By Rick Assad
It’s quite early in the high school baseball season and both teams on the diamond committed some mistakes, but Providence High fell into a deep 4-0 hole after two frames versus host Hoover and then slipped behind by five runs through three innings.
At this point, matters seemed awfully grim that the contest would be even lose but across the next four frames the Pioneers charged and battled with everything they had and rallied in fine fashion behind a 10-hit attack and some splendid pitching.
Trailing by two runs in the very tense seventh inning, the team collected two hits and had the tying run at second base but ultimately lost 7-5 in a nonleague game on a glorious and shiny Saturday afternoon.
With the count at 3-2 and two outs, junior Asa Langlois, who pitched four effective innings in relief and singled up the middle in the sixth inning, smacked a sinking liner to center field but junior Jordan Mahler made an incredible diving catch for the third out.
Junior Nicholas Delger and senior Trevor Provencio, who also doubled in the sixth inning and scored, each reached base on hits for the Pioneers.
“I liked Asa Langlois’ grit. I appreciate Hoover having a good two strike approach today,” Providence coach Mando Contreras said. “They [his team] played well enough to win.”
Contreras wants to put a good product on the field including one that plays hard and likes challenges.
“We couldn’t prevent losing in the middle innings,” he noted of the early portion. “Pretty bad. Our defense is good when we communicate, and we didn’t do that, so we made four bad errors. We’ll clean it up and be better next time.”
Providence (1-2) narrowed Hoover’s lead to 4-2 in the top of the third inning when freshman Nathaniel Palmer lashed a one-out double to right field that scored senior Eric Chuchvara, who reached on an infield single and senior Adrian Contreras, who also was safe on an infield hit.
The Pioneers trimmed the advantage to 7-3 in the fifth as junior Luc Rode was safe on a one-out infield hit, advanced to second base on a walk, took third base on a wild pitch and crossed the plate on an error.
“I loved our team’s will to make something happen after errors and mistakes, even though the odds didn’t go our way, it felt like we grew in a sense of what to do next time the game gets heavy, ” explained Contreras, a pitcher and shortstop, who hopes to extend his career at the college level.
A two-run, four-hit sixth frame by Providence made it a two-run differential as junior Hudson West delivered a run batted in on a shallow single to center field and Rode added an RBI single to left field.
Hoover (2-2) struck first with a two-hit, four-run second inning as junior Owen Marks (two singles) smacked a hard-hit base hit to center field with the bases filled but the single turned into a two-base miscue as all three runs scored.
It became 4-0 a batter later when sophomore Kieran Sinta clubbed a run-scoring single to left field.
The Tornadoes padded their lead to 7- 2 with a three-run third frame that included hits by Mahler, junior Daniel Cano and senior Enzo Mitchell, who also singled in the fifth inning.
Langlois allowed five hits and surrendered two walks with one strikeout while sophomore Cade Mackenzie toiled two frames, allowing two hits with three walks and one strikeout.
Marks earned the win after working four and two-third innings, fanning seven, walking five and yielding four hits.
