Zebras held to 5 hits in loss to Sturtsman, Squires
- Val T.
- May 29
- 5 min read
Good: ‘We just didn’t play our best game defensively’
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
CONVERSE — Tanner Reinartz had two hits, and Carson Paulik pitched a six-hitter with 11 strikeouts, but the No. 8 Rochester baseball team fell to Manchester 3-2 in a Class 2A, Sectional 38 quarterfinal at Oak Hill Wednesday.
Manchester improved to 13-12 and will next play No. 5 Eastern (Greentown) in the semifinals at 11 a.m. Saturday. Eastern handled Wabash 6-2 in Wednesday’s other quarterfinal.
Rochester finished 19-8. They started 16-2 but went 3-6 over their final nine games. They are 94-44 with two conference titles, two sectional titles and a regional title since the canceled pandemic season of 2020.
Harper Sturtsman pitched a five-hitter with nine strikeouts for Manchester, who avenged a 2-0 loss in eight innings April 30 in their Three Rivers Conference meeting.
Sturtsman got Callen Ferverda to ground to second and then struck out Brady Coleman to start the top of the seventh. Parker Casper then dropped a double just inside the right field line.
Manchester coach Shane Smith elected to walk Reinartz with first base open, risking putting the potential go-ahead run on base.
That brought up Paulik.
In the 2024 sectional, Paulik was pitching against Manchester, and he got Sturtsman to ground out to shortstop with the potential tying run on third to end the game and preserve a 3-2 Rochester win.
One year later, the roles were exactly reversed, and Sturtsman struck out Paulik to end the game on his 121st pitch. Per IHSAA pitch count rules, Sturtsman would have to be replaced on the mound had the game continued after Paulik’s at-bat.
The score again was 3-2, just in reverse.
Rochester coach Cory Good said the plan was to try and hit Sturtsman to the opposite field.
“I don’t think we ever felt pressed or like we were really pushing to push runs across the board,” Good said. “He was really on his game tonight. … We wanted to try to work the ball to right field. Casper did that with two outs in the seventh, and other than that, we didn’t really buy into that approach much. We felt like he was going to try to throw fastballs on the outer half. If we could go with that pitch, then we’d do some damage. Things just didn’t go our way.
“It’s tough for these guys, these seniors. They’ve poured a lot into this program, and you just feel for them.”
Paulik also threw a no-hitter and beat Sturtsman in the April 30 game, but after striking out Ethan Hendrix to start the game, he allowed three straight singles to Reiss Gaerte, Sturtsman and Dallas Martin.
Martin’s hit drove in a run, and after a passed ball, Evan Estep added an RBI groundout to second base.
Rochester cut the lead to 2-1 in the second. Brant Beck doubled and took third on a passed ball. Zakk Parks was hit by a pitch and stole second. Conner Dunfee then reached on a third-strike wild pitch, which scored Beck and moved Parks to third.
Dunfee then advanced to second on a wild pitch, but Sturtsman then struck out Bowers and Ferverda to retire the side.
Paulik walked Teegan Snyder to lead off the second but retired the next three batters.
In the third, Gaerte led off with a single to right and took second on a passed ball. Sturtsman walked. Gaerte went to third on another passed ball.
Martin’s grounder to the right side resulted in an error. Gaerte scored to make it 3-1.
“We just didn’t play our best game defensively,” Good said. “I think we had one error … kind of in a big moment. A couple walks, a couple passed balls here and there, they add up in a 3-2 ballgame.”
Sturtsman walked Beck to lead off the fourth but retired the next three batters.
Paulik worked around consecutive walks to Bryson Enyeart and Ethan Hendrix in the fifth by slipping a called third strike past Sturtsman.
Coleman walked with one out in the fifth and stole second before scoring on Reinartz’s two-out RBI single.
Parks singled and stole second in the sixth and advanced to third on a Dunfee grounder, but Sturtsman struck out Bowers to end the inning.
Paulik hit Cody Carroll with a pitch to start the bottom of the sixth but retired the next three batters.
Two of the runs Paulik allowed were unearned.
“He got stronger as the game went on,” Good said of Paulik.
Rochester was playing their first state tournament game after last season’s historic first regional title and trip to the semistate final.
“I want them to feel it hurt a little bit,” Good said. “You’ve got to want it. I think that the thing that going through last year, and you think that it’s easy. And it’s not. It’s really difficult. And winning a sectional is extremely difficult. We knew we had a bunch of good teams in this sectional. We knew it was going to be a dog fight all the way through if we were going to get through three games. And we had our big test. But I want those guys to feel some disappointment. I don’t want to hear a bunch of laughing and clapping and that kind of stuff. I want to know they care. And they do care. And they want to play hard and get after it for everybody.
“But I don’t think it’s a disappointment. … We’ve won 19 to 20 games for the last three or four years here now. I feel like we’re doing the right things. It’s just never easy to end the season. You’ve got guys who have poured their heart and soul into this program, and you want to go out on a high note. So I just feel for those guys.”
Manchester 3, Rochester 2
Rochester 010 010 0 – 2 5 1
Manchester 201 000 X – 3 6 0
WP – Harper Sturtsman (7 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 1 HBP, 9 K)
LP – Carson Paulik (6 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 1 HBP, 11 K)
2B – Parker Casper (RHS), Brant Beck (RHS)
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