Beck, Parks provide big hits in 7-run 5th, help Rochester beat Plymouth

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Liam Spence Zakk Parks

PLYMOUTH — The Rochester baseball team stayed patient through a first-inning rain delay and then punished host Plymouth for their wildness at Bill Nixon Field Tuesday.

Brant Beck had a two-run double, and Zakk Parks had a two-run single as part of a seven-run fifth inning that put the Zebras ahead for good, and they went on to beat the Pilgrims 11-6.

Seven different Rochester players had a hit, and six different players had an RBI. The 7-8-9 batters in Rochester’s lineup – Braylon Smith, Callen Ferverda and Liam Spence – reached base seven times combined.

Also, Plymouth pitchers walked seven, hit two batters and threw seven wild pitches.

Spence gave up a two-run homer to Ethan Hall in the fourth to fall behind 2-1, but he worked six innings for the win. Beck worked the seventh and struck out Christian Cruz-Mahler looking with two men on to end it.

Plymouth starter Grady Metsker walked three and hit a batter through the first four innings, but his control issues caught up with him in the fifth as he tried to maintain a 2-1 lead.

He started by hitting Smith with a pitch. He threw two wild pitches and then walked Ferverda. Spence then hit a fly ball that landed perfectly between the center and right fielder for an RBI single, and Ferverda hustled to third. Brady Coleman bunted for a hit, pushing Spence to second while Ferverda held at third.

Parker Casper’s sacrifice fly to left scored Ferverda and put Rochester up 3-2. Carson Paulik walked to load the bases.

Beck worked the count to 3-1 and then drilled a liner to deep left field that evaded hustling left fielder Nick Manzuk. Spence and Coleman scored to make it 5-2.

“Just waiting back and seeing pitches,” Beck said of how the approach changed in the fifth inning. “Seeing what we can drive. … With two strikes, we always have to battle or whatever, but if it’s our count, if we see one we can drive, swing. If not, take it.”

Conner Dunfee struck out for the second out.

Parks, who had grounded into a double play in his previous at-bat, then singled to center to score Paulik and Beck and knock Metsker out of the game.

Lefty reliever Tucker Sarver then walked Smith, and Ferverda blooped a single to center to score Parks to make it 8-2.

“We really bounced back well,” Rochester coach Cory Good said. “They were giving us some favorable hitters counts, and it looked like we were swinging at our pitchers when we were in our counts. I think that kind of changed in the fifth. We had some timely hitting. … We’ve been focusing on our approach today. If it’s going to be 2-0 and he throws a strike and it’s not mine, then I’m not going to swing at it. So I think he just focused a little bit harder on that and made them pay. If they’re going to give us a walk, we’re going to get a hit.”

Plymouth loaded the bases with one out in the bottom half, and they had Parker Wolfe and Hall, their Nos. 3 and 4 batters due up, but Spence got Wolfe to fly to Casper in center for a sacrifice fly and got Hall to ground to Paulik at third for an inning-ending force out.

Rochester added three more runs in the seventh off reliever Landon Tyler on Paulik’s bloop single down the left field line, and a pair of run-scoring wild pitches to make it 11-3.

“Hitting is contagious,” Good said. “Absolutely. We’ve been waiting on a game like today. … I think we're figuring some stuff out a little bit as far as where guys fit best and who’s hot. … We’ve got 13 guys who can play varsity baseball.”

Rochester improved to 3-5. Plymouth dropped to 2-3.

The 11 runs were a season-high and gave a boost to an offense that was hitting under .245 coming into the game.

Meanwhile, Beck called Spence’s mound performance “amazing.”

It was also a furtherance of the offensive prowess that they showed in scoring 14 runs combined in games against Adams Central and Eastern (Greentown) at the Howard County Invitational Saturday.

“At the Howard County Tournament, the last two games, we’re starting to pick things up that we learned at the start of the season like our hitting and stuff like that,” Beck said. “Putting hits together, and then we just showed what we can do if we put our bats to the ball.”

Rochester 11, Plymouth 6

Rochester 010 073 0 – 11 9 1

Plymouth 000 212 1 – 6 8 0

WP – Liam Spence (6 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 1 K)

LP – Grady Metsker (4 IP, 1 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 2 HBP, 1 K)

2B – Brant Beck (RHS), Liam Spence (RHS), Nick Manzuk (PLY)

HR – Ethan Hall (PLY)