No. 3 Knights take advantage of five Frontier errors

From Nathan Baird, JCOnline.com:

The debate about Central Catholic and Frontier's relative standing in the Class A baseball coaches' poll will likely continue throughout the season.  What can't be argued is which team took advantage of its opportunities at Leming Field on Monday. 

With help from five Falcon errors, No. 3 Central Catholic scored five unearned runs in a 6-2 victory over No. 2 Frontier. 

"It was a tough night to hit -- wind blowing in and cold, damp air," CC coach Tim Bordenet said. "The ball wasn't carrying at all. But we got enough done offensively to force them to throw the ball around a little bit, and that was definitely a big factor in the game." 

Central Catholic (5-1), the two-time defending state champion, opened the season ranked No. 1. Last week, Frontier (8-3) held that position.  The Knights and Falcons expect to see each other again in May in the Class A sectional at Leming Field. 

"Frontier's a good baseball team, and it's always on the top of our schedule," said sophomore Andrew Hubertz, who doubled and scored CC's first run.

He later added a two-run single. 

"This is just going to give us confidence going into our season, especially going into sectional time when we want to be rolling."  Frontier starter Kyle Whitlow (1-2) allowed only three hits and a walk over five-plus innings. Falcon outfielders Hunter Gladish and Brandon Gallinger made nice diving catches early. 

From there, Frontier's defense struggled. A pair of two-out errors gave CC a run in the second inning, and Whitlow's throwing error in the fifth helped give the Knights a 3-0 lead.  Frontier scored twice in the top of the sixth to pull within a run, then gave CC three unearned runs in the bottom half. 

"Our three losses have been from errors," said Frontier senior Travis Demerly, who went 2-for-3. "I don't know if we're not ready to play or what, but it's unacceptable." 

Central Catholic starter Brett Haan (3-1) allowed only four singles in 51/3 innings and struck out seven but also walked six.  With Haan wriggling out of trouble, and Nick Stone coming on to record the final four outs via strikeout, CC stranded eight Frontier runners over the final four innings. Five were left in scoring position. 

"I thought we had the at-bats with runners in scoring position and gave them easy outs too," Frontier coach Ryan Long said. "I just felt like we absolutely beat ourselves out here today."