietz. “They pitched well, they played good defense, they bunted, sacrifice bunted, moved runners and kind of manufactured runs; everything that we were doing in our first seven games and that’s a credit to them. And we didn’t do any of that today.

“I thought the errors in the field were the difference in the ballgame. But credit to their pitchers. I thought their pitchers did a great job today and kept us off balance.”

The Indians had a few opportunities to put runs on the board, but didn’t take advantage of those situations. Ansbach got out of a two on, one out jam in the first by getting a pair of strikeouts. Yenser, meanwhile, was faced with a bases loaded, one-out pickle in the sixth, but found his way out of the jam by getting a pop-up to second and a fly out to right.

“We’ve been getting those hits, those key two-out hits, and tonight we just didn’t get those hits,” said Dietz. “Unfortunately, that’s baseball. Sometimes you just go look at what the other pitcher did. Credit again to them. They did things we were doing, and tonight we didn’t.”

The early run support gave Yenser all the confidence he needed.

“It’s really nice to have a lead, especially because there’s not as much pressure,” said Yenser. “They had bases loaded at one point, and I knew it was not too big of a deal because we were still up enough runs, so as long as I can get out of it without giving up too many, it would work. But I got out of it with none, so that was even better.”

Tamaqua received a hit or a run scored from eight of its nine players in the starting lineup, something that obviously makes its head coach happy.

“That’s something we’re pleased with,” said Reading. “Someone steps up each game, which is a big positive. We’re able to hit at the beginning of the lineup or down in the lineup.

“We had a big win (Thursday) in a league game against Blue Mountain, and that was important. After that, we focused on (Lehighton). They were undefeated and playing well, so we knew we were going to be in for a great game today competition wise, so we wanted to come and compete and see where we stand.”

AT THE PLATE ... Mateyak and Logan Morgans, Tamaqua’s No. 6 and 7 hitters in the lineup, both had a pair of hits and an RBI for the Raiders. Ansbach had a hit, run and RBI, while Landon Kamant added a hit and a run. Lehighton hits came from Cody Snyder, Jayse Lawrence and Derek Behler.

TRIBUTE ... Tamaqua is wearing the initials AS on their hats this season. It’s in honor of Allen Spotts, a former baseball coach for the Blue Raiders who passed away this past August. His son, Kyle, was a standout baseball player at Tamaqua and is the current AD at Lehighton.

PITCHING ... The shutout was Tamaqua’s fourth of the season in its seven games. The Raiders have outscored opponents by a 37-5 margin.

Tamaqua 013 010 0 - 5 7 3

Lehighton 000 000 0 - 0 3 5

Ansbach, Yenser (2) and Kane; Stubits, Lewis (5) and Light. W - Yenser. L - Stubits.

Records: Tamaqua (7-0); Lehighton (7-1).