• 
• CLASS
• JOBS
• AUTO
• HOMES

Craig outlasts Parker

Photo Gallery

Parker vs Craig Baseball

View Gallery

JANESVILLE — Brett Fredricks skated on thin ice through six innings, but he never fell through in Janesville Craig’s 7-5 victory over cross-town rival Janesville Parker in Big Eight Conference baseball here Tuesday.

The victory lifted Craig High to 11-4 in the Big Eight and 14-4 overall, while Parker fell to 4-11 and 5-14.

Fredricks served up a three-run homer to Jacob Kobs in the third inning that erased the Cougars’ 4-1 lead.

With the game tied 4-4, the Cougars bounced right back in the top of the fourth, scoring three runs on three hits, including Fredricks’ RBI double and Austin Geller’s RBI single. A Craig run also scored on Dylan Grall’s bases-loaded double-play ball.

Staked to a 7-4 lead, Fredricks settled down to keep the Vikings scoreless through the next three innings.

Not only did Fredricks turn chaos into order, he helped his cause at the plate, walloping his RBI double to put Craig in the lead for good, 5-4.

On the mound, Fredricks didn’t get a 1-2-3 inning until the fifth. He walked a pair, threw several wild pitches and worked from behind the hitters most of the way, not to mention the three-run homer.

“Excitement,” the Craig senior said of the his mound jitters. “It’s was probably the last game with Parker, and I was just pumped.’’

With all the calamity, luck was on Fredricks’ side on the mound and at the plate.

Fredricks RBI double, his second two-bagger, was sort of a mistake.

“I missed a sign,” Fredricks said. “I was supposed to bunt.”

Fredricks lasted through the sixth and was pulled for Mike Davis after giving up a single to Kyle Johnson open the seventh.

“It wasn’t a real crisp game,” Craig coach Victor Herbst said of Fredricks’ performance. “We pitched behind and a lot of it was 3-1 and 2-0.”

Davis and some heads-up defense pulled Craig through an inning Parker wishes it could have back.

Kelly Silha laced a one-out single to move Johnson over to second. Jacobs Kobs singled to score Johnson. Craig third baseman Zach Whalen, who made the cutoff, caught Parker’s courtesy runner off second base for the second out and defused an apparent rally.

After taking a throw from left field, Whalen cut the ball off and hustled a throw to second base to catch Parker in a rundown for a four-player put-out.

“I saw out of the corner of my eye that runner was 20 feet off the base,” said Whalen. “I caught it and went to second.

“It could have been a big inning,” Whalen added. “One swing of the bat and it could have been a tie game.’’

Parker starter Tyler Teubert, like Fredricks, had trouble staying ahead of Craig hitters. He allowed seven runs on six hits through five innings, striking out four and walking four.

Besides the seventh inning, the Vikings lost scoring opportunities in the second and fourth innings.

“A couple plays early, and a couple of hits and we might have a different outcome,” Parker coach Brian Martin said. “But you’ve got to give them credit. They got the hits with the guys on base, and we didn’t.’’

CRAIG 7, PARKER 5

Janesville Craig (ab-r-h-rbi)—Bayreuther, ss, 3-2-1-2; Fredricks, p, 4-2-3-2; Whalen, 3b, 0-0-0-0; Grall, 1b, 3-0-0-1; Geller, c, 3-0-1-1; Meyer, c, 2-0-0-0; Olin, cr-ph, 1-0-0-0; Henning, rf, 3-1-1-0; DeCremer, rf, 1-0-1-0; McCulloch 3-1-0-0; Mussey, lf, 2-1-1-0. Totals: 25-7-8-7.

Janesville Parker (ab-r-h-rbi)—Mauermann, lf, 4-1-1-0; Johnson, 1b, 4-2-2-0; Teubert, p-ss, 4-0-0-0; Silha, c, 4-1-2-1; J. Kobs, 4-1-3-4; Meehan, dh, 3-0-1-0; Moe, 3b, 3-0-0-0; Feidler, rf, 3-0-1-0; Koel, cf, 3-0-0-0; Welch, ss, 3-0-2-0. Totals: 28-5-11-5.

Janesville Craig 130 300 0—7

Janesville Parker 103 000 1—5

E—Craig 1, Parker 1. DP—Parker 1. LOB—Parker 4, Craig 6. 2B—Bayreuther, Fredricks 2. S—Mussey. SB—Olin.

Craig IP H R ER BB SO

Fredricks 6 8 4 4 2 6

Davis 1 1 1 1 0 0

Parker

Teubert 5 6 7 7 4 4

Kersten 2 1 0 0 1 1