Strong pitching, patience boost Knights

The Northeastern Knights, a 20-game winner last season, served notice on Tuesday, March 26, that they will be a team to contend with again this season, by run-ruling a good Tri-Village team 11-1 in five innings.

Three Knight pitchers combined to strike out 11 Patriots, while the Knight offense slowly built a 3-1 advantage before exploding for eight runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to win 11-1.

The Knights took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning when Blake Waters drew a walk to open the inning and Colton Creech stroked a double to drive Waters home.

The Knights pushed their advantage to 2-0 in the bottom of the third inning when Logan White reached first on an error, stole second and came home on an RBI single from Connor Burk.  

The Knights scored again in the bottom of the fourth. Cameron Gibson walked, moved to third on a bunt single from Riley Isaacs and scored on a wild pitch.

The Patriots scored their only run of the game in the top of the fifth when Jaiden Beam drew a one-out walk and scored on a base hit from Lucas Howell and a throwing error.

The Knights used four hits, a hit batter, two walks and an error to score eight runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to close out an 11-1 win.

Northeastern head coach Dave Baker said that defense and pitching will keep his team in every game. “We stayed patient until we could score some runs,” Baker said “Two sophomores (Riley Isaacs and Kaleb Moore) had hits in the fifth inning to help us put together a big inning. Because we are young, we need to build our confidence, and games like this will help do that.”

Tri-Village (0-1)            0  0  0  0  1       1

Northeastern (1-0)      0  1  1  1  8    11

Batteries: Tri Village: Ayman Stephens (LP), Levi Farmer (4), Trey Homan (5) and Kaden Lipps, Northeastern: Logan White (WP), Waters (4), Kaiden White (5) and Creech. Tri-Village hits: Lane Bierly, Howell, Lipps. Northeastern hits: Burke (2), Creech, Isaacs (2), Kaleb Moore, Waters, Logan White.