CARROLLTON - The Carrollton Hawks have been on a roll this week.
On Monday they took down Marquette Catholic (19-8) 9-4 and Triopia (16-8) 16-5 the next day. After taking a tough loss to Southwestern (19-12), the Hawks came back on Friday and took down Civic Memorial 5-2.
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The Hawks have Gabe Jones to thank in large part.
The junior righty tossed a five-inning shutout striking out eight, walking four, and allowed three hits. Jones now goes to 5-1 on the season and arguably pitched his best game.
“For me, it’s all about getting ahead. My off-speed stuff is decent, but I haven’t been using that change-up much this year, but it was working today. When I get ahead, I can use those pitches, and that was a big part of the game.”
“He was looking well,” Catcher Hayden Stringer said. He was bringing them in right across the middle. Outside he was hitting his spots, and the umpire was giving it to him too. It all worked out.”
At the plate, Jones helped himself going 2-for-3 with an RBI.
“I’ve been in a slump the whole season pretty much,” Jones said with a smile. “It was nice to get out there and hit.”
On Thursday, the Hawks dropped a heartbreaking 5-4 loss to the Southwestern Birds, which makes Friday’s victory over the Eagles a good stimulate.
“We have to be very happy with the way we came back today. Yesterday was a very tough loss, but [so far this week] we got three out of four against very tough competition that doesn’t let up,” Carrollton coach Jeff Krumwiede said. “We knew this was going to be a tough week and now I like our momentum.”
In the top of the first inning, Jones struggled, and Civic Memorial took advantage by loading the bases with no outs. However, Carrollton would bare down.
One of Jones’ pitches got by catcher Hayden Stringer to the side, and Caden Clark raced for home plate, but Stringer was quick enough to get to the ball and toss it to Jones who tagged Clark out at the plate. After walking Hayden Sontag, Jones struck out Geoff Withers and Chandler Powell to escape the inning unscathed.
“Shaky first inning. We were lucky to get out of that,” Jones said. “Once I settled in my fastball was good, and I had both my off-speed pitches working too, and I was getting ahead of the hitters. All that combined made for a good outing.”
“When Gabe’s getting his change-up and curveball over it makes his fastball tough,” Krumwiede said. “I thought he was masterful in the second, third, and fourth.”
In the bottom of the second after Blake Struble base on an error, Stringer would play long ball. On a 0-1 pitch from Christian Stawar, he smacked a line drive off left field foul pole to give the Hawks a 2-0 lead.
“Mostly I just hit line drives and don’t try to get much power into it. This is definitely one of my better days,” Stringer said. “I’ve seen the ball a lot better than normal.”
Carrollton picked up some more runs in the fourth.
They got two aboard with two outs, and Jones hit an RBI single to right scoring Stringer. Alex Bowker kept the inning alive with another, which brought up Kyle Waters who delivered with a two-run base hit up the middle to put the Hawks up 5-0.
“We did a nice job in the fourth inning of adding to the lead enough,” Krumwiede said. “As seniors, Waters and Bowker are really having monster years at the plate, and we gotta keep it going. We gotta mix it in and get some consistency.”
Stawar went the distance pitching seven innings giving up four earned runs and nine hits while striking out five and walking one. His record is now 3-5.
The Eagles would make things interesting in the top of the seventh by loading the bases with one out. Sontag roped a hard hit ball up the scoring Keaton Loewen and Clark. Nathan Walker, on in relief of Jones would get the next two batters out to secure the win.
Based on the last couple of weeks and especially now, Carrollton believes they’re in good form and are getting hot at the right time just before the playoffs being.
“We’ve been going hard in practice to get better for the postseason, and you can tell it’s definitely showing,” Stringer said.
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
