ADVERTISEMENT Stone's three homers help Central Catholic breeze

Written by
NATHAN BAIRD

CHALMERS -- Central Catholic senior Nick Stone stepped off the bus at Frontier on Monday afternoon and into an interesting dilemma.

The wind howling out toward the short outfield dimensions could have made his job as a starting pitcher tougher. But he also had that breeze at his back when he stepped to the plate.

Stone led off the game with a wind-aided home run, then added two more homers in Class A No. 1 Central Catholic's 16-4 victory at No. 3 Frontier.

"All three of them I kind of thought, oh, this might not get out," said Stone, who said he'd never hit three home runs in a game at any level. "The third one, it was a line drive. I thought it might hit off the wall, but it still got out. It felt good."

On Tanner Hayden's second pitch of the game, Stone hit what would be a routine fly ball in most parks. It dropped over the center field fence for his first home run of the season, but he wasn't done.

Stone was the ninth of 11 Knights to bat in the third inning, and he connected on a 2-0 pitch from Frontier reliever Kyle Whitlow for a grand slam to center. He hit a two-run home run off Whitlow in the fifth to left-center, when CC again sent 11 men to the plate.

"The good hitters don't change their approach," CC coach Tim Bordenet said. "No matter where you're playing, you just try to hit the ball hard, square it up, hit it back up the middle. Nick did that today, and fortunately the wind carried a couple of them out of here."

Frontier (10-4) played without top hitter and starting shortstop Brandon Gallinger, who suffered a broken right hand on Saturday. Falcons coach Ryan Long said the sophomore is expected to miss two weeks.

Long was less concerned about the home runs than he was about the sloppy play that extended some CC innings.

"They're a good team, and you have to come out and put your best foot forward to beat them," Long said. "We were poor defensively; that, to me was the most disappointing part. Defensively we need to be a lot cleaner."

Central Catholic junior Jake Churchill, who had battled back problems all spring, made his season debut at shortstop. He did not bat, but fellow returning starters Austin Munn (3-for-4, one run), Evan Kennedy (2-for-3, RBI double, two runs) and Andrew Hubertz (2-for-3, two RBIs, two runs) helped Stone fuel the offense.

Kyle Whitlow homered for Frontier, which managed just three hits. Stone (2-0) struck out seven.

"You always want to keep the ball down," Stone said. "It doesn't matter where you're playing, what wind you've got, what weather, anything. I just try to come out here and throw my game."