By Mike London
mlondon@salisburypost.com
SALISBURY — A seventh-place game is an ideal place to experiment, so Salisbury coach Scott Maddox sent jayvee pitcher Scott Freidrich to the mound for his varsity debut on Monday morning at Robertson Stadium.
Freidrich gave the Hornets a chance against Central Cabarrus’ Vikings, but at the end of a three-hour, nine inning struggle, all Salisbury had to show for its efforts were sun-reddened faces and another Cliff Peeler Baseball Classic loss. Salisbury’s 5-3 setback was its fifth straight, and the Hornets (9-9) were the only team in the eight-team tournament field not to taste victory.
“We outlasted Salisbury, and that’s about all you can say,” Central coach Jim Knight said. “I’m a history teacher, and that was a war of attrition. At this point, no one has a lot of arms left.”
Central (10-12) scored the tiebreaking run in the ninth on a pop-fly single that would have been a routine play for Salisbury second baseman John Knox under normal circumstances. But Central had the go-ahead run at third base, the Hornets had the infield drawn in on the grass, and Central sophomore Quinton Covington became the proud owner of a game-deciding hit.
“We bring ’em in, they bloop one, and we lose,” Salisbury coach Scott Maddox said. “We’re just in one of those stretches that you run into in baseball. It’s come down to a break in three of our last four games. Whether it’s been a bad hop, a ball that gets lost in the lights or a bloop, it just hasn’t gone our way.”
Salisbury lost partly because it left 13 men on base and partly because four Hornet hurlers walked nine Vikings. Defensively, the Hornets were good. Right fielder Philip Tonseth made a sliding catch, and Knox, the second baseman, turned in a spectacular play for the first out in the sixth.
“Salisbury’s second baseman made the best play I’ve seen all year,” Knight said. “They battled us all day.”
Freshman Garrett Freeze pitched four shutout innings for the Vikings, and no one scored until the fifth. That’s when Freidrich tired. He walked two in that inning, and when the Hornets narrowly missed turning a double play that would’ve ended the frame, he had to face Central’s No. 3 hitter Ryan Yoder.
Chase Bowden was warming up, but Maddox stuck with Freidrich for at least two reasons. First, the kid still had a shutout. Second, he’d gotten Yoder out twice, once on a strikeout.
Freidrich got ahead of Yoder, but this time the 6-foot-200-pound right-handed hitter laid into one. His drive soared toward the distant wall in right-center where the marker reads 360. Tonseth immediately sprinted to the fence and arrived there ahead of the ball.
“I was figuring on a fastball outside, and that’s what I got and I went with it,” Yoder said. “But then I thought for a second that kid in right field had robbed me.”
Tonseth jumped at the fence and tumbled to the ground. Umpires waited to see if he’d caught the ball, but his glove was empty. The Vikings had three runs on one swing.
“Yoder got on that one pretty good,” Knight said. “There aren’t many places in this park where you can hit a cheap home run.”
Heading to the bottom of the seventh, Maddox would’ve settled for any kind of run, cheap or otherwise. Salisbury had gone 16 straight innings without scoring.
But the Hornets got a rally going when Ian Swaim was hit by a pitch, Spencer Carmichael singled, and Skyler Mikkelson walked. Swaim scored on a wild pitch, and it was 3-1.
Knight turned to his closer Yoder, who had caught the first six innings on a hot day.
“It’s not easy to go from catching to pitching,,” Yoder said. “You have to have the mindset of going from short arm to long arm.”
Yoder retired Brian Bauk on a flyball to right for the first out, and Knox was called on for a sacrifice bunt that moved two runners into scoring position. It was unusual strategy to surrender an out down two runs, but Maddox had faith that Tonseth could produce a game-tying single.
“We knew John would execute on the bunt, and Philip is always calm and wants to be the guy at the plate in that situation,” Maddox said.
Knight sensed danger. Tonseth jogged to first base with a walk , and it was up to Nolan Meyerhoeffer. He came through with a solid single to left to score two. Pinch-runner Chase Etters scored easily from second, and the Hornets had forced extra innings.
“Their 4-hole hitter (Meyerhoeffer) bulleted one,” Knight said. “He shoved a fastball right back at Yoder, and not many people do that.”
Reliever Sam Murph got the Hornets out of a jam in the seventh and enjoyed a breezy eighth, but Nick Estevez led off the ninth against him with a double down the left-field line. After a walk put two on, Knox relieved Murph.
A nice sacrifice bunt by Mason Corzine set the table for Covington’s bloop, and Central led 4-3. Brandon Porter’s sac fly made it 5-3.
Salisbury loaded the bases in the bottom of the ninth, but Yoder got Swaim to ground out to shortstop to finally end it.
“Our pitching was the bright spot,” Maddox said. “We’ve just got to get the bats going.”
Salisbury has a chance to do that tonight. It plays a CCC game at home against Lexington.