The Chardon Hilltoppers baseball team’s offense caught fire in an 11-4 win over visiting Western Reserve Conference foe Willoughby South on April 24.
Game photos click here.
The Chardon Hilltoppers baseball team’s offense caught fire in an 11-4 win over visiting Western Reserve Conference foe Willoughby South on April 24.
Chardon opened the bottom of the first with Kyle McCoy reaching on an error, then opened the door for seven consecutive hits, and all nine batters to reach safely, driving in seven runs before an out was recorded.
Jayden Buth doubled and Stone Fawcett ripped a two-run double to open the scoring, Cal Smith added an RBI single, with a Chad Prince RBI double, who then scored on a Adam Gable RBI single for a 5-0 lead.
Tim Robertson kept the train rolling with a run-scoring single, as did Dominic Sintic with his RBI single.
After McCoy grounded out, Buth added on with an RBI groundout to cap-off an 8-run first inning.
“Every game needs to start like that,” Fawcett said. “If we get hot early then we leave it up to our pitchers. We have a good pitching staff who come on and throw strikes.”
The Hilltoppers added three more runs in the fourth with a two-out three-run double by Justin Smith to cap off the 11-4 conference win, with the 11 runs being the third most runs scored in a game for the Chardon offense.
“This game did a lot for our confidence,” said Chardon co-head coach Bob Francis. “We see kids go in spurts where they’re individually hitting the ball really well, but today they came out and the whole team was firing on all cylinders.”
Everyday there’s been a new lineup as the coaches are trying to find what works, putting the team through some adversity to learn and fight through it.
“We challenge them to face adversity, and with a lineup that changes everyday, they had a chance to face adversity and we saw what they did with it,” said Chardon co-head coach Greg Fronk.
Any baseball season and game comes with its loads of ups, downs, and adversity. For a team with only few seniors, one of which was apart of the 2022 state title winning team, their leadership is important to help guide the younger players throughout the struggles.
“Stone’s experience is very valuable. He was a starter on the 2022 state championship team, so he’s been here,” Francis said of Fawcett’s leadership. “We recently told this team the story about that year when as late as May of 2022 we weren’t playing very good baseball, and ended up winning the state championship. We got hot at the right time, we kept working through adversity. So having a guy that’s been through that battle gives it a little more validity.”
The senior catcher expressed the way he’s working to step up and help his team work through its challenges to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
“I’ve been in a lot of games and through the highs and lows, but playing with a lot of these younger guys and helping them learn that you can get through the highs and lows, and come together as team to put up 11 runs like that,” he said.
Having this level of an offensive output is what the doctor ordered for the Hilltoppers, as they look to keep it rolling.
“The biggest part is consistency in positions. We’ve had guys bouncing around and we’ve been up and down with the errors, and the guys know this is the lineup we’re going with,” Coach Fronk said. “We’re getting comfortable in those positions, beginning to trust each other and getting the reps. From here until the tournament they’re going to get the reps and we’re just going to get better.”
Through 15 games, and a 7-8 record, coach Francis has seen the growth from the younger guys, stepping into their roles.
“You’re either getting better or getting worse everyday as a team, individual. But, we’re seeing growth out of everybody,” he said. “That is critical. We see some growth with guys with their maturity. We’ve seen growth physically, guys developing pitches, and learning to play the middle-infield despite being outfielders most of their careers.”
The home stretch is around the corner, and through the first half there’s been a lot to like out of the Hilltoppers’ baseball team.
“The biggest thing I like is the body language is a lot better,” Fronk said. “We haven’t had much of that, ‘Hey, I made a mistake and I’m just going to carry it out for the rest of the game’. They’re teenagers, so it’s still there, but i’ve seen the improvement with that. The guys are able to put it to the side and go back to work.”
