The Rochester baseball team fended off an early Shelton attack Friday afternoon at home to capture a barnburner victory, 16-12.
In a busy game that saw 28 runs, 27 hits, and 10 errors, the Warriors found a way to fight back after being down 4-11 in the first inning. Rochester got off to a hot start in the top of the first, bringing in four runs. Following that, Warriors’ starter Tate Quarnstrom had a hard time finding the zone after recording two outs, and a couple of errors later saw that lead vanish.
The Highclimbers scored 11 runs in the bottom of the first inning.
“I was super impressed with how we responded from that,” Rochester coach Brad Quarnstrom said. “Getting down 11-4, a lot of teams would’ve folded but I never sensed that from our kids today. I wasn’t too concerned, the way we scored in the first, we had a lot of ballgame left and I knew we could chip away.”
And chip away the Warriors did. Rochester battled back with a five-run second inning and a six-run fifth inning to take a comfortable lead, all while holding the ‘Climbers to one run after the first.
Mason Ubias stepped on the mound and was terrific, allowing just six hits and one run through 6 1/3 innings.
“Mason did a phenomenal job,” Brad Quarnstrom said. “He grinded out the rest of the game for us, it was truly gritty. He had a little bit of everything working for him, he just kept them off balance. We played good defense, Tate made three really good plays at short. Right after we went to Mason, Tate was frustrated, but he didn’t hang his head. The ball found him, he came up on it and threw a dart for an out and made some great plays.”
Six Warriors had a multiple-hit game, as Braden Hartley went 4 for 5 with four RBIs, Hyde Parrish drove in three RBIs of his own, going 3 for 5, and Tate Quarnstorm drove in two RBIs on 2 for 5 hitting.
The Warriors are right back on their home diamond Monday to take on Aberdeen in their second-to-last regular season game for Senior Night.
“This was a big one,” Brad Quarnstrom said. “The way this game played out was bizarre, but we’ll take a win for sure.”
