.png)
Young, Ferverda add clutch doubles as Rochester beats regional champs
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
Carson Paulik Tanner Reinartz Gavin Young
Gavin Young hit a go-ahead two-out, two-run double in the first inning, and Tanner Reinartz later added a two-run homer as the Rochester baseball team defeated visiting Delphi 7-1 at Bob Copeland Field Monday.
Colton Ferverda also had an RBI double and later walked and scored a run for the Zebras, who won their third straight game to improve to 6-3.
Carson Paulik allowed a leadoff-the-game homer to Delphi’s Brett Huffman but buckled down to allow only three more hits over the first six innings. Young finished with a hitless seventh.
Rochester also overcame hitting into a triple play in the fourth inning. With Ferverda on second and Brant Beck on first, Brady Beck hit a liner back to Huffman on the mound. Huffman momentarily juggled the ball and then caught it and threw back to second to double up Ferverda. Shortstop Chase Almager’s throw back to first was wild for an error, which allowed Brant Beck to advance to second, but umpires later called Brant Beck out on interference because Brady Beck collided with Delphi first baseman Lannon Pickering as Pickering awaited Almager’s throw.
Rochester coach Cory Good later said that Brady Beck was unsure whether Huffman caught the ball after juggling it, and that’s why he ran hard down the line after it was caught.
Delphi (3-5), who is a defending regional champion, did not have a hit after the third inning, and they also committed four errors on defense.
Meanwhile, Rochester had no errors, and they capped their defensive effort by turning a game-ending 4-6-3 double play.
“Really good defense all around, and pitching was just top notch,” Good said. “I think it was our first clean game defensively of the year without any errors. If we can do that, we should win games like this. And some big timely hitting at times, so again, the fight these guys have, they’re always in it.”
With the bases loaded and one out in the first, Huffman picked off Kaleb Lutz at first base, but Young’s double to deep right gave Rochester a 2-1 lead.
In the third, Brady Coleman reached on an error, advanced to second and then third on a pair of wild pitches and then scored on Paulik’s RBI groundout to second base.
Before the triple play, Ferverda doubled to deep left to score Young in the fourth.
“I’d say we’re pretty confident right now, except we’ve got low pitching, but that should be alright,” Ferverda said. “We’ve got some good defense.”
Reinartz’s lined a homer to deep left with Coleman aboard in the fifth to make it 6-1.
Ferverda walked to lead off the sixth, stole second, went to third on a groundout and scored on a wild pitch.
Paulik, a sophomore who said he has added a sinker to his repertoire since last season, struck out Caysen Yount with the bases loaded to escape further trouble in the first inning.
In the third, Levi Coghill led off with a walk and went to second on Almager’s single, but Paulik responded by striking out Jaxson Hixson, getting Hunter Wandrei on a fly to left with Ferverda making a tumbling catch in front of center fielder Parker Casper and striking out Pickering.
“I honestly didn’t hear Parker yelling for the ball, so I called for it making sure that it would be caught, and my foot got caught,” a deadpan Ferverda said. “I didn’t dive. I tripped. And it ended up in my glove. That’s pure skill.”
Paulik finished with 10 strikeouts. Good said Paulik “locked in” during the third inning.
“He’s done a really good job of bouncing back after a bad pitch or a walk or a hit-by-pitch or whatever it’s been this year and just moving on,” Good said of Paulik. “I think our first weekend down in Madison (on March 30), that was something big that we talked about. Hey, nobody’s scored yet. They might have hit a leadoff double, but who cares? Let’s clean it up and get better. So his mindset, wanting to go back out there in the sixth as we were making a decision there, and Carson was like, ‘Yep, let’s go back out there.’ So a really nice bounceback performance from Carson on the mound. He was extremely efficient.”
Rochester 7, Delphi 1
Delphi 100 000 0 – 1 4 4
Rochester 201 121 X – 7 5 0
WP – Carson Paulik (6 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 10 K)
LP – Brett Huffman (4 ⅔ IP, 4 H, 6 R, 3 ER, 4 BB, 3 K)
2B – Gavin Young (RHS), Colton Ferverda (RHS)
HR – Brett Huffman (DEL), Tanner Reinartz (RHS)
