Runk, Galbreath hold off Rochester in rain-shortened Winamac win

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Kaden Runk Liam Spence

WINAMAC — Freshman Bryant Galbreath drove in the go-ahead run with an RBI double in the bottom of the fifth, and he also pitched 1 ⅔ scoreless innings of relief on the mound for the win as the Winamac baseball team edged visiting Rochester 3-2 Tuesday.

The game was shortened to five-and-a-half innings due to rain. 

Lightning was spotted at the field at 6:43 p.m., and fans were asked to leave the premises and head to their vehicles. Approximately 40 minutes later, the game was called.

Liam Spence allowed three runs (one earned) over five innings and took the loss. He allowed six hits and no walks while striking out two. Coach Cory Good called him “really efficient: afterwards.

With the game tied 2-2, he started the bottom of the fifth by getting Peyton Burke on a foul pop to third and Carter Ulerick on a liner to center. But left-handed hitting leadoff hitter Luke Clemons sprayed a soft liner that landed in the infield, and he beat it out for a hit. He then stole second.

Spence got ahead of Galbreath 0-2, but Galbreath roped a double to deep left-center to easily score Clemons. Spence struck out Hutch Martin to retire the side.

Galbreath allowed a one-out single to Conner Dunfee but slipped a called third strike past Braylon Smith and got Callen Ferverda on a pop to short. That turned out to be Rochester’s final chance.

“The key tonight was hitting,” Good said. “We had five hits from three different guys and just a lot of weak contact. … I thought that their pitcher did a really good job of just keeping us off-balance and throwing strikes. I think we were just too antsy. I think we were swinging at pitches that we couldn’t necessarily barrel and just swinging at them because our mouth was salivating a little bit. … We weren’t attacking pitches we could drive.”

Galbreath and sophomore left fielder Liam Burton had two hits each for Winamac.

Brady Coleman and Dunfee had two hits each for the Zebras. Callen Ferverda had a single.

Warrior senior starter Kaden Runk carried a 2-0 lead into the fifth, but he gave up Ferverda’s infield single to lead off the inning and then threw a wild pitch. Two batters later, No. 9 batter Spence walked.

Brady Coleman’s bunt hugged the third baseline for a well-placed single to load the bases. Runk then walked Parker Casper to force in a run. The lead was down to 2-1, and coach Mark Henrdyx lifted Runk in favor of Galbreath with the bases loaded and one out.

Brant Beck grounded into a forceout at second, scoring Spence to tie the game. Beck then stole second, but on a chaotic play, Coleman tried to steal home right after the throw from catcher Xavier Adriano back to Galbreath, but Galbreath quickly fired back home to nail Coleman.

“They were,” Hendryx said when asked if Rochester was trying to take advantage of Galbreath’s inexperience. “I thought it was a great play by them. We got lucky. I;’m not going to lie. I thought they had us. When I looked and saw the kid halfway down, I was like, ‘Oh, no.’ But he’s a baseball player. And thank God me made a good throw and Xavier held on because that ended up being a really big play.”

Rochester played without pitcher-infielder-outfielder Carson Paulik and regular catcher Zakk Parks. Rochester coach Cory Good said he wanted to give them a day off. Paulik threw 103 pitches in pitching a four-hitter in a 3-1 win over Delphi on Monday. 

“We felt it was a good night just to give them a little bit of rest,” Good said. “It gets hectic, and there’s not always good days that line up that it kind of makes sense on. We thought it made sense today.”

Winamac senior outfielder Will Malchow did not play because he was participating in a track meet.

This could be a crucial week for Winamac. After Rochester, they play a two-game series against defending Hoosier North champion North Miami. Hendryx said Hutch Martin and Cody Wheeler are the two pitchers he saves for conference games.

Hendryx has had to adjust to a younger staff after last year’s top three pitchers – Cody Wenzler, Addison Allen and Brayden Mathias – all graduated. Hendryx was asked if this week will be a good barometer for his team to see how they might do against teams in their sectional like Bremen, Jimtown or Knox.

“We played Knox, and they played really bad,” Hendryx said. “I know they’re better than that. We talked about this on Saturday after the O-D (Oregon-Davis) game. This would be a big week for us. Rochester is always one of the two or three best teams on our schedule, and North Miami’s the defending conference champions. We knew this would be a big week. Wins and losses, whatever, but we needed to hang with these teams. It’s like tonight, I wasn’t disappointed at all. It was a 2-2 game, and I told our coaches, ‘You know, the kids are playing, and they’re getting a little confidence.’ This was rain-shorted, but it was still big for especially the young guys who haven’t played a lot of varsity.”

Winamac took a 2-0 lead in the fourth. Galbreath singled and scored all the way from first when Martin reached second on a throwing error after a swinging bunt down the third baseline. Martin went to third on a groundout and later scored on Runk’s RBI single.

Winamac 3, Rochester 2

Rochester 000 020 – 2 5 2

Winamac 000 210 – 3 8 0

WP – Bryant Galbreath (1 ⅔ IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K)

LP – Liam Spence (5 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 K)

2B – Bryant Galbreath (WIN)