Baseball: Errors doom Sterling in loss to United Township

STERLING – After putting up a clinic on offense during Saturday’s Western Big 6 doubleheader at Geneseo, the Sterling baseball team continued its barrage with the bats Tuesday against United Township.

The Panthers, however, also had a big day at the plate, and wound up with more runs across the plate to down the Golden Warriors 10-8 at a windy Gartner Park.

What was an early 4-0 lead for Sterling (5-9, 4-6 WB6) turned awry after the Panthers batted around in the third inning to take a 5-4 lead, having taken advantage of three Golden Warriors fielding errors. After Sterling recaptured the lead in the sixth inning, the Panthers pounced back with another big inning that saw eight batters come up and four runs score to lead for good, capitalizing on four more errors.

What turned out to be a good day at the plate was doomed by defensive miscues.

“Defensively, as coaches, we have to do a better job of making sure our guys are in the right spots and making plays,” Sterling coach Darwin Nettleton said. “We’ll do that in practice, we’ll make sure we take care of that. I thought our pitchers threw a lot of good strikes, but as coaches we’ve just got to make sure we execute better defensively.”

Having driven in seven runs during Saturday’s nightcap, Garrett Polson kept his RBI streak going with a first-inning triple that scored Colt Adams. Gio Cantu added an RBI double in the second inning to score starting pitcher Trevor Dir. Wild pitches in each inning by Panthers starting pitcher Nolan Malmstrom accounted for the two other runs in the 4-0 start.

Polson wound up going 3-for-4, but was glad to see No. 9 hitter Cantu get a big hit when it mattered.

“It’s sucks that we lost, but there were definitely a lot of positives that came out,” Polson said. “Trevor Dir pitched really good, and his locations were breaking well. Even on the offensive side of the ball, putting up eight runs, most times we’re going to win that game. Gio Cantu, he’s struggled a little bit, but he hit that ball real well and put two balls almost to the fence against Geneseo.”

Dir exited the mound after allowing two runs in the third, one of which came on a double by Kyler Trueblood on Dir’s last pitch. With Blake Nettleton on in relief, Braedon King and Jason Dean reached on infield errors, and with the bases loaded Landen Farnwsorth reached on an infield popup that blew awkwardly in the wind for a go-ahead run.

Ethan Janssen shot a double into the left field corner to score Dir and Polson’s courtesy runner Justin Null to regain the lead in Sterling’s half of the third at 6-5, but four fifth-inning errors by the Golden Warriors – including one more awkward infield popup – in the first four Panthers at-bats pushed UT back to a 7-6 lead, which grew by two more runs after RBIs from Jayson Sevier and Jack Risius.

Malmstrom was relieved after 2 2/3 innings by Brody Myers, who struck out 10 Golden Warriors in the final 4 1/3, but not before holding off a comeback. Janssen added another RBI in the sixth inning to close the gap to three. After a caught stealing attempt at third base for Sterling went awry in the seventh to put the Panthers in double-digits, the Golden Warriors tried to make a comeback in their half of the final inning. Braden Hartman led off with a double and his courtesy runner, Braiden Herrera, scored on an RBI single by Dir to get within two.

Janssen walked later in the seventh to become the potential tying run, and with two Golden Warriors on base, Myers retired the final two batters to earn the win.

“I really liked the way Brody came in, threw strikes and was aggressive to attack the hitters,” Panthers coach Michael Myers said. “He did a real good job of keeping us in it, and when we did get the runs for him, he was able to keep [Sterling] off the scoreboard much and get us in the win column.”

Polson, Janssen and Dir had multiple-hit nights for Sterling, as did Sevier for the Panthers.

“I thought our kids played as hard as they could,” coach Nettleton said. “They competed until the very last out.”

Sterling looks to rebound Friday back at home against Quincy.

“I feel when you more put runs on the board, you’re going to have a good shot to win the game than putting three or four on,” Polson said. “I think we’ll be in a good spot going toward the postseason.”