Class 1A baseball: Carson Baker settles in, pitches Serena past Yorkville Christian, 7-3

SERENA – When the regular season turns to postseason, the games take on a different factor ... win and stay, lose and go home.

Serena senior right-hander Carson Baker said he had more than his share of butterflies as he took the hill in Thursday’s Class 1A Serena Regional semifinal against Yorkville Christian.

After the No. 7-seeded Huskers scored three times in the top of the first, the No. 4-seeded Mustangs got two back in their half.

But from there Serena (14-12) kept scoring, while Baker was keeping Yorkville Christian (12-15) from adding on. The final result was a 7-3 victory for the hosts and a trip to Saturday’s 11 a.m. championship game against top-seeded Marquette.

“No doubt, I was nervous at the start of the game,” Carson Baker said after allowing just three hits, two earned runs with four walks and 12 strikeouts in six innings. “I knew seeing some of the scores and results (YC) had against some tough teams that they were a pretty good hitting team. Then in the second inning I just started to throw all three of my pitches right where I wanted them to go. I’m not sure what it was, but I was just more relaxed and confident after getting through the first inning.

“My curveball was my best pitch today. I struggled locating my fastball at times, but when I needed to make a pitch in a key spot, my curveball was what I went with.”

“I really feel like Nolan (Muffler’s) two-out, two-run base hit in the first really set the tone for us. It not only gave us the lead right off the bat, but it was also from a freshman, so I think it was really a momentum grabber. I think sometimes a team needs a little reminder that they do belong in big games, and the top of the first helped us realize that.”

—  Chad Baker, Serena baseball coach

Serena grabbed the lead in the first on a two-out, two run single by Nolan Muffler off Mustangs junior losing pitcher Danny Paige (3 2/3 IP, 8 H, 7 ER, 8 BB, 5 K). Wesley Hendricks later coaxed a bases-loaded walk to make it 3-0.

Yorkville Christian responded with two in their half of the frame when after a pair of walks. Brody Davis lined an RBI single before Jess Seaton lifted a sacrifice fly. Hendricks saved the tying run from scoring with a great diving catch in center field to end the inning.

“I really feel like Nolan’s two-out, two-run base hit in the first really set the tone for us,” Serena coach Chad Baker said. “It not only gave us the lead right off the bat, but it was also from a freshman, so I think it was really a momentum grabber. I think sometimes a team needs a little reminder that they do belong in big games, and the top of the first helped us realize that. We had a number of different guys step up at certain times today, and that’s many times what you need to do to win games.

“I also thought getting out of the bottom of the first still having the lead was another key. Carson wasn’t sharp to start but found a way to limit things a little and then really settled in from there.”

With Carson Baker retiring 12 of the next 15 batters he faced, the Huskers used an RBI single by Payton Twait in the third, a two-run single by Tanner Faivre in the fourth and an RBI base hit by Carter Meyer in the fourth to hold a 7-2 advantage.

The Mustangs scored the final run of the contest in the sixth on another RBI single off the bat Seaton.

Faivre and Carson Baker each finished with finished with three hits, with Beau Raikes coming on to record a pair of strikeouts to close out the seventh.

YC’s Owen Curran had two hits to pace his team, while freshman Phoenix Oliver posted 3 1/3 innings of scoreless, two-hit relief, including a pair of strikeouts.

“(Carson Baker) did a nice job of settling down after we got a couple there in the first, and from there he kind of just went right through us for the next five innings,” Yorkville Christian coach Sean Bieterman said. “Serena was able to just keep adding here and there, while we just couldn’t get a lot going. They did a better overall job of executing today than we did.

“This is a really young group, so we’ll be returning eight starters and every inning on the mound next season. Today was just another experience for a lot of these guys, and one that hopefully pushes them a little harder to keep improving in the offseason.”