Geno Ferrari, Hall shine at Princeton

PRINCETON - Hall coach Tom Keegan saw a glimmer of sunshine when his Red Devils took the field Monday at Princeton.

Then the Red Devils came out and scored four runs in the top of the first inning among many shining moments on the way to a 10-4 Three Rivers East win over the Bureau County rival Tigers at Prather Field.

“Saw the sun for about 20 minutes. One of its rare appearances this spring,” Keegan said. ”Coming out of the gates hot helped a little bit.”

Geno Ferrari, who played a key role for the Red Devils (14-10, 4-3 TRAC East) at the plate with a 2-for-4 day and two RBIs, said the first-inning rally provided a big spark.

“All the noise in the dugout. All the guys cheering each other up. It’s a really good feeling, and especially knock some guys in, go in the dugout, it’s a good feeling,” he said.

Ferrari, the Hall cleanup man, drove in the first run of the day with an RBI single to right. After a walk to Noah Plym, Braden Curran ripped an RBI hit to right, and Jack Curran followed with a two-run single to right, scoring Plym and his twin, Braden, to make it 4-0.

“Needed it for sure just to get on the board. Anything you can get early on is super beneficial. Princeton’s not going to go away, and they certainly didn’t with some of their at-bats,” Keegan said.

The Red Devils stole a run in the third inning to go up 5-0 when Plym (hit by pitch) scored on the back side of a double steal with Braden Curran (single).

Ferrari came through once again with an RBI double off the glove of diving Tigers right fielder Ryan Jagers to score the first of four runs in the fifth inning.

“Had a [good] approach coming into this game – stay small, drive the ball to the other side. Did what I wanted,” Ferrari said. “Faced some good pitchers. [Princeton’s] Tyler Forristall’s a good pitcher. Played with him a long time [with the Red Devils travel team]. Stayed in my approach there, saw the ball well.”

Keegan said Ferrari is a good weapon to have with runners on base.

“Geno’s been able to string some good at-bats together,” he said. “He’ll foul some pitches off. He’ll stay on the ball, drive it to the right side. I don’t think he’s overwhelmed by any situations or moments. When there’s some runners on for him, I like it. He’s going to hit behind them and put it in play.”

Braden Curran added an RBI single, and the Red Devils tacked on another run to go up 8-3.

Hall plated two more in the seventh on a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly by Jablonski.

As much as things were shining on Hall, it was dark for Princeton. Forristall had to exit after pitching just one inning with a sore shoulder and join senior Jordan Reinhardt, who is nursing a sore elbow. PHS coach Wick Warrren had to turn to Ace Christiansen to finish the game in the seventh inning because he was running out of pitchers.

“We’re in deep trouble. We’ve got sore-arm problems,” Warren said. ”The guy we were hoping to pitch came out after the first inning, and we were expecting a good outing from him.

“We’re not clicking at all. We’re not hitting the ball like we need to do either. Ace had two hits, and [Ryan] Jagers had a nice hit. In between that, we had 12 strikeouts. You’re not going to win against a good team, and Hall is a good team.”

Jagers was a bright spot for the Tigers (9-8-1, 5-4) with a 2-for-3 day, including a two-run single up the middle to make it just a 5-3 game in the third inning.

The Bureau County rivals will meet again Thursday in Spring Valley with a potential postseason matchup ahead.

“Then we’ll have to see what shakes out postseason-wise,” Keegan said. “Maybe we’ll see them potentially three times over the next three weeks, who knows? All that stuff’s going to shake out this week. We’ll see what transpires.”