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Reinartz, Ferverda, Bowers have 2 RBIs each
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
Brant Beck allowed one run over four innings in his first varsity start, and Tanner Reinartz, Colton Ferverda and Drew Bowers had two RBIs each for the Rochester baseball team as they defeated sectional rival Pioneer 10-2 at Bob Copeland Field Thursday.
Eight different Rochester starters had at least one hit, and six different players had an RBI.
Pioneer came in hitting .298 as a team, but Brant Beck, Parker Casper and Brady Beck held them to six hits and one walk.
Pioneer never led, but they crept within 5-2 on Jacob Guffey’s pinch-hit RBI walk in the sixth off Casper. But Casper got Lane Weldy to ground back to him on the mound, and he threw to the plate for a forceout. Casper then struck out Brodie Howard to retire the side.
“Parker’s been one of those guys where he’s never too high or too low,” Rochester coach Cory Good said. “His composure that he has on the mound, in the box or playing defense in center field, whatever it is, he’s in it for the moment, and he can handle those things. It’s pretty cool to watch not only him as a freshman but Brady Coleman just handle some big moments.”
Rochester then scored five times in the bottom of the sixth off Weldy and Eli Nicoll to extend the lead to 10-2.
Coleman and Carson Paulik started the inning with back-to-back singles. Reinartz reached on an error, scoring Coleman. Jake Seuferer singled to left to score Paulik and move Reinartz to second.
Reinartz would advance to third on a wild pitch that bounced near the catcher, and when the throw to try and get him to third was wild for an error, Reinartz came in to score and make it 8-2. Ferverda’s sacrifice fly to center scored Kaleb Lutz, who was courtesy running for Seuferer, to make it 9-2.
Brady Beck walked, advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored when Bowers hooked a single to left to complete the scoring.
Brady Beck pitched a 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts in his varsity mound debut to close out the game.
Pioneer freshman starter Brodie Howard wriggled out of a first-and-second, nobody-out jam in the first. Catcher Eli Guffey helped by throwing Coleman out trying to steal third before getting Reinartz to ground into a forceout and striking out Seuferer.
But Rochester, who came in averaging 8.7 runs per game, then scored in five consecutive innings. They got the leadoff hitter on base in all six innings in which they batted.
“What we’re finding is there’s not any easy outs in the lineup right now,” Good said.
Still, Good complimented Pioneer’s freshman pitchers Brodie Howard and Weldy for keeping his team off balance, and Pioneer coach Josh Hardy also had nice words for them.
“They did a great job against this lineup,” Hardy said. “Rochester’s one of the better teams that we see all year and a sectional opponent, so we wanted to get the freshmen an opportunity to see what they can do, and they did pretty well. We’re excited about them. They’re both pretty laid-back kids, pretty calm kids, always have a smile on their face as well. … They did a great job for us today.”
Bowers had a sacrifice fly to Drew McKaig in shallow center in the second with Gavin Young sliding home safely head first.
Reinartz had an RBI single, and Young had an RBI groundout to second base in the third to make it 3-0, but with runners at second and third and one out, Howard got Ferverda on a fly to McKaig in shallow center.
McKaig then hit cutoff man Lucas Perry, who fired to Eli Guffey at the plate to retire Reinartz and complete a double play.
Brant Beck retired nine of the first 10 Panther hitters, but Guffey led off the fourth with a hit. He advanced to second on Perry’s grounder to first and scored on Noah Miller’s sharp single to center.
But a Brady Beck single, a dropped pop-up and a Coleman walk loaded the bases in the bottom half. Paulik grounded to Miller at third. Miller stepped on third for a forceout, but his throw home was late trying to get Brady Beck.
Tyler Zellers doubled with two outs in the top of the fifth, but Casper struck out McKaig looking to end the inning.
Seuferer led off the fifth with a walk, and courtesy runner Lutz would score later in the inning on Ferverda’s RBI single to make it 5-1.
Casper allowed back-to-back singles to Perry and Miller in the sixth before hitting Dawson Eggers with a pitch to load the bases.
“I think it was more of just getting used to the pitcher,” Hardy said. “The first time around, we were lunging at things. The second time around, we were patient more and able to put the ball in play and get some baserunners, but I was happy and proud of staying tight for the most part. It’s just that sixth inning blowing up that hurts us.”
Pioneer travels to Clinton Central today before resuming Hoosier North play with a doubleheader at LaVille Saturday.
Rochester hosts Class 1A, No. 10 Northfield on Monday.
Rochester 10, Pioneer 2
Pioneer 000 101 0 – 2 6 4
Rochester 012 115 X – 10 10 0
WP – Brant Beck (4 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 K)
LP – Brodie Howard (3 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 3 K)
2B – Tyler Zellers (PIO)
