Baseball: Sterling battles back to tie Newman

STERLING – Garrett Polson was happy to be back on the mound. Brendan Tunink was happy to smash his first home run. And Sterling and Newman left a little happy after playing to a 5-5 tie Tuesday at Newman High School.

Newman (1-0-1) led 3-0 and 5-3, but Sterling (0-1-1) rallied to tie it both times. Two runs in the top of the seventh knotted the score, and Golden Warriors reliever Eli Penne worked a 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the frame. The game was then called because of darkness.

[ Photos from Newman vs. Sterling baseball ]

Polson worked four innings, striking out five, walking three and hitting three batters. He gave up three earned runs and two hits, but escaped a jam in the second and settled down after Tunink’s two-run homer in the third.

“I was really excited. It’s been awhile since I’ve gotten to pitch. I got hurt last season, and it’s been a quick offseason, but I was really excited – especially against Newman and Brendan. I’ve known him for a while,” Polson said. “Fastball, changeup and curveball were all working, but I just couldn’t really get my grip on the mound and I started missing arm-side. But I made an adjustment late in my last two innings, and it made it a lot better.”

Daniel Kelly’s line drive to left field was snared by a diving Braden Birdsley in the bottom of the second, and he doubled off a Newman baserunner at second. The Comets ended up loading the bases with two outs, but Polson got a strikeout on a check swing to escape with the scoreless tie still intact.

In the third, he hit Garret Matznick with a pitch and then walked Garet Wolfe. Two wild pitches allowed Matznick to score and Wolfe to move to third, then Tunink blasted a 3-1 pitch deep over the right-field fence for his first homer of the season.

“I was just not trying to do too much,” Tunink said. “There’s people here watching, so I wasn’t trying to do too much. I got lucky with the pitch and drove the ball.”

After spending about a half-hour in the dugout while the Comets batted in the bottom of the third, Wolfe came out and had to find his rhythm again in the fourth. Mason Smithee and Birdsley led off with a single and a walk, then an errant throw on Miles Nawrocki’s sacrifice bunt allowed Smithee to score. After Birdsley scored on another error, Lincoln Davis singled home courtesy runner Tatum Allen to tie the score 3-3.

“Coming out of the gate I felt really good, just trying to pound the zone and not give up any free bases. I worked the off-speed early and just tried to stay ahead in the count,” Wolfe said. “After that long inning, I was a little bit tight; I kind of eased back into it with the warm-up pitches, and tried to get back out there and stay in the groove. That’s the big thing.”

Newman retook the lead on a run-scoring error in the fifth, then Daniel Kelly doubled to lead off the sixth, moved to third on a groundout, and scored on a wild pitch for a 5-3 Comet lead.

But Sterling again answered. Back-to-back walks were followed by a lineout, then a hit by pitch loaded the bases. Birdsley ripped an RBI single to right, then after a popout, Davis was hit by a pitch to force home Polson with the tying run. The ball sounded like it hit the knob of the bat before glancing off Davis’ elbow, but he was awarded the base to tie things up.

“I went in there very confident, never doubting. I never doubt myself when I’m up to bat, because I know what I can do and I know how good I can be at the plate,” Davis said. “We never give up. [Monday] night we had a rough night [against Dunlap], but we came back confident in ourselves. That’s all we have to be is confident. And when we have energy in the dugout, it’s a whole different game with us.”

Penne gave up two runs (one earned) and two hits in three innings of relief for the Golden Warriors, striking out two and walking one. With Tunink leading off the seventh for Newman, Penne induced a sky-high pop fly when the Notre Dame commit went up there swinging for the fences to try and end it with a walk-off homer; he just missed it.

Wolfe pitched four innings for the Comets, giving up three unearned runs an two hits, with three strikeouts, two walks and a hit batter. Chase Decker walked three in 1 1/3 no-hit innings of relief, and Ashton Miner gave up two runs and a hit in 1 2/3 innings, striking out one, walking two and hitting two batters.

“I feel like we could’ve done a little bit more in the seventh, but you can’t really help with that. I swung hard; I probably should’ve given it a little less,” Tunink said. “Other than that, I think we’re looking really good, just mentally prepared and tough for how young we are. Games like this will help us as the season goes on. We’re doing pretty good, so I’m confident with this team that we should do something special this year.”

Polson was pleased with his team’s effort as well. After a loss to start the season, he was proud of the way the Warriors fought back from deficits against Newman. He hopes that’s a sign of things to come this season.

“I just feel like we’re really loose. No moment’s going to be too big for us,” Polson said. “We just fought hard. We knew we could do this, and we came back.”