Lancaster pulls out a hard-fought 3-1 win over Licking Heights in season opener
LANCASTER – Inning after inning, Lancaster continued to squander away scoring opportunities against visiting Licking Heights during Saturday’s season opener.
The Golden Gales left the bases loaded twice, and in all, they left 14 men on base, so as the game went along, it had to be a little frustrating, but to Lancaster’s credit, they stuck with it.
In a 1-1 game in the bottom of the sixth inning, senior second baseman Jacob Mowder came up huge for the Gales. Sophomore catcher Zach Mowder led off the sixth with a single, and he was quickly able to advance to third on a two-base throwing error from the pitcher attempting to pick him off first base.
Jacob Mowder then promptly delivered a single up the middle to score the go-ahead run. Two batters later, Carter Ross came up with an RBI single for a big insurance run, and Lancaster would go on to post a hard-fought 3-1 non-conference victory over the visiting Hornets.
It was a day of celebration for the Lancaster baseball program. The Gales were playing on their new turf field for the first time and there was a dedication ceremony before the game to honor former Lancaster coach Dick England, who the field is named after.
Even though the Gales struggled to come up with timely hits throughout most of the game, Lancaster coach Corey Conn was still pleased with the way his guys battled. There are a lot of new faces in the lineup, and for some of them, this was their first time being in big-time varsity action.
“I am just so proud of the way we battled,” Conn said. “Having the first game not go the way we wanted and when we have that first sign of adversity, instead of breaking the game open in the first inning as we could have, those are those big momentum shifts where you talk about it in the offseason and try to prepare for it, but being in it, it’s different. The lights are on now, and I thought our guys did a pretty good job of handling some of those adverse situations. Our dugout was phenomenal with energy, and our guys will learn under fire.”
Mowder, one of the few returning starters, relished being up in a pressure situation. He felt like as a senior, he knows he is expected to come through.
“In that situation, with the runner on third, is just not trying to do too much, staying inside myself and just driving it up the middle,” Mowder said. “We worked all offseason for those moments, and I know we are going to have a lot more of those this year. I am one of the returning guys and need to step up and be a leader. Coach Conn has been on me to do that, and it means the world to be able to pick up my teammates, but also get hyped when my teammates are making plays.
“We are a good team. We just have to play as one, slow the game down, and just do our jobs, because of we do that, we are going to win games. We have the talent, but we just have to have the right mindset and the right approach.”
Conn wasn’t surprised that Mowder was able to come through the way he did.
“(Jacob) is such a solidifying presence in our lineup and our team,” Conn said. “He just calms us down and never gets too high or too low. He made a nice play in the seventh inning at second base. He is going to play elite defense and he gave us some great at-bats and that’s what we expect from a senior leader. He understands the expectations and the standard of our program, along with the other seniors, and they understand they need to bring the younger guys up to that standard.”
Licking Heights was able to get on the board first in the top of the second inning when Elijah Hickman reached on a single and was able to score when Brady Pennington hit a fly ball to left-center field that fell in between the two Lancaster outfielders, allowing Hickman to score.
The Gales responded with an unearned run in the bottom half of the inning to tie things up at 1-1, and it stayed that way until the sixth inning, thanks to outstanding pitching on both sides.
Isaac Cooperrider started for the Gales and pitched five innings, giving up one hit and striking out five. Ross pitched the final two innings, striking out three and giving up one hit.
Three different pitchers toed the rubber for the Hornets. Hickman started and pitched two innings, Pennington pitched two innings and Cody Czuckowitz pitched the final two innings. They combined to give up seven hits, all singles.
“We wanted to come out and make a statement because we haven’t won on a consistent basis in a long time,” Licking Heights coach Cody Paterniti said. “We have a new coaching staff and a great group of seniors. Lancaster has a great tradition, and they were dedicating a new turf, and we wanted to come out and give them a ball game. We wanted our guys to pay attention to detail, one play at a time and one pitch at a time and come out and battle and I thought we did that today. We just came up a little short, but we battled throughout the game.”
Alex Miller, Hayden Allen, David Roby, Kathen Hutton, Ross, and both Mowder’s had Lancaster’s seven hits.
“We have to be able to execute, and today, we left some opportunities out there and we didn’t finish off bats very well and we didn’t move runners in some key spots,” Conn said. “We have to be able to do that, and as the stage gets bigger, those are huge spots in the game where you have to execute. It’s early and these guys are still learning, especially how important practice reps are.”
Lancaster will return to action at 5 p.m. Wednesday when it hosts Fairfield Union.
Tom Wilson is a sports reporter for the Lancaster Eagle Gazette. Contact him at 740-689-5150 or via email at twilson@gannett.com for comments or story tips. Follow him on Twitter @twil2323.
This article originally appeared on Lancaster Eagle-Gazette: Lancaster pulls out a hard-fought 3-1 win over Licking Heights in season opener
