On Tuesday night, as the Midwest Plains representatives ran their record to a perfect 3-0, there was no doubt about what was the real catalyst behind a 2-1 victory over Lynn, Massachusetts at Diethrick Park.

“Our defense was tremendous,” said manager Michael Minner following the close win. “Lane Baremore made five or six great plays at shortstop, Willie (Pratt) made a couple of plays at third. Then the difference is we get a base hit and we score our run from center, they get a base hit and we throw the guy out at the plate. That’s the difference in the ballgame.”

In both of those cases, where a run was plated for the Squirrels and Lynn was robbed of a go-ahead shot, the athleticism of Cole Nichols was on display for all to see.

The Squirrels would have the benefit of a single from Baremore in the opening inning, but he would be left stranded after hitting out of the second spot in the order.

Responding for Lynn with a single of his own in the bottom half was lead-off man Jomar Mureta.

Putting himself in scoring position, Mureta looked like a lock to plate the first run of the game off a single from teammate Colin Reddy, but the Charleston outfield had other ideas.

Fielding a one-hopper in short center field, Nichols let fly with a pellet that was right on target to catcher Bobby Wright, stifling a last-second reach toward home by Mureta.

Grabbing a single in the third, Nichols would then use his own speed to beat out a good throw to home as Drew Reischman was credited with the go-ahead RBI single.

Speed and strength is a rare combination.

“Another close ballgame. Kasten Campbell was phenomenal. He went out and gave us a quality start, got us into the sixth inning and I thought he was just kind of out of gas,” Minner said of his starting hurler, who fanned three and walked two in 5 1/3 innings.

“Some of our pitchers haven’t worked as much lately with the layoffs, getting to the World Series, so getting them deep into games is kind of tough. So we’ve lucked out and had some short stints out of a couple guys. He battled his tail off and kept us in the game. Then we go to Willie (Pratt) and he just wasn’t as sharp today. That’s after throwing two days in a row and then Cole (Nichols) comes in and gets an out and gets us out of it.”

Pratt would throw 1 1/3 in relief of Campbell, while Nichols was only asked to get the final out of the night, forcing a putout from Kevin Durant to pad his day’s resume.

The Squirrels would get their second run in the sixth as Ronin Rice smacked one of his two singles, allowing Dalton Stotts to plate a run with a hard-hit ball down the third baseline to make it 2-0.

Brett Bucklin would grab Lynn’s lone run of the game on a grounder hit past second base in the final inning.

Devin Curley tossed his way through six innings of 10-hit ball for Lynn, while Nick Resis entered for the final inning of relief.

“We were just good enough to get one more run than them so that’s what we talked about. That’s all we needed today and, you know, we gutted one out, but defense won the game for us today,” said Minner.

Minner’s team will meet Southeast today at 5 p.m. and look to finish off pool play undefeated.