Casper’s walk-off RBI caps off 2-run 7th, lifts Rochester to Howard County Invite title
- Val T.
- Apr 16
- 5 min read
Semifinal: Paulik pitches shutout vs. Rossville
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
GREENTOWN — For those who feel that this year’s Rochester baseball team’s late-inning heroics are approaching last year’s heroics, coach Cory Good is getting those same feelings.
The team’s comeback against Eastern (Greentown) in the Howard County Invitational championship game Saturday gave off those vibes as they rallied from a 5-1 deficit to beat the Comets 6-5.
Rochester, who was the home team even though they were playing at Eastern’s field, trailed 5-4 going into the bottom of the seventh but needed just three batters to walk it off.
Drew Bowers led off with a walk against Eastern pitcher Kaleb Hurt. That brought up Brady Coleman, who hit a sinking liner to right field. Right fielder Cody Tarrh, a freshman, tried to make a diving catch. He lunged but the ball dropped on a short hop in front of him and ticked off his glove. The rolled on the turf surface far enough away for Bowers to reach third and Coleman second on a double.
Hurt’s wild pitch scored Bowers and moved Coleman to third. Casper then hit a soft grounder to Trey Beachy at third. Coleman took off. Beachy threw home. Coleman slid head-first. Eastern catcher Jon Warren applied the tag.
The umpire called Coleman safe. The Zebras erupted out of the first base dugout and celebrated all the way behind first base.
Third-base coach Jeff Himes sent Coleman even though there were no outs and senior slugger Tanner Reinartz was on deck.
“Our motto from the last handful of years is we’re going to be aggressive,” Good said. “If we get guys thrown out, then we get guys thrown out. Coleman gets thrown out (on a caught stealing in the first inning), and I hollered to everybody that’s not going to stop us from being aggressive.”
Reinartz was the winning pitcher. He threw seven pitches in retiring the side in order in the top of the seventh.
Brant Beck started and allowed three runs over five innings. Casper allowed two runs in the top of the sixth as Rochester fell behind by four runs.
Casper led off the bottom of the sixth with a single. Hurt struck out Reinartz, but even with the bell cow of the offense retired, the Zebras persisted.
Carson Paulik reached on a bloop single, moving Casper to second. Beck singled to left-center to score Casper and move Paulik to third. Linden Wilburn then singled to score Paulik. A wild pitch moved runners to second and third.
Then came a bizarre play with Conner Dunfee up. Dunfee floated a liner in the direction of shortstop Owen Tolle. Tolle made a head-first dive to try and catch the liner but only trapped it. Wilburn tried to advance to third once he saw the ball on the ground and got in a rundown long enough between second and third to allow Beck to score before he was tagged out.
Hurt struck out Callen Ferverda looking, but the lead was down to 5-4.
After Reinartz’s seven pitches, the Zebras were back in the dugout. And three batters after that, they had won.
It capped off a busy 24 hours. The team’s game against Bluffton ended at 10:25 p.m. Friday. They were back home at midnight and back at school at 7:30 a.m. for the bus ride to Eastern.
Asked how this team compared to last year’s, Good called this year’s team a “very special group” and praised the team’s “passion in the dugout.”
“Long day for us,” Good said. “Good experience for these guys. Super proud of the way they just decided to just flip that switch in the sixth and decided to play some baseball. It feels great. Sectional opponent, odds are we’re going to see them again down the line here but good for our confidence.”
Paulik was named the tournament MVP. Coleman, Casper, Beck, Reinartz and junior catcher Zakk Parks joined him on the all-tournament team.
“The whole team, we pretty much got a lot of guys back except for a couple seniors,” Paulik, who was named the tournament MVP, said. “And we all just string together as a group. We’re just a great team, and we like to have fun.”
Rochester trailed 2-0 going into the bottom of the fourth, but Reinartz led off with a walk and advanced to second on Paulik’s line single to center. Beck reached on an infield single in the hole at shortstop to load the bases.
Wilburn grounded into a forceout at second to score Reinartz and put runners at first and third.
Good put the suicide squeeze sign on for Dunfee, but he popped up the bunt. Hurt caught it and threw to third to double up Paulik, who was running down the line on the pitch.
Perry Kochensparger’s sacrifice fly to left in fifth made it 3-1, and Alister Shrock’s RBI sacrifice bunt and Hurt’s RBI single in the sixth made it 5-1.
Eastern scored in the first on Beachy’s RBI groundout to second and again in the second when courtesy runner Owen Seagrave scored on an error.
Rossville beat Peru 9-2 in the third-place game.
Championship: Rochester 6, Eastern (Greentown) 5
Eastern 110 012 0 – 5 7 2
Rochester 000 103 2 – 6 8 1
WP – Tanner Reinartz (1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K)
LP – Kaleb Hurt (6 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 2 BB, 6 K)
2B – Cody Tarrh (EAST), Brady Coleman (RHS)
Semifinal: Rochester 2, Rossville 0
Paulik threw a three-hit shutout with no walks and six strikeouts, and Beck had the go-ahead RBI double in the first inning as Rochester beat Rossville in the semifinals of the Howard County Invitational at Eastern Saturday morning.
Paulik threw 83 pitches, 58 of which were strikes. Rossville never got a baserunner farther than second base. Paulik retired the final nine batters.
“That was the biggest thing in that game – no walks,” Paulik said. “Probably the first time maybe in my career in high school. And they were a good hitting team. They hit the ball around. Defense made a lot of great plays… and it was a great game.”
Casper walked with one out in the top of the first. He stole second and advanced to third on a wild pitch. After Paulik walked, Beck doubled to right to score Casper and move Paulik to third.
Paulik scored what turned out to be an early insurance run on a wild pitch.
In the other semifinal, Eastern handled Peru 11-3.
Semifinal: Rochester 2, Rossville 0
Rochester 200 000 0 – 2 4 0
Rossville 000 000 0 – 0 3 0
WP – Carson Paulik (7 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 6 K)
LP – Eli Barnes (7 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 6 K)
2B – Tanner Reinartz (RHS), Brant Beck (RHS)
Commentaires