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Fullerton was led by (from left) Caden Wise, Caleb Brown and Zach Fany in the win over Calvary Chapel. (PHOTOS: Tom Connolly, For OC Sports Zone).
Caden Wise threw five strong innings and Fullerton’s baseball team scored four times in the fifth inning to break open a close game and the Indians defeated Calvary Chapel 8-3 in an Empire League game Friday afternoon at Fullerton.
Wise, a right-handed junior hurler, limited the Eagles (8-8-1, 1-1-1) to three hits and two runs, struck out three and walked only one as he earned his third win of the season. Elijah Angotti came on in relief and pitched the final two innings to secure the win.
“I felt good today, and I was a little nervous at first, but after the first few innings I felt a lot more confident,” said Wise. “I felt like I pitched alright; I was able to locate my fastball and changeup, and I was throwing strikes.”
Leading 4-2, the Indians (8-4-1, 2-0) sent 10 batters to the plate in the fifth inning and scored four times to take a commanding lead. Lazer Rojas led off the bottom of the fifth inning with a single, followed by a double to left center by Mason Park. Logan Thien drew a walk to load the bases.
A Calvary Chapel error led to a Fullerton run. Caleb Brown’s RBI single gave the Indians a second run and Zach Fany and Malachi Meni worked bases loaded walks off reliever Joshua Sturz to give Fullerton an 8-2 lead.
“Our coaches have high expectations of us,” said Fany, who had three hits, three RBI, reached base four times, stole a base, scored a run, and played flawless at shortstop. “They want us to keep the energy high in the dugout and keep the pressure on teams when we get up on them early. We’ve been doing a good job of that lately, but we must keep it up.”
Brown also had a big game as he reached base four times, scored two runs, and had two RBI.
“We can’t slack off when we get up on a team; we have to keep improving and maintaining our energy,” said Brown, the Indians junior catcher.
“He painted the corners, and he located his curveball well today,” Brown added. ”He was pounding the zone.”
Fany led off the bottom of the first inning with a single, stole second and then scored on Malachi Meni’s RBI double to left to give the Indians a 1-0 lead. Calvary Chapel’s first baseman Brody Beck blasted a one-out solo homer to right center in the second inning to tie the score 1-1.
However, Fullerton pushed across three runs in the second inning, highlighted by Fany’s two-run single, to up its lead to 4-1. The Eagles added a run in the fourth to cut the lead to 4-2, but the Indians countered with a big fifth inning to put the game away.
“We had opportunities to score more runs than we did today, but I think maybe some guys are trying to do too much at the plate,” said Fullerton Coach Shaun Hill, whose team remained in first-place in league play. “But a league win is always a good win. I thought Caden and Eli both did a good job today. We have several tough games coming up, so we must continue to grind.”
Calvary Chapel Coach Bob Marshall said his team made too many mistakes.
“We gave them 10 freebies; we made four errors, didn’t take good routes to make catches in the outfield and you can’t do that and expect to beat good teams,” said Marshall. “We are a young team; at one point today, I had seven sophomores in the field. We must learn to play with passion all the time without taking a play off. Great players, like Jordan, Jeter and Magic Johnson hate to lose. I want my players to hate to lose and we must have that type of passion. Our guys competed but we can’t make that many mistakes and expect to win.”
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