Northern's outfield miscues cost Huskies in 7-4 loss to Fairmont Senior

BRIDGEPORT, W.Va. — Northern's pitchers cut down on walks compared to its opener at the McDonald's Classic, but three costly errors bit the Huskies in a 7-4 loss to Fairmont Senior on Friday evening.

The Huskies (7-4) walked 11 in the opener, a 15-1 loss to East Fairmont.

"Not much of a bounceback for us," Northern manager Phil Carr said. "We couldn't hold onto a lead. We got a lead early and gave it up and got it back. Didn't have too many timely hits today."

Northern reduced the base on balls to five, but went from one error to three.

Two of the three led to runs scoring.

"We rebounded pretty big after the first game," Fairmont Senior head coach Bubby Caputo said of a 9-1 loss to Herbert Hoover earlier on Friday. "Our guys didn't have a lot of energy in that game. We were down, and just being able to bounce back like that in a grind out game like that is huge for us."

Trailing 2-1 midway through the fourth inning, the Huskies took a 4-2 lead with three runs in the bottom half.

A sacrifice fly from Caleb Hinebaugh, a Gavin Maust single up the middle and a dropped third strike scored Maust from third.

Maust led the Huskies going 3 for 4 with three singles, but was the only hitter with more than one of Northern's eight hits.

"Their soft left-handed kids kept us off balance pretty good today," Carr said. "I thought we did a better job offensively in the first game against the kid that's going to college than the couple young lefties they threw."

Carr referenced East Fairmont's Jackson Waskis, a West Liberty commit who allowed one run on five hits and a walk with five strikeouts in the earlier game.

The Polar Bears (2-11) answered with a three-run top of the fifth to take the lead for good.

After a strikeout to open the frame, Fairmont Senior's next five batters reached base.

Cole Sammons drove in a run on a double deep to center, then Xavier Marino-Garcia and Markus Izdepski worked walks to load the bases.

Evan Robbins hit a fly ball over the center fielder on what was ruled a two-run error that put the Polar Bears ahead 5-4.

"Their outfielders made plays, and our outfielders didn't," Carr said. "I think the name of this game is our outfielders didn't catch three balls that cost us runs. I know it cost us at least three runs, if not four runs, of the seven. They weren't balls that we dropped, we just misplayed them."

Fairmont Senior added a pair of insurance runs in the seventh on an error at second and a Noah Pethtel sacrifice fly.

The Huskies' Jacob Chambers opened the scoring with a sac fly in the bottom of the first.

Sammons singled in the third to even the score before Savion Huggins put the Polar Bears ahead 2-1 on a double in the fourth.

Sammons, Izdepski, Huggins and Braxton Painter each had two hits for Fairmont Senior.

"They weren't swinging at things outside of the zone like we were in the first few innings," Caputo said. "I think that kind of hurt us. We try to preach ground balls or line drives. A lot of those were lazy swings just popping out. We just turned around, started hitting line drives and it opened up some holes."

Braeden Sharps got the win in 3 1/3 shutout innings of relief, allowing two hits and three walks with eight strikeouts.

"He's our only senior," Caputo said. "He got to pitch some for us last year, not a lot. But for him to come in and do that, it's huge for him."

Hunter Beitzel was charged with five runs (two earned) across 4 1/3 frames, allowing five hits and three walks with a pair of punch outs.

The Polar Bears are a year removed from falling to Frankfort at last year's Class AAA semifinals, but lost seven seniors and head coach David Ricer, who retired after 11 seasons.

Caputo said Pethtel and Sammons started as freshmen last season and are the two returning starters.

"Our first two games got cancelled, and they would've been easier opponents," Caputo said. "Then we just ran into some really good pitching. We saw two of the best pitchers in the state our third and fourth games, and it just put us in a slump."

Northern begins a stretch of five games in seven days at home on Monday at 4:30 p.m. against Meyersdale (8-3).

"Just not a good day for Northern baseball," Carr said. "Just not what we're used to seeing."