Frishmuth’s solid outing paces Carolina Forest to region win

Every night isn’t necessarily going to be a good one at the plate.

But good teams find ways – even when one facet is sputtering – to win.

Unable to get things going in the batter’s box, a strong effort by pitcher Jakob Frishmuth proved to be the difference for Class AAAA’s top-ranked team Carolina Forest in a 5-0 victory over South Florence.

The senior hurler went the distance for the Panthers, striking out 11 South Florence batters while only allowing three hits.

“When things aren’t necessarily going how you’d like in the batter’s box, it’s good to get a strong effort like we got from (Frishmuth),” said Carolina Forest baseball coach Jack Jolly. “Jakob was really on his game tonight.”

Frishmuth set the tone from the first inning, striking out the side. In the bottom half of the frame, a two-out single by Hunter Baiden pushed across the first run of the night, aggressive baserunning by pinch runner Brendan Calvert giving the Panthers a 1-0 lead.

A pair of walks by Bruins starter Austin Moore helped extend the inning.

In very similar fashion, Baiden in the third inning would help Carolina Forest extend its lead. After Calvert stole second base, the center fielder’s base hit once again brought him home to give his team a 2-0 advantage.

“Honestly, it was early in the count both times and I was just going up there looking for something to hit,” Baiden said. “I was just confident, got a fast ball and was able to make it count.”

Carolina Forest would tack on three more in the sixth, which would be more than enough for Frishmuth.

“Easily felt like I normally did, I felt good tonight,” Frishmuth said. “For a team as good as South Florence, the best thing I could do is keep them off balance.

“For me, it means a lot to get a win like this, to be able to do the right things and scrape out victories.”

Moore proved largely up to the task, going more than five innings and giving up three earned runs and four base hits. He also walked five batters.

But sometimes when a team has built good equity the way Carolina Forest has, on a night in which it struggled to manufacture much in the hitting department it still came out golden.

“We pride ourselves on being built off pitching and defense,” Jolly said. “There will be times we have to win games the way we did tonight, and I’ll take a shutout any day.”

This story was originally published March 22, 2016 at 10:21 PM with the headline "Frishmuth’s solid outing paces Carolina Forest to region win."