MIDDLEFIELD–Harvey trailed host Cardinal, 4-0, in the sixth inning before scoring five unanswered runs for a 5-4 come-from-behind victory in a Chagrin Valley Conference Valley Division showdown on Monday.
The Red Raiders scored four in the sixth to tie it and took the lead in the seventh for the win.
“We’ve faced some deficits this year, and the message has been to stay with it,” said Harvey head coach Ryan Delaney. “We hit the ball a couple of times early on and didn’t have anything to show for it, so the message was to keep doing what we were doing. I gave credit to the guys for staying with it. It was huge when we got to the later innings, we were getting contributions from everybody.”
The Huskies got rolling in the bottom of the first with three runs behind an Austin Jones bases-loaded walk and an Evan Jones RBI groundout. Kannon Strever smoked an RBI single through the left side of the infield for a 3-0 lead after one.
Cardinal added another run in the fifth when Reese Soltis led off with a walk, and Carter Tucker delivered with an opposite-field RBI single for a 4-0 lead, adding an insurance run for the Huskies.
Harvey’s Ryan Delaney led off the sixth inning with a single and came around two score two batters later on an error that allowed Rodrigo Flores to reach, cutting the deficit to 4-1.
Jurein Morales connected on an RBI single, and Valentin Palomino delivered with a pinch-hit two-out two-run single to tie the game at 4-4.
The Huskies went quietly in the seventh, giving the Red Raiders a chance to take the lead.
Delaney worked a leadoff walk and swiped second, then scored on Jake Boehm’s go-ahead RBI single for a 5-4 lead, which was enough for the win.
Cardinal punched first in the first inning, then again in the fifth, and in the past, that would have done Harvey in.
Tonight’s contest was different, as the Red Raiders hung in there and gutted out a win.
“One thing over the last couple of years is that when we get knocked down, we’re able to get up that one time. Then we get knocked down again, and we struggle to get back up and fight,” Delaney said. “It’s baseball; these things happen. We went down three, we had to stay with it. To their credit, we did. We even let up a fourth run, that was that second punch. Our guys were able to break through little by little, and it shows their resiliency.”
Delaney stressed how important it was when Boehm came through in the seventh.
“It was huge,” he said of the go-ahead hit. “He’s been battling injuries through the early part of the season, and having him back at first base helps. He’s been consistent for us at the plate in having good at-bats, even if it didn’t result in a hit. He comes up and delivers when we needed him most, and that says a lot about him and his determination to advance himself as a ballplayer. I’m proud of him for doing that.”
Palomino went 1-for-1 with two RBI, Boehm finished 1-for-4 with an RBI, while Delaney, Morales, Brian Arias, and Trent Hull each went 1-for-3 at the dish.
Joey DiAlfredi went the distance and earned the win on the mound, giving up three earned runs, four total, on three hits with six walks and six strikeouts.
Cardinal dropped to 0-5, but the offense finally got the bats moving, which has been a struggle early on.
“It’s good to score runs in a game,” said Cardinal senior pitcher/infielder Carter Tucker. “We need to carry it into the game tomorrow because we scored (three) in the first inning, and that was pretty much it for the rest of the game. We need to keep the foot on the neck, keep swinging the bat, putting the ball in play, moving the runners, and being a good teammate.”
Despite the 0-5 start, the Huskies are starting to come together as a group.
“It was nice to score those runs,” said Cardinal head coach Dan Wolf. “We just needed to keep the pressure on, and we didn’t. The fourth (run) was nice, but we didn’t put the ball in play enough. We’ll regroup.”
Strever led the offense, going 1-for-3 with an RBI, while Tucker went 1-for-2 with an RBI and a walk. Zach Caldwell finished 1-for-3.
Tucker worked 5 ⅔ innings, allowing one earned run, four total, on six hits with three walks and eight strikeouts.
Jones worked 1 ⅓ innings of relief, taking the loss and allowing one earned run on two hits with one walk and four strikeouts.
The Huskies and Red Raiders square off at Harvey tomorrow to complete the season series.
