Baseball isn’t always a pretty game.

Community vs New Franklin Photo Gallery

Community R-6 was coming off two lopsided losses at home with a combined 33-11 score but walked off Central Activities Conference foe New Franklin 2-1 on Tuesday for its first home and conference win of the season. Lane Carter had the game-winning RBI infield single in a seventh inning with bases that were loaded by two hit by pitches and an intentional walk, and Cooper Rohan struck out nine in seven innings.

Head coach Joel Krato said New Franklin (7-6, 2-3 CAC) is a good team that had just beat conference rival and Class 1 No. 8 Cairo (7-3, 3-2 CAC) 8-2, throwing the same arm at the Trojans (5-6, 1-2 CAC). Lane Hackman pitched into the seventh inning and only allowed one earned run, and the Bulldogs outhit Community 8-4 and were better at putting down bunts. However, Krato said a few mistakes in a tight game such as Tuesday’s can decide the outcome.

“Baseball is a funny sport,” Krato said. “I thought New Franklin played better than us today. That’s what’s crazy. We did not have a good practice yesterday, but the kids just battled and kept putting the ball in play. We just put more balls in play and made more routine plays.”

Hackman struck out 15 Cairo hitters five days prior but could only whiff five Community hitters in a rearranged lineup from Krato. That is unlike the Trojan offense that has struck out as much as 16 times in a 5-3 home loss to Elsberry and then 10 and 12 times, respectively, a 17-4 loss to Hermann and 16-7 loss to conference foe Sturgeon. 

After striking out twice before, Houston Hogan hit the ground ball that turned into an error and two-out run for Community to tie the game at 1 in the sixth inning. Carter put the ball in play in the infield and beat the throw to first base.

“With us not being as seasoned baseball players, we’ve been trying to focus more on the two-strike approach,” Carter said. “Something I’ve told the team is basically the first two strikes are yours, but the third one is a team strike. Whether you hit a ball or just put one in play, you have to do something.”

Rohan has been Community’s best pitcher this season, lowering his ERA to 2.33 after his second seven-inning outing of the year. He has struck out 39 and walked 13 in 30 innings and didn’t allow New Franklin to score whenever he encountered trouble, stranding 11 Bulldog runners. 

Before Community tied the game in the sixth inning, New Franklin loaded the bases with no outs in the top half of the sixth. In the previous two losses against Hermann and Sturgeon, the Trojans allowed at least 10 runs in one inning. “Potentially the all-conference player of the year” Hackman, according to Krato, stepped up to the plate and struck out on a 3-2 curveball to start off a string of three straight strikeouts to leave the inning unscathed. 

“He threw a great pitch,” Krato said. “Sometimes, you have to call a fake punt and see what happens. Sometimes, it backfires, but sometimes, you have to make a call and hopefully it goes your way.”

Krato came out of the dugout for a mound visit after New Franklin loaded the bases. The catcher Carter said Rohan was brimming with confidence and backed that up. That has been the case for Rohan all this season.

“I told Krato before he got on the mound, ‘I’m striking this kid out,’” Rohan said. “I wasn’t letting him get a hit. I just focus on myself knowing and thinking I can do a lot better in every game. After I have a good game, either in at-bat or pitching, I know I can do a lot better and hold myself to a higher standard.”

Krato said Rohan has stepped up this season after being Community’s No. 3 pitcher behind Mason Carroll and his brother Mason Rohan, who are now participating in baseball and competitive shooting in college. 

“He doesn’t throw overly hard but throws the curveball for a strike and the fastball for a strike and works well with runners on,” Krato said. “He keeps his pitch count because he doesn’t miss. He fills up the strike zone. In Class 1 and Class 2, that’s all you have to do.” 

When Community has a pitcher like Rohan and its lineup battling the way it did against New Franklin, each potential run makes a big difference. This includes the three hit batsmen by the Trojans. Ean Johnson was hit by a pitch earlier in the game and then Drake Welch and Kaiden Erdel were plunked to put runners on in a crucial seventh inning. 

Carter initially was hit by a pitch, but Krato admitted he was correctly asked to come back after it was ruled he stuck his arm out. Still, he said Community is averaging 3.5 hit batters a game. Those other hit batters were earned, Krato said, and a result of practice paying off.

“We work on wearing pitches every day at practice,” Krato said. “Other teams don’t believe us, but we literally set the machine up and wear it every day. Those are free bases. As soon as you get the fear of wearing pitches out of your head, you have no problems just standing there and wearing it.”

Carter said the energy against New Franklin was unlike any previous game and needs that kind of energy as Community prepares to face Glasgow (7-4, 3-0 CAC) and Cairo in two tough conference road tests on Tuesday and Friday. The Trojans host Louisiana (2-7) before that at 5 p.m. Monday.

“It’s definitely a good game going into next week, which is probably our toughest week against two of the better teams in the conference,” Carter said. “It’s a great win to have and get some confidence and know what we can do.”

Rohan said the team looks forward to the future of the season after picking up this quality victory.

“Winning this game will help us a lot,” Rohan said. “New Franklin beat Cairo 8-2 and had the same guy on the mound. I guess we just came in with more confidence.”

Krato said the New Franklin victory is definitely the best win of the year for his team and encouraging after how Community lost the previous two games.

“To finally feel we can compete with good teams, it’s a good win for us,” Krato said.