Warrior frosh Carr, Floor show promise, but Wabash stays undefeated

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

DENVER — Freshmen Jension Carr and Keaton Floor went a combined 3 for 6, but the North Miami baseball team could not hold onto a 4-1 lead after one inning and lost 17-7 in five innings to visiting Wabash Wednesday.

Senior Lake Musall and junior Quinn Hostetler each added two hits and an RBI for North Miami, who dropped to 0-3.

Wabash led 8-6 after four innings but scored nine in the top of the fifth off Braylon McIntire and reliever Ryan Meredith. McIntire and Meredith combined to walk seven, hit three batters and throw four wild pitches.

“Our pitching is a little concerning,” North Miami coach Shannon Floor said. “Last night, we threw a freshman (Carr) against Eastbrook, and then we brought in an experienced guy (Musall). Cold weather had a little bit to do with my pitching last night. … It’s going to be a struggle for us on the pitching until we get going here a little bit. I think we’re a little slow on getting started with our pitching because of basketball. We had pretty much half our team play basketball, so they’re kind of behind on getting going with the pitching. I’m not too overly concerned. I think it will come into play here about the end of the month. That’s our goal anyway. End of the month into May, we find that (number) three or four pitcher to help out McIntire. We got three other pitchers we haven’t thrown yet. So we’re kind of holding off. Conference starts Saturday (with a doubleheader against Oregon-Davis), and then we’re coming back on Monday against Pioneer. The last three games, we’ve played some pretty good teams, so you’ve got to give them some credit, but we’ve got work to do; there’s no doubt about it.”

Keaton Floor reached on an error to score Musall all the way from first in the bottom of the fifth, but reliever Mackey Sorg struck out Jordan Simon and got Evan Chumbley on a grounder to second to end the game.

Wabash, who went 11-15 last season, improved to 6-0.

Carr, a catcher, singled with one out in the first and went to second on Hostetler’s groundout. McIntire walked, and when ball four was a wild pitch, Carr advanced to third.

On a 3-2 count to Lake Musall, Wabash pitcher Cooper Long correctly guessed that McIntire would leave early from first and threw over to put McIntire in a pickle. Carr sped home and beat first baseman Zack Miller’s throw for a steal of home.

Musall then cracked a triple to score McIntire, and Floor, a left fielder, then doubled to bring in Musall. A fielding error on Jordan Simon’s grounder delivered Floor to the plate.

Wabash responded with six runs in the top of the second, and they never trailed again. Mackey Sorg had perhaps the game’s biggest hit, a two-out, two-run single on an 0-2 count that tied it at 4. Sam Harris’ RBI bloop single gave Wabash the lead, and Remington Cressell doubled home two more runs.

Hostetler had an RBI double and later scored on an error to keep North Miami within 7-6.

North Miami went 19-7 overall and 15-0 in the Hoosier North. Leadoff hitter Jake Riley, closer Ray Pickett, corner infielder-pitcher Drew Wright and catcher Michael Cleaver all graduated.

“I don’t know if we’re going to be able to do it to their degree,” coach Floor said of replacing last year’s seniors. “But we’ve got some players, I think, just getting the games underneath their belt and getting experience, and some of these younger freshmen, we might find one of them guys that can do that, but it’s going to take a few weeks for us to get going, and we’ve just got to understand that and be prepared to take some licks.

“Come May, I hope we get it going. We’ve got the athletes to do it.”

Wabash 17, North Miami 7 (5 innings)

Wabash 161 09 – 17 14 3

North Miami 420 01 – 7 8 3

WP – Cooper Long (4 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 3 K)

LP – Braylon McIntire (4 IP, 10 H, 11 R, 10 ER, 5 BB, 1 HBP, 2 K)

2B – Derek Reed 2 (WAB), Remington Cressell 2 (WAB), Cooper Long (WAB), Keaton Floor (NM), Quinn Hostetler (NM)

3B – Lake Musall (NM)