Mason Carroll earned the belt on Wednesday.

Community R-6 vs Silex Photo Gallery

The Community R-6 junior had a small WWE championship belt draped on his shoulder after striking out 10 and allowing two earned runs on six hits in 6⅓ innings in the Trojan’s 7-3 home win against Silex. The victory is Community’s first against the Class 2 Owls since 2016 as the Trojans had a five-game losing streak going in.

Head coach Joel Krato said the Trojans (3-1) started giving the belt to key players this season, and Carroll had earned the title in Community’s 7-3 win against Wellsville-Middletown after hitting the go-ahead home run. Carroll’s performance on the mound outmatched Silex’s hitters.

“That’s the Mason Carroll we’ve seen for three years,” Krato said. “That’s a kid who works his tail off in weights, that works his tail off in the offseason and a kid if you ask him to run through a wall, he’ll run through a wall for you.”

Carroll was able to catch Silex (2-2) looking at strike three four times as the Owls were playing catchup since the first inning, when Brant and Pacey Cope each picked up RBI hits for the Trojans. 

When not all of his pitches are to his liking, Carroll trusts his other pitches will throw off hitters. That’s what he was able to do to the Silex hitters, Carroll said, as the fastball wasn’t up to his standards but offspeed pitches were there for him time and time again.

“Curveball was working great for me. Fastball wasn’t the greatest, but you just have to find a strike with it sometime,” Carroll said. “Messing with them with offspeed and messing their timing up (helped).”

“He mixes up his pitches well, and he’s very confident in four pitches,” Krato said. “He knows what he wants to do, he sets kids up and he usually can locate a majority of the time all four pitches, which is incredible for a high school kid.”

Community was able to take advantage of some prime scoring opportunities in the first and third innings as it loaded the bases in both frames. The Copes gave the Trojans a 3-1 lead after one inning, and then Pacey Cope and Drake Welch found holes to make it 6-1.

Pacey Cope finished with three RBI and was 2-for-2 heading into his fifth inning at-bat. Thanks to him dropping a bunt, the Trojans advanced a runner that eventually scored on a balk. 

“Most of my kids are like that in they’ll do anything to help the team,” Krato said. “He goes 2-for-2 and lays down a bunt. How many kids go 2-for-2 and are OK with just sacrificing a bunt down. We scored a run off it because he did a team-effort thing.”

Krato acknowledges that both teams had their defensive issues, which presented problems for the Trojans in some innings. Carroll pitched through with the runners in scoring position allowing only two runs to score off those misplays. Community also turned two of its three double plays while he was on the mound.

“Throwing strikes and finding spots just hoping they would not get it,” Carroll said. “I threw it where they would not want it, like inside.”

Mason Rohan needed one pitch to record the final two outs of the game as the third baseman Pacey Cope stepped on third prior to throwing on target to first for the third Community double play. 

“It was nice to see Mason Rohan throw well, throwing strikes,” Krato said. “He hadn’t thrown since last spring. We played six games this fall, and he never threw an inning because Gavin (Allen) and Mason threw every inning.”

Krato said he liked how Community executed compared with Monday’s 11-1 five-inning win at Paris as he expects the Trojans to be at “district-championship level” to match their goal. He said teams can win games with talent, making less mistakes or by executing better.

Community wants to “outexecute everybody every night,” and Krato this was important in the short term against a team like Silex, who has won three district titles in its previous four seasons along with defeating the Trojans during that time.

“They’re always well-coached. (Silex head coach) Kent Hufty does an incredible job,” Krato said. “No matter the talent level, no matter what, they are always well-coached and are always tough to beat. We tried to treat this like it was the district championship game. We tried to outexecute because we knew they were going to execute.”

Community had a game scheduled at home Friday to open its Central Activities Conference schedule against district foe Madison (0-3) prior to playing at 5 p.m. Tuesday at conference foe Slater (0-1).