Fort Cherry underclassmen shine in win over California
McDONALD – Fort Cherry’s baseball team may be young, but veteran coach Bob Sawhill’s team has the talent.
The Rangers had many contributors Tuesday in a 13-1 victory in five innings over California in Class A Section 1 play, and the majority of them were freshmen and sophomores.
“These guys are young, but they are as good as any group that I’ve had coming up,” Sawhill said.
Sophomore pitcher Blake Sweder started and didn’t allow a run on one hit over 3⅓ innings. He had four strikeouts and walked two. Freshman Colton Temple moved to the mound after Sweder was pulled to preserve his pitch-count and yielded one unearned run without giving up a hit in 1⅓ innings. He had two strikeouts and no walks.
“Blake will be available to pitch in two days,” Sawhill said. “We played California last night, too, and we have Carmichaels tomorrow and the day after.”
Sweder had an RBI double in the first and a run-scoring single in the third, and Temple had an RBI double in the second.
Fort Cherry (2-0, 4-0) took control in the first by scoring six runs on three hits. The Trojans (2-2, 2-5) committed two of their five errors in the first.
“Fort Cherry is a very athletic group, and there is a reason they had so much success in football and basketball, and I think they are going to see a lot of success on the baseball field,” California coach Taylor Andrisko said. “We had a lot of self-inflicted mistakes today, but give credit to Fort Cherry, they are a very aggressive team.”
Freshman Ryan Huey walked and scored on Sweder’s double before sophomore Matt Sieg’s double to left field plated Sweder for a 2-0 lead. Sieg scored on a wild pitch for a 3-0 advantage.
Luke Sweder and Temple drew back-to-back walks with one out before they could trot home on Zach Serafin’s three-run home run to center field for a 6-0 lead. Luke Sweder and Serafin were two of the three seniors in the Rangers’ starting lineup.
Fort Cherry scored two runs in the second, as Temple had an RBI double and Luke Sweder stole home for an 8-0 advantage.
The Rangers extended their lead to 12-0 in the third with freshman Tyler Wolfe scoring on Huey’s groundout to first, senior Ethan Faletto racing home on Blake Sweder’s single to center and Sieg hitting a two-run homer to center field.
Freshman Landon Trnavsky singled to center and scored on an error for Fort Cherry’s final run.
California scored its lone run on an error in the fifth. The Trojans’ Kaden Weston doubled in the first.
“We are searching for our identity right now,” Andrisko said. “We don’t play until Friday, but we need a couple of days to get back into the lab and figure some things out.”