SCOTLAND — Chambersburg scored 5 runs in the bottom of the first inning in its baseball season opener on Tuesday afternoon and went on to claim an 8-1 victory in a non-league game against Susquehannock at Greene Township Park.
Evan Brown
Evan Brown went 4-for-4 and two Trojan pitchers combined to allow only 4 hits and one run.
"It was a good start, a plus for sure," Chambersburg coach Scott Folmar said. "I was excited the way we played today — especially on defense. And we took advantage of the mistakes their defense made, which we hadn't done so well (in recent years)."
The first inning began innocently enough with the first two batters grounding out. But Joey Diaz reached on an errors by the Warriors, then Brown cracked a double to left field to score the first run. Jason Cunha and Logan Draper were then both hit by a pitch to load the bases.
Brady Deneen then singled to shortstop to score a run, and an overthrow enabled Cunha to score and Draper and Deneen to get to second and third base. Aaron Vasquez then knocked in the fourth run on an RBI single, and the final run scored when a balk was called on the Susquehannock pitcher.
That's all the support Trojan pitchers Ryan Schellhase and Diaz needed. Schellhase pitched 4 innings, allowed 3 hits and 3 walks and struck out 3 batters. Diaz threw the final 3 innings, striking out 8 while walking 4 and giving up one hit.
"Ryan did a nice job, and pounded the strike zone for the most part," coach Folmar said. "Joey struggled with his control in his first inning, but then settled in and had strikeouts for eight of his nine outs."
Chambersburg added to its lead in the bottom of the second inning. Jake Folmar walked to lead off and moved up on a wild pickoff throw and a wild pitch, then scored when Ceagan Truett grounded a base hit to right field. Consecutive singles by Diaz and Brown plated Truett with the seventh run.
In the bottom of the sixth, Chambersburg tallied its final run when Brown singled, moved up on a grounder and came all the way around on an overthrow.
Folmar said, "Evan had a really good start to his varsity career — he had four good at-bats and hit the ball hard all four times."
