Despite all the early mistakes, Community R-6 brought the winning run to the plate in the seventh inning.

Community R-6 vs New Haven Photo Gallery

The Trojans fell behind district foe New Haven 5-1 at home on Friday and then fell short at the end 5-4. Community broke in a new lineup, with five players making their first spring season varsity start, and tallied 10 strikeouts at the plate and four errors in the field.

Tyler Kobush, who was filling in as head coach for a suspended Joel Krato (only out one game for a pitch count violation in the fall), said Community had much inexperience despite the program having the benefit of a fall season and a preseason jamboree. While there were some expected mistakes, Kobush said the Trojans never felt like they were out of the game.

“They were down 5-1 and found a way to battle back,” Kobush said. “They were thinking they were in the game all the time. The energy was great the entire game.”

New Haven scored its first four runs within the first three innings, including three in the third inning. Lane Carter answered with a two-out RBI triple in the bottom half of the third inning.

Community wouldn’t do any more damage against New Haven sophomore pitcher Trevor Hinten until a three-run sixth inning while it was cycling through the order for a third time. The Trojans swung over the top of Hinten’s breaking ball sometimes but found pitches to crush early in the sixth.

“We stayed heavy by attacking first-pitch fastball,” Kobush said. “We knew he was going to throw a ton of strikes. We wanted to attack early and as often as we could before he was able to get to his offspeed, which is nasty.”

Kobush said there might have been “a little bit of nerves” since it was a game with district implications on top of being the first varsity start for many. 

Kyler Swaim and Nik Crider each had a RBI hit in the sixth inning and then Houston Hogan followed with a RBI single of his own to make it 5-4. Hogan was one of the Trojans making his spring varsity start and managed to reach base along with Kaiden Erdel, Mark Zelle and Ean Johnson.

“It was big for Houston,” Kobush said. “Houston was a little nervous all game but made some good plays at second base and then came up huge in that one inning with that hit.”

Kobush liked Crider and Drake Welch at the plate as they each went 2-for-3 at the plate. Welch struck out three in 1⅓ innings on the mound after relieving Cooper Rohan, who struck out seven and allowed three earned runs on eight hits and two walks in 5⅔ innings. 

While Kobush thought it was encouraging to see all parts of the order coming through at the plate, the Trojans need to minimize certain stats starting with the next game at district foe Wellsville-Middletown, whom they defeated 12-0 in six innings on Monday. The Trojans outhit Wellsville 11-1 and were led by Kaiden Erdel going 2-for-4 with three RBI, Crider going 3-for-5 with two RBI and Welch going 0-fo-2 but scoring four runs and recording two RBI. Swaim struck out 15, walked three and allowed one hit in six innings.

“It’s going to be fun going forward,” Kobush said. “We’ve got to limit the errors and the strikeouts have to come down.”

Community hosts Clopton at 5 p.m. tonight.