GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Glendale's Austin Voth outdueled Mets farmhand Corey Oswalt Thursday at Camelback Ranch as the Desert Dogs edged the Scottsdale Scorpions, 2-1.
Voth, who had been struggling in recent Arizona Fall League outings, struck out two batters and allowed only three hits while walking two across five scoreless innings. The Washington Nationals' No. 9 prospect said he is always looking to give the opposing batters a fight.
"Today I just tried to make a good pitch in certain counts and I got a lot of ground balls," Voth said. "I definitely battled throughout the whole game, even though I didn't have my best stuff."
• Gameday
Oswalt also went five innings, yielding a pair of unearned runs on three hits while striking out three.
Voth's performance showed vast improvement from his previous two starts, during which he gave up a total of eight hits and 11 runs in eight innings. Voth credited the work he has been doing to adding a small curl in his windup.
"I felt pretty good," the 24-year-old right-hander said. "Going into the game I changed a few mechanics last week, and I'm just trying to get comfortable with those new mechanics."
Voth was selected by the Nationals in the fifth round of the 2013 MLB Draft out of the University of Washington, where he earned honorable mention All-Pac-12 Conference honors in 2013 after going 7-6 with a 2.99 ERA with 98 strikeouts over 105 1/3 innings. As a junior, he finished second in the Pac-12 in strikeouts behind Stanford ace and future No. 1 overall Draft pick Mark Appel.
With Voth and Oswalt controlling the game, both teams were held scoreless until Houston Astros right fielder Alejandro Garcia stepped up to the plate in the bottom of the fifth inning.
With the bases loaded, Garcia doubled off of the right-handed Oswalt, driving in White Sox No. 14 prospect Courtney Hawkins and Osvaldo Abreu, the Nationals' No. 19 prospect.
Garcia finished the game 1-for-2 at the plate with two RBIs.
Philadelphia Phillies left fielder Aaron Brown made things interesting with a solo home run off of Glendale reliever and White Sox prospect Colton Turner in the eighth inning to bring the Scorpions within a run of the Desert Dogs. But it was too little, too late; as the Desert Dogs held on to pick up the win.
Voth is hoping to use the remainder of Fall League to add to his arsenal of pitches, most notably a reliable change-of-speed pitch.
"I'd like to be able to have my changeup as one of my better pitches, a pitch that I can throw at any count," Voth said.