Fisher Catholic pulls away from Fairfield Christian

LANCASTER – There were a lot of crazy plays in Saturday's game between Fisher Catholic and Fairfield Christian.

For starters, the Knights played a complete shift in the outfield where they didn't have a right fielder. Two runners were picked off second base, and runner that had second base stolen, ran back to first base for know reason and was thrown out. Fisher Catholic pitcher Blake Saffell had four strikeouts where the runner reached first base because of a passed ball.

With all the chaos, the score was tied 3-3 through five innings. But the Irish were finally able to put the game away, scoring nine runs in the sixth and seventh innings to come away with a 12-3 Mid-State League-Cardinal Division win.

"Both sides had some crazy plays all the way around," Fisher Catholic coach Jack Faulkner said. "We had strikeouts where the runner reached, but I give credit to our kids for not quitting. We ended up picking a couple of them off. We kept playing and bouncing back and making plays."

Fisher Catholic (11-6, 5-1) did a good job of manufacturing runs early in the game, scoring single runs in the first, third and fourth innings. Each time the Irish scored, though, the Knights (1-10, 0-7) would manage to find a way to score.

Fairfield Christian tied at 1-1 in the second inning after Caleb Walls walked, stole second and scored on Mathew Longest's single. They made it 2-2 in the fourth without the benefit of a hit. Walls struck out, but reached on a passed ball. He stole second and eventually scored on two passed balls.

The Knights tied at 3 in the fifth on two Fisher Catholic errors.

The Irish scored two runs in the sixth with two outs. David Hoffman walked, and after Andrew Selhorst singled, Jared Faulkner hit a triple to clear the bases to make 5-3.

In the seventh, the floodgates opened. Fisher Catholic score seven runs on five hits, including doubles by Tom Sylvester and Ben Kerns. Selhorst also had a two-run single in the inning.

"We moved the runners up and stole a few bases, and that's what we wanted to do," Faulkner said. "We wanted to get the ball on the ground and move runners around and when we did that, our bigger hitters came up and did a nice job of moving them in."

Saffell pitched six innings and only gave up two hits and finished with 12 strikeouts and four walks. Zach Saffell pitched the seventh and had two strikeouts.

"Blake never gets down on himself and I have a lot of confidence to keep going with him, even when he does struggle a little bit," Faulkner said. "He walked a few batters, but he comes right back and gets a strikeout, plus he picked two guys off. He is just a great competitor."

Jared Faulkner finished with two hits, three RBIs and two runs and Brock Conrad finished with three hits. Selhorst had two hits, two RBIS and two runs and Sylvester finished with two hits.

Brandon Bush and Bobby Leeper had a hit each for the Knights.

twilson@lancastereaglegazette.com

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