Early Hitting, Crafty Pitching Lead Franklin Over Catonsville, 5-2

Wednesday afternoon at Catonsville, the Franklin offense struck so quickly in the top of the first inning that Indians head coach Tim Gordon lost track of the amount of runs his squad put up.

The Indians opened the game with five consecutive hits (six total in the frame) and tallied four crucial, first inning runs off Comets starter Ian Baker.

After the first, Baker would go on to match Indians starter Matt Goodman virtually pitch for pitch the rest of the way, but the Catonsville offense never could deliver the clutch hit, falling 5-2 in one of the more defensively sound games—for both sides—you’re bound to see in high school baseball.

“Nothing like that as a coach getting a three-run lead in the first inning,” said Gordon who had to be reminded his squad actually put up a four-spot in the first. “When our lineup is full strength—and it hasn’t been quite often—we are able to put runs up quickly.”

Presented with the lead from the get-go, Goodman, a crafty left-hander, found his groove early on, scattering six hits over his seven innings while striking out six and inducing 11 ground ball outs—including one textbook 6-4-3 double play.

Goodman also came up big for the Indians (8-8) in key spots late in the game. In the sixth, ahead 5-1 with runners on second and third and no outs, the southpaw coaxed a harmless pop out from No. 3 hitter Eric Crum, and after a Baker RBI ground out plated the Comets' second run of the game, Goodman got Brendan McTaggart to roll over on another grounder to short for the final out.  

Catonsville (8-7) kept its hopes alive when Nathan Carpenter lined a leadoff single to right to open the bottom of the seventh. However, after Joey Dorsey made a shoestring catch in right off a Tyler Armstrong sinking liner, Goodman took the mound and picked off Carpenter at first for the second out—essentially crushing any chance of a comeback.

“He had our lefties way off today,” Catonsville head coach Rich Hambor said of Goodman. “Our lefties provide a lot of power for us usually and they were off a little bit with him being a lefty. He did a very good job there and spotted everything.”

 Despite Goodman's effectiveness—who painted the corners all afternoon—Hambor still thought his team had the chances late to try to claw back.

“You need an extra base hit and with guys on second and third with nobody out, you’d like to get two runs instead of one,” Hambor said. [Franklin] made some good plays. We didn’t make poor plays, they just made the clutch ones, that’s all.”

Certainly one bright spot for the Comets was Baker's pitching performance. Limited by an injury most of the season, the senior bounced back from the rough first inning to allow just one run on four hits for the final six innings.

However, it was that first inning that did Baker and the Comets in.

Joey Dorsey (2 for 4) led off with a double to right center and Brad Dioguardo beat out an infield single to second to put runners on the corners.

On Baker’s first offering to Andy Thompson, Dioguardo took off for second and after realizing that catcher Theo DiPace (who caught a runner stealing later on in the game) was throwing through to second, Dorsey sprinted 80 or so feet to steal home.  

Thompson then ripped a double to the right center gap to plate Dioguardo to make the score 2-0, and Mike Skaro and Jacob Gibson each added RBI singles to center to increase the lead to four.

Catonsville answered with one run in the bottom of the first on a two-out single from Crum, plating Zach Hall, who scored both Comets runs on the day.

However, Goodman controlled all three of his pitches, and got the clutch outs when he needed to.

“Everything was on point today,” Goodman said. “I tried to keep hitting my spots real well and was just trying to keep being efficient and work towards the next batter.”

BOX SCORE

Franklin 5, Catonsville 2

F 400 100 0----5 10 0

C 100 001 0----2 6 1

Pitching

F                              IP            R             H             BB           K

Goodman (W)   7              2              6              2              6

C

Baker (L)              7              5              10           2              6

Batting

RBI: F-Thompson, Skaro, Gibson.

        C-Crum, Baker.

2B: F-Dorsey 2, Thompson.

       C-Dipace.

SB: F-Dioguardo, Dorsey, Sherer, Skaro, Gurevich.