St. Paul outlasts South Central to stay in first

NORWALK — If anything, it was sheer relief. When the final out was made — 2 hours and 33 minutes in the dusk after the game had started — St. Paul baseball coach Aaron Fries let out a sigh of relief. "Absolutely, it's hard to even take any enjoyment out of it, really," Fries said after his Flyers held on for a 14-11 win over South Central for a critical Firelands Conference win on Tuesday at Norwalk Area Contractors Park. St. Paul — ranked No. 7 in this week's Division VII state coaches poll — improved to 10-2 overall and 5-1 in the FC. The Trojans (4-5, 4-2) fell a game back in the loss column, while the Flyers are tied with Plymouth (7-5, 5-1). The two teams are playing on Thursday and Friday yet this week. The two teams combined for 25 runs on just 16 hits, as there were 18 walks and seven hit batters in the game. "Obviously we have work to do to get confidence back in our pitching staff, as we have struggled across the board throwing strikes this week," Fries said after noting the Trojan's 9-7 win on Monday in Greenwich. "It's just something we haven't struggled with too much this year, so we'll have to circle the wagons here and build that confidence back up," he added. "Our kids have shown they are capable of being good pitchers, and for some reason we've struggled with finding the zone." St. Paul struck first when freshman Casey Fries hit a three-run home run to center field after South Central's Gavin Olney had walked Isaac Kalizewski and Brady Fritz to start the second inning. That put South Central behind the rest of the game. "Walks are going to hurt you, especially in our league where a lot of teams can hit the ball well, and St. Paul can definitely hit," South Central coach Nick Kirk said. "That's what it came down to. That three-run shot, we walked the two guys on base. "That goes into it, and a couple routine plays that weren't made cost us. But I thought we did a nice job of picking each other up today, and we kept fighting." Consecutive doubles by Gabe Snyder and Landon Fries made it 4-0, then an error on the Trojans allowed Fries to score for a 5-0 lead in the third. When starting pitcher Izaac Snyder homered in the bottom of the fourth, the Flyers had a 6-0 lead. But the Trojans got three runs back in the top of the fifth, with Wes June coming up with the big hit on a two-run single off Izaac Snyder to cut the lead in half. The walks then piled up for South Central in the bottom of the fifth. River Couch walked with the bases loaded to make it 7-3, then Izaac Snyder singled on a line drive to enter that scored two more runs for a 9-3 advantage. Gabe Snyder again doubled to score South for a 10-3 lead, and a fielder's choice off the bat of Landon Fries extended it to 11-3. The Trojans responded again when they drew consecutive walks with the bases loaded to score two runs, followed by a single up the middle by catcher Alex Hamons off Casey Fries. That made it 11-6 through the middle of the sixth. The big play came when S.C. cleanup hitter Bryan Chaffee hit the ball back to Casey Fries on the mound, and he was able to throw home to Gabe Snyder, who then fired to first to get Chaffee for a double play. "Big play there," Coach Fries said. "It was absolutely huge. Games like this, when a pitcher struggles, those kinds of plays make the difference." Again it appeared the Flyers had regained control with three runs in the bottom of the sixth. With the bases loaded, Izaac Snyder grounded into a fielder's choice to bring in a run, then Gabe Snyder hit a fly ball that resulted in an error and two more runs to score. But even with a 14-6 lead in the top of the seventh, things weren't safe. Two walks and a double by Kaden Blair loaded the bases with no outs for the Trojans. Justin Gillum then hit an RBI single, and both Troy Ayers and Cole Frankart drew walks with the bases loaded to bring the deficit to 14-9. Hamons hit a sacrifice fly to left field to make it 14-10, and Ayers scored on a ground out off the bat of Chaffee for the second out. Finally, with Kalizewski on in relief, Wes June flied out to medium-deep center to end the game. "It goes to show we're a senior-heavy team that knows how to compete, so I never count us out of any game, just like today," Kirk said of his team's late rallies. "They battled right back and got to where we needed to be. We had St. Paul on their heels at the end, but we just couldn't get it done today." The Trojans have two games with Monroeville (7-4, 3-3) on Thursday and Friday. Both coaches know the FC race is anything but decided, with five teams separated by two games or less. "Early in the season I think we got too far looking ahead, and we just needed to slow things down as a group," Kirk said. "This league is wide open. Everyone knows that. You have to be ready each day in the FC." Added Coach Fries, "Clearly (Monday) would have been nice to have, but it wasn't a must-have. We had to come out and put together a good game and win at home today, and we did that." S. Central 000 033 5 — 11 7 3 St. Paul 032 153 x — 14 9 0 WP: I. Snyder; LP: Olney 2B: (SC) Blair; (SP) G. Snyder 3, L. Fries; HR: (SP) I. Snyder, C. Fries