Servite baseball showcases pair of young pitchers in win over Canyon

ANAHEIM — The Servite baseball team showcased a pair of young pitchers in a 6-1 victory over Canyon in a nonleague game Friday at Canyon High School.

The score was tied at 1-1 in the top of the seventh inning when the Friars (4-2) broke the game open with a barrage of singles.

Sophomore Wyatt Karges started the game for the Friars. He allowed one run on four hits with three strikeouts and two walks.

After giving up a hit with two outs in the first, Karges retired eight batters in a row before giving up a leadoff single in the fifth.

Karges said his pitches were hitting 90 mph.

“My teammates just really helped me out on a lot of the plays,” Karges said. “The coaches called some great pitches and the catcher got some good frames. I got a couple of good calls. It was just great overall team performance.”

In the fifth inning, the Comanches (4-4) scored a run and still had the bases loaded with two outs when freshman Cole Grothues came in to pitch for Servite. Grothues got the final out of the inning on an infield popup.

Grothues went on to retire the side in order in the sixth and seventh to pick up the victory.

“He’s not scared to throw the ball over the plate and he does a really good job,” Servite coach Shawn Gilbert said of Grothues. “He throws strikes. That’s why he’s in there. He had some injuries and he got an opportunity and showed himself to be adequate and do the job. He’s a competitor and that’s why he’s in there.”

Starter Cooper Stevenson also turned in a fine outing for the Comanches.

In the first inning, the Friars had the bases loaded with one out with Stevenson retired the next two hitters to get out of the jam.

Servite had the bases loaded with one out again in the fifth when the senior right-hander struck out the next two batters.

The Friars led off the seventh with five consecutive singles.

The big hit was a two-run single from P.J. Becerra, who drove in the third and fourth runs and then came into score on an error later in the inning.

Kane Clark also singled home a run in the inning.

With the wind blowing in, Gilbert didn’t expect to see any home runs Friday, but said his team should be playing station-to-station baseball anyway.

“There is no sense in hitting the ball in the air,” the coach said. “Nobody is going to hit it out of here. That is the way we have to play anyway. Unfortunately, our offense didn’t show up until the seventh inning. We need to do a better job in those situations. We had chances to break it open early and we did not.”