Frosh Wabash hurler hands No. 4 Rochester first TRC loss

Reinartz fans 9 in relief, Coleman has lone RBI

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

The Rochester baseball team came into Tuesday’s game against Three Rivers Conference and sectional rival Wabash with a .310 team batting average.

The postgame message from coach Cory Good was that he wants more after freshman Mackey Sorg threw a six-hitter and beat the Zebras 7-1 at Bob Copeland Field.

Wabash improved to 8-9 overall and 2-2 in the TRC. Rochester, ranked No. 4 in Class 2A, fell to 13-2, 3-1.

The loss snapped Rochester’s five-game winning streak and snapped their six-game conference winning streak dating back to last year.

Rochester beat Wabash 6-4 in the regular season and 7-6 in 10 innings in the sectional final last year.

They rallied from a 5-0 deficit in the sixth inning of last year’s sectional final. This time, Wabash, who came into the game having scored just three runs in their previous four games combined, jumped out to a 5-0 lead after two innings and kept Rochester from coming back.

Sorg faced 16 batters – just one over the minimum – through the first five innings. Rochester’s only baserunner was Drew Bowers on a bloop single in the third in which the shortstop and center fielder appeared to have a miscommunication and let the ball drop in shallow center.

But Sorg’s most impressive work might have occurred in the final two innings.

Rochester had already scored a run and had runners on second and third with one out in the sixth when Sorg struck out Tanner Reinartz looking and got Carson Paulik on a fly to center with Sawyer McNally making a nice running catch to his right.

In the seventh, Rochester had the bases loaded with nobody out on back-to-back singles from Brant Beck and Zakk Parks, a wild pitch and a Conner Dunfee walk.

But Sorg got Linden Wilburn to ground into a double play with Haiden McWhirt fielding the ball at third and stepping on the bag and throwing home to catcher Jacob White, who tagged Beck to complete the 5-2 double play. Bowers then flew out to left field to end it.

“He threw strikes,” Rochester coach Cory Good said of Sorg. “He came out and competed. He wanted it. We didn’t. I think our timing was very poor at the plate. We just couldn’t make that adjustment to get the barrel on the ball. But that’s big for a freshman to come in here and come up against a 13-1 team and throw… a complete game and have a little adversity there in the seventh and just battle through it. He’s going to be a good pitcher and do a lot of good things at Wabash.”

Beck started for the Zebras and allowed five hits and five runs in two innings and took the loss. He walked one and struck out two.

Dominic Baker led off the game with a swinging bunt hit. Derek Reed tried to sacrifice Baker to second, but Beck fielded his bunt and threw to Reinartz covering second for a forceout. McWhirt then doubled to deep center to score Reed.

Sorg reached on a bloop single to center with McWhirt holding at second. A wild pitch moved runners to second and third. McNally’s sacrifice fly to right made it 2-0, and White lined a single to left to plate courtesy runner Carter Booth and make it 3-0.

Baker cranked a two-run homer to left – it was Wabash’s first long ball as a team this season – to make it 5-0 in the second.

Reinartz, who had pitched just 5 ⅓ innings on the season before Tuesday, started the third inning on the mound and pitched four innings of one-hit relief. He walked two and struck out nine, including six in a row at one point, but he also allowed McWhirt’s second double to deep right-center in the fifth that made it 6-0.

Brady Coleman allowed a hit and an unearned run in the seventh with one strikeout.

Coleman also had the lone RBI at the plate, which came in the sixth after Linden Wilburn led off with a double and advanced to third on Bowers’ grounder to short. Coleman then singled on a soft looper to center that just reached the outfield.

That cut the lead to 6-1.

A Casper infield single to deep short and a passed ball moved runners to second and third.

Afterwards, Good lamented the way the team prepared for the game. He called the game a “wake-up call.”

He said offense is his main concern.

“The game rewards those that go about things the right way and put the work in and preparation, and that was kind of our talk (after the game),” Good said. “It’s the game prep. I still think defensively and pitching-wise, we’re right where we need to be. But our coaches have been talking for awhile, and I don’t think we’ve had a game yet where our bats have played to their potential.

“You look back at some games, we got eight hits, two guys with multiple hits, we have four hits, one guy with multiple hits. It just hasn’t clicked one through nine yet at least to my standards or all of our standards. We said in the winter, our one through nine … we have some guys on the bench who can swing it that don’t get the opportunity to every day. It’s just kind of that approach at the plate, and it’s timing. You see a lot of stuff off the end of the bat, catching it off the hands, just not getting the barrel, not hustling in certain situations. And like I said, the game’s going to reward those that work hard and play hard and do things the right way. … I just think these guys are capable of more offensively.”

Wabash 7, Rochester 1

Wabash 320 010 1 – 7 7 0

Rochester 000 001 0 – 1 6 1

WP – Mackey Sorg (7 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K)

LP – Brant Beck (2 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 1 BB, 2 K)

2B – Haiden McWhirt 2 (WAB), Linden Wilburn (RHS)