Rochester baseball roundup: Coleman pitches 2-hitter, Reinartz homers as Zebras blow out Winamac

Culver Academy hands Zebras first loss with ith inning walk-off

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Brady Coleman Tanner Reinartz

Brady Coleman pitched a two-hit shutout with six strikeouts, and Tanner Reinartz capped an eight-run third inning with a three-run homer as the Rochester baseball team blew out Winamac 13-0 in five innings at Bob Copeland Field Tuesday.

The Zebras, who remained at No. 3 in this week’s Class 2A coaches poll despite suffering their first loss to Culver Academy Friday, improved to 9-1.

Winamac, who had their eight-game winning streak snapped, dropped to 8-2.

Winamac pitchers Brayden Mathias and Cody Wheeler combined to walk eight. Coleman walked just one.

Also, Winamac pitchers came in with 93 strikeouts in 43 ⅓ innings for the season, but in four innings in this game, Rochester batters struck out just once.

“I thought our approaches were pretty good the whole game,” Rochester coach Cory Good said. “We talked after the second, and I think their pitcher was at 46 pitches, and he had thrown maybe 19 strikes. So, you know, we really weren’t getting a lot of good stuff to hit. We only had one hit for a little bit and broke it open. … But I was proud of the way that we went about our approach tonight – just eating some pitches, waiting for ours, not jumping on anything that wasn’t there. So overall, I was impressed by our pitch selection tonight.”

Meanwhile, Coleman blanked a Winamac offense that came in with a .356 team batting average.

He stranded Addison Allen at third when he struck out Hutch Martin looking in the first.

In the second, he walked Peyton Attinger with two outs and allowed a single on an 0-2 pitch to freshman Xavier Adriano. But he recovered to retire Kaden Runk on a fly to Zakk Parks in right to end the inning, and that started a streak of nine straight batters retired.

Luke Clemons broke up that streak with a two-out single in the fifth, but Coleman got Cash Roth on a comebacker to end the game.

Coleman has credited work with assistant coaches Todd Beehler and Bryan Holcomb for his pitching improvement. Good said Coleman is pitching and playing with more confidence as a sophomore.

“After that second inning, his change-up was really working,” Good said. “He’s just pitched so efficient all year long. Goes up there, trusts his defense, throws strikes. I peaked at (assistant) coach (Todd) Beehler’s iPad there in the fifth with two outs, and he had thrown 64 pitches through four and two-thirds (innings). So he’s less than 70 pitches through five. Just efficient, throwing strikes, trusting his defense, keeping batters off-balance. He has made a tremendous stride on the mound from last year to this year.”

Reinartz finished with four RBIs, and Parker Casper, Linden Wilburn and Conner Dunfee had two RBIs each. All nine Rochester starters scored at least one run.

Mathias escaped a bases loaded jam in the first when he struck out Brant Beck looking and when Addison Allen made a running catch in center field to deny Parks of a hit.

Casper had an RBI groundout to second base with the bases loaded in the second, but Mathias got Reinartz on a fly to left field with runners on second and third to keep the deficit at 1-0.

Rochester’s offense detonated in the third.

Paulik led off with a double, and Beck walked, and they pulled off a double steal to put runners at second and third. Mathias hit Parks with a pitch to load the bases. 

Wilburn’s two-run single to right made it 3-0, and Dunfee’s two-run single to right-center on the next pitch made it 5-0.

After a Bowers groundout and a Coleman walk, Winamac coach Mark Hendryx replaced Mathias with Wheeler.

Casper greeted Wheeler with a line single to left to score Dunfee. Reinartz then lofted a three-run shot to left to make it 9-0.

Rochester added four more unearned runs in the fourth. Winamac committed errors on four consecutive batters at one point, and Reinartz added a sacrifice fly.

“I knew watching us take infield it wasn’t going to be our night,” Hendryx said in a statement. “For whatever reason, we just weren’t ready to play. I think we had four errors and only three hits. It was just one of those days. You just hate to have one of them against a team as good as Rochester.”

Game notes

• Rochester was scheduled to travel to Delphi Monday, but that game was rained out, and no makeup date has been set.

• Winamac was scheduled to play Oregon-Davis in a Hoosier North doubleheader Saturday, but those games are now listed on MaxPreps.com as forfeit wins for Winamac, improving the Warriors’ Hoosier North record to 6-0. Winamac starts a two-game series against North Miami, who is 4-0 in the conference, Thursday. There is no record of Oregon-Davis playing a game this year, according to MaxPreps.

• Parks is a newcomer to catcher this year as a junior, but he played right field in this game with Callen Ferverda, a left-handed catcher, behind the plate. Ferverda was the flex player, and Wilburn was the designated hitter.

• While Rochester stayed at No. 3 in the Class 2A coaches poll, sectional rival Eastern (Greentown) moved up from No. 9 to No. 7. Lewis Cass, a conference and sectional rival, is No. 18.

• Rochester opens Three Rivers Conference play with a home game against Southwood (0-5) Wednesday.

Rochester 13, Winamac 0 (5 innings)

Winamac 000 00 – 0 2 4

Rochester 018 4X – 13 7 1

WP – Brady Coleman (5 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 HBP, 6 K)

LP – Brayden Mathias (2 ⅓ IP, 4 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 7 BB, 1 HBP, 1 K)

2B – Carson Paulik (RHS)

HR – Tanner Reinartz (RHS)

Culver Academy 6, Rochester 5 (8 innings)

After an eight-game winning streak to start the season, the Rochester baseball team suffered their first loss when they fell 6-5 in eight innings to host Culver Academy Friday.

The loss came despite Brant Beck’s two-out RBI single in the seventh that tied the game.

Carson Paulik had two hits and two RBIs, and Parker Casper had a hit, a walk and two runs scored. 

Rochester’s 6-9 hitters went a combined 0 for 12.

Paulik started on the mound and pitched five innings and allowed 11 hits and five runs (four earned). He walked three and struck out six.

Tanner Reinartz relieved and pitched 2 ⅓ innings and took the loss. He allowed two hits, including Jack Kaplan’s walk-off RBI single in the eighth, and one run while walking one and striking out four.

Nick Fumich pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the top of the eighth for the win.

Trailing 5-4, Reinartz walked with one out in the seventh and stole second. He advanced to third on Paulik’s fly out. Beck’s RBI single then tied the game.

Reinartz took over to start the sixth and retired six straight batters, including four strikeouts. But he walked Foster Stockton to start the eighth. Nick Fumich’s sacrifice bunt moved him to second.

Ainsley Ritchie then landed a bunt single between Reinartz and a charging Paulik, now playing third base. That moved Stockton to third and forced the Rochester infield to move in.

Kaplan then singled to right to end the game.

“I thought both teams battled hard the whole game,” Rochester coach Cory Good said. “We told these guys for a week or two now every team’s going to come out to hand us one. So I’m proud of the way they came out and battled and fought hard. I told them before the game CMA is a good team, and they’re going to be ready to go today. … You’ve got to face some adversity sometimes, and we knew we weren’t going to go 33-0, and this was going to happen sometime. It wasn’t the best performance all around, but proud of the way the guys fought.”

Culver Academy 6, Rochester 5 (8 innings)

Rochester 102 010 10 – 5 4 0

Culver Academy 011 120 01 – 6 13 2

WP – Nick Fumich (1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K)

LP – Tanner Reinartz (2 ⅓ IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K)

2B – Ty Rakan (CMA), Foster Stockton (CMA)

3B – Carson Paulik (RHS)