After committing five errors in a 14-3 loss to visiting Cuyahoga Heights on Monday, Cardinal’s baseball team cleaned up its act and beat the Redskins on the road Wednesday, 4-3.
Matt Carney struck out six in his complete-game victory for the Huskies.
“They were confident this time around,” said Cardinal coach Seth Klepper. “We were real loose going into it and Matt buckled down and pitched a heck of a game.”
Cardinal took an early 1-0 lead when Brice Hogue singled to start the game. Cam Klepper singled to move Hogue to second and Carney helped himself with an RBI single.
The Redskins used three hits and a walk to tie the game in the bottom half of the inning.
Hogue put the Huskies on top for good in the fifth when his double started a three-run rally. Carney was hit by a pitch and Parker Kosh and Jacob Gotham both singled.
Eric Proch also had a sacrifice fly in the inning.
“Brice got on and he really makes us go,” Klepper said. “Matt came up with a hit and that got the wheels turning. We played baseball that inning.”
The Redskins loaded the bases with two outs in the sixth but managed to score just one run. A leadoff double and an error led to another run in the seventh but Carney pitched out of the jam to preserve the Cardinal win.
He allowed two earned runs on nine hits and struck out six.
“The defense I think was the reason we won the game, seeing how we only scored four runs ourselves,” Carney said. “Everyone made good plays the whole game, especially when we needed them. On the mound, confidence was easy to find knowing that my catcher would call a good game and that the guys behind me would back me up on every pitch.”
The Huskies committed just one error on defense.
“We brought a couple kids up and they made some good defensive plays,” Coach Klepper said. “On Monday, we didn’t make those plays. Today we did. It was a good ballgame on both sides.”Hogue, Cam Klepper, Gotham, and Kosh each finished with two hits for the Huskies while Kosh knocked in a team-high two runs.
The Huskies, who improved to 2-1, host Harvey on Friday.
*-Updated to include a quote from Matt Carney
