Princeton – After five innings Princeton found itself in position to make early waves in Region 3.
But instead the Tigers were hit by tsunami largely of their own making.
Three errors in the sixth inning doomed the Tigers as Independence scored four runs in the frame without a hit to secure an 11-6 win over the Tigers Wednesday night at Hunnicutt Field in Princeton.
The inning was reflective of the Tigers’ struggles on defense where they committed six errors to help an Independence team that didn’t need it. Aside from the first two innings where Indy struck out six times, the Patriots had little trouble putting the bat on the ball, collecting 14 hits in the win.
“We’ve been working on it really hard,” Independence head coach Scott Cuthbert said of Indy’s plate approach. “The first scrimmage, we didn’t do very well. We’ve tried to really concentrate to where we’re just trying to get them to hit it up the middle. Work the pitcher and then battle with two strikes. If you can keep strikeouts down in high school, it gives you a great advantage.
“We hit the few balls really hard. The last inning we scored the three runs, we might have scored all three with two outs, which is big. This time of year, it’s just trying to get better each time. Win and losing – it’s nice to win but I mean, to be honest, I’m more worried about trying to get better towards the end of the year.”
Princeton’s offense put the pressure on early, scoring a run off of Indy freshman pitcher Chance Moore when Evan Wright hit a sac-fly to plate Deegan Walters.
It took the Patriots two innings to respond by which time they started working Princeton pitcher Brady Combs. A pair of walks issued to Cole Cunningham and Degan Williams haunted the Tigers as both base runners scored, one on a throwing error and another on a wild pitch. An RBI single out of the No. 9 spot from Allen Coalson extended the lead at 3-1.
The Tigers benefited from a miscue similar to the one the one that ailed them when Landon Dillion scored on a throwing error to bring the Tigers back within one. Indy kept the pressure on when Reid Warden drove in Cunningham to extend the lead to 4-2 in the fourth but Princeton had an answer in the fifth.
A leadoff walk to No. 8 hitter Wyatt Cline proved detrimental for Indy which allowed him to score on a Walters RBI, later allowing a tie when Combs plated Zack Jenkins with a double.
Tied after the stretch, the Tigers were washed out.
With the lineup reset, Levi Barnett reached on an error at shortstop to open the sixth inning. Indy bunted Barnett over before Pricneotn committed a crippling miscue on a ground ball hit by Cunningham. The ball hopped under the glove of the second baseman, splitting the gap in right-center field and rolling to the wall, allowing Barnett to score and Cunningham to reach third.
Williams took ball off the knee to reach afterwards and Cunningham scored on a wild pitch. Warden capped the inning with another RBI, this one on a sac fly.
“It’s hard when we tie up the game in the bottom of the fifth, coming into the top of the sixth with a pitcher that was throwing strikes,” Princeton head coach Brandon Dunford said. “The first two hitters had very catchable balls, ground balls hit both sides of the middle infield which really started their rally. Overall, I think the sixth and the seventh innings were just mental errors, along with fielding errors. That really was the deciding factor of the game.”
Princeton chipped with another run in the fifth but Indy added four more hits in the seventh to put the game out of reach.
“We’ve tried to break it down to mini games at times, like we’ll try to win each inning or you break it down in like three mini games,” Cuthbert said. “But it wasn’t just the (sixth) frame, we wanna try to win the next frame. The great thing and a bad thing about baseball is there’s no clock or nothing like that. You got to play it out anyway, so, I mean, it a good learning lesson because there’s times that teams get way up, and if you can just battle your way through there, you can get back into games. It’s a long season, so we’re still working things out, but I thought Chance, for his first high school start pitched really well. Levin struggled a little bit there, but he came in and he was able to close it out for us.”
Cunningham and Warden led Indy with two RBI each in the win with five different Patriots picking up multiple hits. Combs led Princeton with two hist and two RBI.
