Rochester pitchers walk 9 in loss to Manchester

Coleman, Dunfee have 2 hits, RBI each, Casper adds 2 RBIs

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Brady Coleman

Harper Sturtsman hit two homers and drove in four runs, and Bryson Enyeart drove in the go-ahead run with a bases-loaded walk in the fifth inning to lead the Manchester baseball team to a 9-7 win over host Rochester at Bob Copeland Field Wednesday.

Dallas Martin relieved Landen Bean with two on and nobody out in the second inning and pitched the final six innings for the win.

Martin seemed to get stronger as the game progressed, retiring 11 of the final 13 Rochester batters. Of the two that reached over that span, one was on an error.

He allowed six hits and three runs (one earned) while walking one and striking out five.

Brady Coleman and Conner Dunfee keyed the Rochester attack with two hits each. Zakk Parks, Parker Casper, Brant Beck, Linden Wilburn and Brayson Flory had one hit each. Casper had two RBIs, and Beck also had an RBI.

All nine Rochester hits were singles.

Manchester won despite committing five errors. They also won despite Rochester stealing eight bases.

Casper took the loss for the Zebras. One of four Rochester pitchers to see the mound, he allowed two hits and three runs in two innings.

Starter Coleman and relievers Liam Spence, Casper and Beck combined to walk nine and hit a batter. Three of the nine walks occurred with the bases loaded.

Rochester tied the game at 6-6 in the fourth on Casper’s sacrifice fly to right to score Parks, and when the ball was dropped for an error, Coleman advanced from second to third.

Casper then stole second, and Carson Paulik walked to load the bases, but Martin retired Beck on a fly to shallow center and struck out Callen Ferverda looking on a 3-2 pitch to escape further trouble.

Casper entered to start the fifth. He gave up an infield single to Cody Carroll but struck out Bean on a foul bunt with two strikes and Hunter Hamilton.

And then his control left him. He hit No. 9 hitter Resto D’Andrea with a pitch. He walked Reiss Gaerte to load the bases. He walked Enyeart to give Manchester a 7-6 lead. He walked Sturtsman to force in another run before getting Martin on a grounder to short to retire the side.

“Free bases were the name of the game today,” Rochester coach Cory Good said. “We feel like there’s really one big bat in that lineup that we’ve got to be careful with, but the rest of them, let’s go at them and compete. But we struggled to find the zone today, and I think that was a factor.”

In the sixth, Brendyn Mugford led off with a double. Casper struck out Carroll, but Bean reached on an error to put runners on first and third.

Bean then tried to steal second. Parks threw through to second to catch Bean, but Mugford raced to the plate and stole home standing up.

Manchester now led 9-6.

Good said the defense was misaligned for the possibility of Mugford trying to steal home.

“I always tell them to play baseball,” Good said. “The issue we had there is we didn’t have guys in the proper position – second base comes in front of the bag, short(stop) goes to the bag. If we want to cut that and we see the runner going, we cut it and go four (to home plate). We just didn’t have our cut guy in the right spot there.”

Parks reached on an error to start the sixth. He stole second and scored on Casper’s RBI hit to complete the scoring.

“We kind of did what we wanted to do,” Good said when asked about Martin’s pitching. “I felt like we had multiple innings to really bust it open. Unfortunately we didn’t, just little things here and there, baserunning, taking advantage of situations. But just couldn’t bust it open when we wanted to, but he did do a good job coming in there in the third and grinding the rest of the game out for them.”

Sturtsman hit two homers in a win over Wabash Tuesday, and he stayed hot by drilling a two-run homer to straightaway center in the first.

Rochester came back to take a 3-2 lead in the bottom half. An errant throw on Paulik’s grounder to second base scored two runs, and Beck singled to left to score Paulik after he stole third.

D’Andrea’s RBI walk in the top of the second tied it. Coleman’s RBI single in the bottom half gave Rochester the lead.

Sturtsman crushed another long homer to deep left to lead off the third.

The game’s weirdest play might have occurred in the bottom of the third. With runners on second and third, Dunfee drilled a base hit to right, but Linden Wilburn was out trying to score from second, and catcher Mugford jumped up after tagging Wilburn and threw to second to catch Dunfee trying to advance. It was a single, an RBI and a double play all on the same play, but Rochester was back up 5-4.

Martin’s RBI single in the fourth tied it again, and Mugford’s RBI double gave the Squires the lead again, but Beck took Flory’s cutoff throw and threw out Martin trying to score at the plate.

Manchester was now up 6-5.

Manchester 9, Rochester 7

Manchester 211 221 0 – 9 12 5

Rochester 311 101 0 – 7 9 1

WP – Dallas Martin (6 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K)

LP – Parker Casper (2 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 1 HBP, 3 K)

2B – Brendyn Mugford 2 (MAN)

HR – Harper Sturtsman 2 (MAN)