Opportunistic Trojans top St. Paul

NORWALK — All good teams make mistakes. But when they do, the opponent has to be able to capitalize. The South Central baseball team did just that on Tuesday, and threw a wrench into the Firelands Conference race as a result. The Trojans scored eight runs in the first two innings on four errors by the St. Paul defense, and they let pitcher Karl Ferber do the rest in a 10-4 win over the Flyers at Norwalk Area Contractors Park. The loss by St. Paul drops it to 16-5 overall and 10-1 in the FC. That puts Plymouth (11-5, 9-1) into a tie with the Flyers in the loss column, while the Trojans improved to 10-8 overall and 8-3 in the FC ahead of Wednesday's scheduled rematch against St. Paul in Greenwich. St. Paul and Plymouth are scheduled to play the two final FC games of the season head-to-head on May 10-11. "St. Paul is a fantastic team that is very well-coached," South Central head coach Mike Perry said. "They made a couple uncharacteristic mistakes today, and we were able to take advantage of that." Ferber helped himself right away with a one-out double in the top of the first, then Carson Music reached on an error and Blaine Wheeler drew a walk to load the bases. David Lamoreaux followed with a two-run single to center, then Kayden Hauler grounded into a fielder's choice at third that wasn't fielded cleanly, allowing Lamoreaux to score for a 3-0 lead. Starter Tyler Perkins got two quick strikeouts to start the top of the second, only to see the Trojans plate five runs with two outs. Sam Seidel walked and stole second, then scored on an RBI single to left by Ferber. Music and Wheeler each added singles, which plated Ferber for a 5-0 lead. An error on a flyball to left hit by Lamoreaux allowed Music and Wheeler to score the sixth and seventh runs, while Hauler capped the inning with an RBI single to short that scored Lamoreaux for an 8-0 lead. "You have to give credit to South Central because they came out here today and played championship baseball," St. Paul head coach Aaron Fries said. "They jumped on us early. We made some mistakes and helped them out there, which is a little uncharacteristic of us. We pride ourselves on our defense, but today it let us down a little bit. "I thought that was the difference in the game," he added. "There are plays out there we needed to make, and we didn't make them. That's what it comes down to. But give them credit, they hit the ball well and hit it hard and made us work. We just came out a little flat." Pitching with an 8-0 lead, Ferber dodged his way through giving up a big inning in the second and third. After allowing a single and a walk to Thomas Bocock and Perkins, Ferber hit Drew Kuhnle with one out to load the bases in the bottom of the second. But he was able to get Ashton Stang to hit the ball right back to him on a 1-0 pitch, allowing Ferber to throw home for the first out, then Hauler fired to first baseman Shane Vanderpool to turn the huge double play. In the bottom of the third, Scotty Adelman singled, Eli Fisher walked and a balk with one out moved up both runners into scoring position. Luke Blum followed with an RBI single to score Adelman, and Bocock singled on a bunt to score Fisher. Now 8-2, Ferber then walked Perkins again to load the bases with still only one out. But he had the answer, however, with consecutive strikeouts of Kaden Maxwell and Drew Kuhnle to get out of the inning without further damage. Lamoreaux walked and scored on a sacrifice fly by Isaac Rapp to make it 9-2 in the top of the fourth. An RBI groundout off the bat of Jackson McCormack scored Wheeler, who had reached on a walk, in the top of the sixth to make it a 10-2 lead for the Trojans. St. Paul again hit the ball hard in the bottom of the seventh. Fisher was hit by a pitch and Jaycob Stanley singled to drive him in. Blum followed with a single, and Bocock delivered an RBI double that made it a 10-4 deficit. With runners on second and third, Ferber then got a flyout to Sam Seidel at shortstop, a pop out to Eric Sanders in shallow right, and a fly out to Music in center to end the game. "We've come back a lot this year, but that was really the first time this year where we didn't get that big crooked number," Fries said. "The double play was huge obviously. "But again, a lot of credit goes to South Central for making a lot of plays in the field as well — right down to the last out," he added. "It wasn't like we didn't hit the ball, they made great plays as well. Give them credit, because they just came in here and beat us." Ferber allowed the four earned runs on nine hits with three strikeouts and four walks on 116 pitches to earn the complete-game victory. "Karl is a battler," Perry said. "He's only a sophomore, but he's way beyond a sophomore in terms of his baseball and pitching ability and his demeanor. He stays composed on the mound and does his job and trusts his defense. "We've been trying to get our guys to trust our defense all season. Today, Karl pitched to contact and trusted his defense, and that was a big difference." After a 4-6 start, the Trojans have won six of their last eight games. "Earlier in the season we made mistakes that good teams don't make," Perry said. "We've worked on those and cleaned them up. Our at-bats are so much better now than they were at the start of the season. "We are a patient team in the box, we make good contact usually and we're not trying to hit home runs every time up," he added. "We're putting the ball in play and doing what we have to do." In the expected rematch on Wednesday, the Flyers will likely turn to their ace in Adelman, who is 6-1 with a 1.82 ERA and 79 strikeouts in 42 1/3 innings. "We know what we have in front of us (Wednesday)," Perry said. "They are going to come in and probably be a little fired up. Our kids know this one doesn't mean anything if we don't take care of (Wednesday), and we fully expect St. Paul ready to play. "They are so well-coached and so disciplined … you don't start 10-0 in the conference without being a fantastic team." Fries had a similar message to his team, which still sits atop the standings with three FC games remaining. "That's exactly what I told the kids," he said. "We just have to own this just like we own our wins. We'll come back (Wednesday) and be better for it. That's what the attitude has to be. "You're going to have games like this. It's a long grind in our conference. We feel good going back at it (Wednesday) and I'm confident we'll play better next time out, and hopefully we see a better result." S. Central 350 101 0 — 10 8 0 St. Paul 002 000 2 — 4 9 5 WP: Ferber; LP: Perkins 2B: (SC) Ferber; (SP) Bocock; 3B: (SC) Seidel