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Lake Forest out-swings Carmel

Cooper Johnson's swing, which suggested he was trying to deposit his friend's pitch onto Route 176, was oh-so mighty.

"I was trying to do too much," Johnson said of his first-inning rip, which missed the baseball.

Lake Forest's 8-4 win over host Carmel Catholic on Thursday was oh-so-mighty big for Johnson's buddy, Cal Coughlin. Last spring, the two Division-I recruits were high school teammates, part of Carmel's super sophomore class. Then Coughlin transferred to Lake Forest.

"I just wanted to beat these guys," Coughlin said after earning the win on the mound and going 2-for-4 at the plate with a double and 2 RBI. "I didn't want to lose at all. I didn't want to give them a reason to talk. I mean, I love these guys. But I wouldn't have heard the end of it."

Coughlin and Johnson engaged in an intense battle from start to end, even if the nonconference game for both sides was simply a matter of beating a quality opponent.

Lake Forest, which swept Libertyville this week, improved to 12-0.

"We just have a lot of confidence going right now," Scouts coach Ray Del Fava said. "I don't want to say we're coming out here expecting to win, but we're coming out here expecting to compete, and when you compete, you give yourself a chance."

Carmel (6-8) had won four of its last five games.

"It's one of those things where with a young team you're going to have some of these ups and downs," said Corsairs coach Dann Giesey, who started only two seniors, including pitcher Ryan Jones.

After his swing and miss in the first inning, Johnson ended up winning his battle against Coughlin, who was making just his second start of the season. Johnson lined a double into the right-center-field gap, scoring Griffin Norton (infield error) and Dyllan Van Erden (bunt single) to open the scoring.

Coughlin's breaking ball earned him a called-third strike against Johnson in the third. Then in the fifth, a tiring Coughlin walked Johnson. The two stars weren't done with each other, however.

Johnson, who's committed to Ole Miss, came to the plate against reliever Charlie Sullivan in the sixth with the bases loaded and Coughlin playing shortstop. Johnson represented the tying run, as Lake Forest was up 8-4. Johnson hit a groundball to Coughlin, who was playing deep. Coughlin, a Texas Christian commit, made a strong throw to first to end the Carmel threat.

"I'm glad I got that ball," Coughlin said. "(The throw) was pretty far and my arm was getting a little tired."

"It was a lot of fun," Johnson said of facing Coughlin, who's his Top Tier travel baseball teammate. "I love competing with him. We're both very competitive people, so we're always battling with each other."

Coughlin (2-0), who threw an inning in relief against Libertyville the previous day, pitched 4⅔ innings. He struck out seven and allowed 4 hits and 4 runs (3 earned). Carmel chased Coughlin in the fifth after he issued his fifth walk of the inning.

"(Assistant coach) Billy (San Hamel) said when (Coughlin) was warming up that he seemed even-keeled," Del Fava said. "If he was too pumped up, he didn't show it. At the end, he ran out of gas. We probably kept him in there a little too long, but we just kept hoping he'd be able to get out of the inning."

The lefty-hitting Coughlin helped himself when he singled in Cole Digman (double) with two out in the fifth to break a 2-2 tie. Sullivan followed with an RBI double off the fence, and Charles Asma capped the Scouts' 5-run inning with a bad-hop single that plated a pair.

Carmel managed only 5 hits but coaxed 7 walks. Joey Lake drew a bases-loaded pass against Coughlin.

"I thought our (quality) at-bats were great," Giesey said. "We were 2-2, 3-2 (counts) in a lot of at-bats."

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