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Seuferer gets 3 hits; Paulik has 3 RBIs at plate, gets win on mound
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
CULVER — The Rochester baseball team delivered a Friday the 14th nightmare to host Culver Academy at George T. Wilkins Baseball Field Friday.
The Zebras scored 13 runs in the sixth and went on to beat the Eagles 20-9 in six innings.
Rochester improved to 5-2. Culver Academy fell to 1-2.
Rochester built a 6-0 lead in the second inning but trailed 8-7 after five innings.
Luke Hunting drove in the go-ahead run when he reached on an error, and Rochester also received seven of their 16 walks in the sixth. In addition to the 16 walks, Culver Academy pitchers also hit three batters and threw four wild pitches.
Six different Eagles pitched, and all of them walked at least one.
In contrast, Rochester pitchers Aaron Huffman and Carson Paulik walked none.
And on top of that, Rochester also stole six bases.
Rochester lost 22-10 in five innings on their last trip to Culver Academy in 2021. They also blew a 9-3 lead and lost there 10-9 in 2017.
“You know, these games the last couple years have been so crazy,” Good said. “Two years ago, we came here, and I think we walked them 16 times, and they beat us 22-10. And last year, they come to our place, and I think they no-hit us through five innings, and we come back and beat them 5-4.
“And you saw how this went. It was back and forth. We scored six unanswered. They scored eight unanswered. And then we go for 13 in an inning. … I thought our approaches were really good. I thought we would start working through some pitchers there, and as soon as we can start doing that, I thought we might break one open, but I can’t say I saw 13 coming.”
Jake Seuferer had three of Rochester’s 10 hits, including an infield single in the sixth. Tarick McGlothin singled and tripled, and Tanner Reinartz singled and doubled.
Carson Paulik, Brayden Zink and Gavin Young had one hit each.
Culver Academy scored three runs in the second, two in the third and three in the fourth to take an 8-6 lead.
Rochester scored a run on a wild pitch in the fifth to get within 8-7.
Then came the top of the sixth.
Ethan Medina scored on a wild pitch to tie it.
Hunting hit an apparent routine grounder to short, but it was booted for an error when it hit the seam between the dirt and the grass and went behind him. Brayden Zink scored on the play to make it 9-8.
Paulik, the preternatural freshman who has moved up to the No. 2 spot in the batting order, walked with the bases loaded to make it 10-8.
Reinartz hammered a three-run double to the left-center field fence to make it 13-8. Seuferer then reached on his infield single, moving Reinartz to third.
Landen Bumford came in as a courtesy runner for Seuferer. Bumford took off for second while the Culver Academy pitcher still had the ball. The pitcher stepped off the rubber and threw to second but threw high into center field, and Reinartz scored on the error.
Medina drew his second walk of the inning, and Zink’s double to right-center scored Bumford and Medina to make it 16-8.
Campbell and Hunting both walked to load the bases, and Young hammered a three-run double to make it 19-8. Young said he spent additional time in the weight room preparing for the season, and he said it’s made him more confident at the plate.
“I knew the pitcher was slower than normal, so I took my time in the at-bat, and then he threw an outside pitch, and I took it the opposite way,” Young said.
McGlothin’s RBI single capped the inning.
Culver Academy scored on triple and a fielder’s choice after a strikeout in the bottom of the sixth.
Paulik allowed one hit and one run while fanning three over the final two innings for the win. Huffman allowed eight runs over four innings, but only three of the runs were earned due to four errors.
Rochester has scored 31 runs in back-to-back games against Pioneer and Culver Academy after a 4-2 loss to Plymouth on Tuesday. Good said he talks to the players about their plate approach every day, saying that’s the difference between great teams and good teams.
“We did what we wanted to do,” Good said. “We put pressure on them. We got the bases loaded, or we got runners on base. In the early innings, we got ourselves out with poor pitch selection or 3-1 or 2-0 counts and swinging at something and we were just rolling over something. So I felt like we were just a little more patient there in the sixth and popped through there.”
Said Young: “Our preparation wasn’t good for the Plymouth game, so we have changed that, and we’ve gotten more prepared for these games here.”
Rochester 20, Culver Academy 9 (6 innings)
Rochester 1 5 0 0 1 (13) – 20 10 4
Culver Academy 0 3 2 3 0 1 – 9 11 3
WP – Carson Paulik (2 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K)
LP – Gerber (1 IP, 0 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 4 BB, 0 K)
2B – Tanner Reinartz (RHS), Gavin Young (RHS), Brayden Zink (RHS), Jake Seuferer (RHS), Snedecker (CMA)
3B – Tarick McGlothin (RHS), Quigg (CMA)
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