Rochester baseball finishes 6th at Howard County Invite

Val T.
Apr 16
2 min read

Casper stars at plate, on mound in win over Adams Central

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

The Rochester baseball team went 1-2 at the Howard County Invitational Saturday to finish in sixth place in the seven-team tournament.

Rochester played two games at Eastern (Greentown) Saturday, beating Adams Central 6-3 in the loser’s bracket before losing 16-8 to Eastern (Greentown) in the fifth place game.

The Zebras now stand at 2-5 on the season.

Catcher Braylon Smith had three hits in the loss to Eastern. Parker Casper had two hits and an RBI. Zakk Parks and Brant Beck had a hit and two RBIs each.

Carson Paulik had a hit and an RBI. Brady Coleman had an RBI. Callen Ferverda and Camden Zink each had a hit.

Rochester lost even though they did not strike out.

Brayson Flory took the loss, allowing three hits and five runs (three earned) in one inning. He walked three and struck out one.

Beck, Dunfee and Ferverda followed him to the mound. The four pitchers combined to give up 13 hits and walk nine.

In the Adams Central game, Casper pitched a five-hitter with no walks and four strikeouts, and he also had a hit and an RBI at the plate. Beck and Linden Wilburn had two hits each.

Smith and Parks each had a hit and an RBI.

Wilburn had an RBI single and later scored on an error in a three-run fourth as Rochester grabbed a 4-3 lead.

Smith’s RBI single and Parks’ sacrifice fly in the sixth gave Casper a three-run lead.

Adams Central had only one baserunner after the second inning.

Loser’s bracket: Rochester 6, Adams Central 3

Adams Central 030 000 0 – 3 5 3

Rochester 001 302 X – 6 8 0

WP – Parker Casper (6 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 4 K)

LP – Funk (3 ⅔ IP, 4 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 5 K)

2B – Pruitt (AC), Deathe (AC), Linden Wilburn (RHS)

3B – Zakk Parks (RHS)

Fifth place game: Eastern (Greentown) 16, Rochester 8