Baseball: Fremd does it again with late runs

It's still early in the season but Fremd's baseball team is already showing it knows how to battle back.

For the second time in as a many games, the Vikings rallied in the late innings to post a victory.

After stunning South Elgin earlier this week, Fremd scored six times in the sixth inning on Saturday to top Naperville Central 7-4 at Heritage Park in Wheeling.

"The boys battled back," said Fremd coach Chris Piggott said. "They kept their composure. They have the right mental attitude and the right frame of mind. They are competitors."

Fremd (2-0) got solid pitching from starter Justin Castillo, Zach Goldman and Ethan Hajdukovic.

The trio allowed just 3 hits while striking out six.

The Redhawks (1-1) pushed single runs across in the first and fourth innings, thanks to some wildness by the Fremd pitching staff and the field turf at Heritage Park to take a 2-1 in the fifth.

Beau Buchanan, who reached on an error in the first, was able to score on a wild pitch for Naperville Central.

Jon Barker, who belted a two-out triple, scored in the fifth on a dropped-third strike that went to the back of the screen.

Meanwhile, Fremd struggled in the early innings against Naperville Central ace Ryan Eirmann. The TCU-bound Eirmann allowed just 1 run in the four innings while striking out eight.

The Vikings were able to scratch out a run in third on an RBI single by JT Kolderup.

But those strikeouts, coupled with 3 walks and a hit batsman, pushed Eirmann into a higher pitch count for this early in the season so Redhawks coach Mike Stock lifted his ace.

Naperville Central increased its lead to 3-1 in the sixth on an RBI triple by Conor Joyce, scoring Buchanan, who had walked.

Fremd, which left two men in scoring position in its half of the fifth, reached back to find a way to break through in a big way in sixth.

The Vikings sent 11 batters to plate, banging out 5 hits and taking advantage of 3 errors to break the game open.

"Our guys don't hang their heads when they are down," Piggott said. "They get over things pretty quick and that is a testament to them."

Charlie Kaye drilled a triple to right with one out to get things rolling for the Vikings.

"I knew I had to get on to get things going for us," Kaye said. "I was just trying to see the ball deeper and take it the other way."

Tommy Josten followed with an RBI single and later scored on a wild pitch that tied the game at 3-3.

After Joe Smaga reached on an error, Tommy Wingen tripled and scored on Jack Molnar's single to make it 5-3.

The Vikings continued when Molnar scored on Kolderup's fielder's choice.

Jake LaGasse, who walked, scored on Troy Hajdukovic's single to close out the scoring.

"The last couple of years we have had trouble scoring runs," Kolderup said. "But this year we are really focusing on our at-bats and it has paid off so far."

Stock said his team needs to focus a bit better to avoid large-scoring innings.

"We need to make a few more pitches and we need to make some plays behind our pitchers," Stock said. "It should have been just a two-run inning and we made it a six-run inning. We need to minimize those situations