Patrioits take win over Bobcats

ERATH -- The Kaplan Pirates came into Tuesday’s district contest against Erath as one of the top ranked teams in all of class 3A. They proved that they are deserving of that ranking, as they cruised out of Erath with a 19-2 victory.

It didn’t always seem like Kaplan was going to run away with the game. Erath starting pitcher, Scott Backstrom looked very impressive through the first two innings. Kaplan managed one run, but it was scored because of two defensive errors.

The Kaplan bats began to heat up the second time they faced Backstrom. Brent Cormier started off the top of the third inning for Kaplan with the first of three consecutive doubles. Tony Frederick doubled next, scoring Cormier. Jacob Frederick followed that double with another, which scored Tony for the second run of the inning. Jacob Frederick scored on the fourth double of the inning by Kyle Hollier.

Erath would put up a run in the bottom of the third on two hits and one walk to narrow the gap. Tyler Hernandez singled with one out to get things started for Erath in the bottom of the third. Hernandez was put out on a fielders choice on a hit by Jed Carlin. Philip Domingues blasted a triple into the gap in right-center field, which plated Carlin.

However, from that point on it was all Kaplan. Kaplan plated 15 runs in the top of the fourth inning to blow the game open. It was an inning where Kaplan stepped to the plate 21 times. They faced three different Erath pitchers in the inning, but the results were all the same. Jacob Frederick highlighted the inning with a three run blast over the left field fence.

“We needed to come out swinging,” said Kaplan head coach Jason Morvant. “The wind was blowing out and we had that one big inning.”

Erath was able to put together three hits in the bottom of the fifth inning from Shay Dubois, Philip Domingues, and Eric LeBlanc, but the one run scored was not enough to extend the game.

Tony Frederick went the distance on the mound for Kaplan. Although he only recorded one strikeout, which came on the last batter of the game, he only gave up two runs on eight hits and only recorded two walks. His performance was good enough to pick up the win for Kaplan.

“He is not a strike out pitcher,” stated Morvant on his pitchers performance. “Two or three in a game is around his average. He didn’t even have that tonight, but we played good defense behind him and didn’t give extra outs. That was probably the difference.”

With the win Kaplan improved their district record to 1-1. Erath dropped to 1-3 in district play with the loss.