Baseball: Princeton takes advantage of Rock Falls errors

PRINCETON – Donnie Chappell has seen a lot of things happen in 25 years of coaching Rock Falls Rockets baseball.

He saw something new Thursday at Princeton.

His Rockets made five consecutive errors in the infield with two outs in the third inning, and the Tigers took full advantage, scoring four runs on no hits. That was just enough to give the Tigers a 5-4 win in their 2024 home opener at Prather Field.

“Yeah, I don’t know if we’ve made five errors in a row in 25 years, but hey, you know you do something long enough like me you think you see everything and all of sudden, ‘No, that’s a new one,’” Chappell said.

It all started to unravel for the Rockets in the bottom of the third when Tigers leadoff man Ace Christiansen reached on an error with two outs. Jordan Reinhardt, Will Lott and James Stuckey also reached on errors before Noah LaPorte reached on a two-run throwing error, the Rockets’ fifth straight error, giving the Tigers a 4-2 lead.

“Ah, that’s baseball. We hit the ball hard and right at them. They don’t hit it hardly at all and we booted it and gave them five runs,” Chappell said. “No excuses, [but] we got three freshmen and two sophomores. There’s going to be a lot of that early in the season I think. They are really good players and they’re going to figure it out. Just part of the game.

“At the end of the day, other than one inning, I thought we played really well and they took advantage of our mistakes. Give them credit for that.”

Lott brought home another Princeton run with a bloop hit in the fourth inning for a 5-3 lead and pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the seventh to preserve the win.

The junior right-hander got himself in trouble with a one-out walk and a hit batter, but pitched himself out of it by striking out Owen Mandrell with the bases loaded to end the game.

“I was just rough at the start and had to find my release point. Found it at the end,” Lott said. “I don’t like how I put myself in the position of putting people on base. [But] it’s fun.”

“That’s pretty much Will. He’ll battle you,” Princeton coach Wick Warren said.

The Tigers (1-1) were nearly just as giving as the Rockets, committing three errors in the field, allowing all of the Rockets’ runs to be unearned.

Of the nine runs scored between the former NCIC rivals, only one by either team was earned.

“A win’s a win. Our pitchers had 13 strikeouts. That was the good news,” Warren said. “Didn’t play nearly as well in the field as the first game [at Dixon]. The guys are battling and maybe it will warm up one of these days. Maybe.”

Rock Falls (1-2) took a 2-0 lead in the first and came back with two more in the fourth to pull within 5-4, including hits by Hunter Gale and Carter Hunter and a sac fly by Colby Ward.

The Rockets collected seven hits (two by AJ Moore) off three Tiger pitchers, including starter Tyler Forristall, who left with an ankle injury in the second inning. Reinhardt pitched 3 1/3 innings in relief for the win, while Lott went two for the save.

“We went down looking too many times. Strikeouts are going to happen. Especially early in the season, it’s cold,” Chappell said. “You can’t strike out looking. We did it twice with guys on third. We can’t do that. Something I’m hoping we’re not doing in another month. Fight through some things early and be ready to play when it really counts.

“I’m happy with our kids. They’re playing really well. We just didn’t win today.”