Northwestern beats Rochester baseball, takes over first place in TRC

Zebras leave 10 on base in 6-2 loss

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Conner Dunfee

KOKOMO — The Rochester baseball team had runners on first and second and nobody out in the third inning of their game with host Northwestern Wednesday.

They had the bases loaded with nobody out in the fifth.

They had the bases loaded with one out in the sixth.

They got the leadoff man on base in the seventh.

They scored in none of those innings and had to settle for a long bus ride home after a 6-2 loss.

Rochester, ranked No. 4 in Class 2A, had 14 baserunners, but they went just 2 for 9 with runners in scoring position and finished with 10 men left on base.

“A little bit,” Rochester coach Cory Good said after he was asked if it was disappointing that the team scored only two runs. “We just didn’t have timely hitting. We hit the ball really hard at some people multiple times. They had two huge double plays, both times with probably our best and quickest baserunner up. Some things don’t go your way all the time.

“I was pretty proud of the way that we went out there and competed. We had Begley’s pitch count up early. That’s what we were looking to do – make him work hard. And I thought we did that well. The base hits we had tonight were kind of those duck snorts, and the ones we hit hard were right at somebody, and that’s how it went tonight.”

Meanwhile, junior Carson Paulik hobbled through his start on the mound. Paulik, who allowed one hit in 13 innings in his two previous TRC starts against Manchester and Maconaquah, gave up five hits and four runs in four innings this time. He also walked four and hit two batters while striking out five.

Paulik, who came in with a .289 batting average and an .896 OPS, was the flex player in this game. He wore a sleeve on his right knee over his baseball pants.

Rochester coach Cory Good said Paulik “messed his knee up pretty good” while diving into third base during an 8-1 win over Peru Monday. Good said Paulik saw a physical therapist in Indianapolis Tuesday. Good also said that Paulik’s injury is more likely a nerve issue and “nothing major” and that he has no structural damage.

“He just gutted it out tonight,” Good said. “I knew we weren’t going to get 100% of Carson tonight. He couldn’t move well. He couldn’t pick well. He just didn’t have his best tonight. We knew that coming into tonight. Proud of the way he just gutted it out and competed all day long. You know, would have loved to have everybody healthy tonight, but you know, you get 19 games in the season, and guys are going to be dinged up a little bit. So that’s something that we’re going to have to deal with a little bit. We’ll be careful with him as we creep into postseason play here, but that affected his game tonight for sure.”

Tanner Reinartz had two hits and a walk to lead the Rochester offense. Zakk Parks and Conner Dunfee each had an RBI during the Zebras’ two-run first inning. Linden Wilburn, Parker Casper and Drew Bowers each had a single. 

Northwestern scored twice in the third to take a 4-2 lead. Paulik got Nathaniel Correll on a pop-up in shallow right field with second baseman Brant Beck making a tumbling catch to lead off the inning. Karson Griggs then flew out to center.

Jaxon Hanson fell behind in the count 1-2 but came back to draw a walk. He then stole second. Kaden Dill then singled to right, and Hanson slid home ahead of Wilburn’s throw from right field to give Northwestern a 3-2 lead.

Dill advanced to second on the throw and scored on Michael Arrick’s automatic double on a deep drive to left field that bounced over the outfield fence on one hop.

In the bottom of the fourth, Paulik walked Chase DeWitt and Teegan Helmle. Hayden Cook grounded back to Paulik, moving runners to second and third. But Paulik fanned Correll looking and got Karson Griggs on a fly to right to end the inning.

In the top of the fifth, Brady Coleman led off with a walk, Casper blooped a single to right, and Reinartz walked on four pitches to load the bases.

Northwestern coach Ryan Ward replaced Landen Begley on the mound with reliever Ayden Giles. He fell behind 1-0 to Parks, but Parks hit a one-hopper back to Giles, who threw to the plate to start a 1-2-3 double play. It marked the second at-bat in a row in which Parks grounded into a double play.

Giles then struck out Beck on a foul tip with runners on second and third to end the inning.

Coleman came in to start the bottom of the fifth on the mound. Hanson greeted him with a double. Dill then hit a one-hop combacker that Coleman hopped off the mound to his left to snag. He then threw to third and appeared to have Hanson, but Hanson kicked the ball out of the glove of the third baseman, and the ball rolled into the Northwestern dugout for an error. Hanson was awarded home plate and Dill second base.

Three batters later, DeWitt drove in a run on a hit-by-pitch to make it 6-2 before Coleman struck out Helmle looking and got Cook to line into an inning-ending double play.

Dunfee scorched a liner to left that Begley, now playing left field, made a fine running catch on moving quickly to his right to start the sixth. But Giles walked Callen Ferverda, plunked Wilburn and gave up a single to Bowers to load the bases.

Ward made another pitching change, replacing Giles with DeWitt. DeWitt, a hard-throwing southpaw, fanned Coleman and Casper with fastballs to end the inning.

DeWitt allowed Reinartz’s leadoff single in the seventh, but got Parks, Beck and Dunfee on three straight forceouts to end it.

The start of the game was more promising for Rochester.

They opened the scoring when Begley walked Coleman to start the game. Coleman stole second. Casper walked, and Coleman and Casper pulled off a double steal.

Begley struck out Reinartz for the first out.

Parks laid down a squeeze bunt, and when the ball was bobbled in front of the mound, Coleman scored, and Rochester had runners on first and third.

Beck grounded into a fielder’s choice, with third baseman Dill throwing out Casper at the plate.

But Dunfee followed with a two-out RBI single with Parks just beating the throw from right field home to make it 2-0.

Griggs’ two-out, two-run single in the bottom of the first tied it.

“They did a tremendous job at the plate,” Good said of Northwestern. “They didn’t chase anything. We didn’t really fool them on anything. I know we got a couple backwards Ks here and there, but they just didn’t chase. They had a great approach at the plate. They made our pitchers work hard. Credit to them for that game plan of coming in there and just having great at-bats. I thought they did a great job at that tonight.”

In another TRC game Wednesday, Maconaquah beat Peru 4-3. Northwestern is 6-1 in the TRC, and Rochester and Maconaquah are tied for second at 5-2.

Northwestern 6, Rochester 2

Rochester 200 000 0 – 2 6 2

Northwestern 202 020 X – 6 8 1

WP – Landen Begley (4 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 5 BB, 2 K)

LP – Carson Paulik (4 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 4 BB, 2 HBP, 5 K)

S – Chase DeWitt (1 ⅔ IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K)

2B – Landen Begley (NW), Michael Arrick (NW), Jaxon Hanson (NW)