Cape Central opens baseball season with wild win

The Cape Central baseball team began the season with a wild 9-7 win over the St. Charles Pirates on Friday at Cape Central.

“At this point in the season a win’s a win,” Cape Central head coach Justin Lieser said.

Freshman Jathan Spain started the game and allowed only one run through five innings.

“We had an outstanding pitching performance by Jathan Spain,” Lieser said. We wanted to make sure that we had him on a pitch count, would’ve liked to add some runs for him.”

The Tigers entered the bottom of the sixth inning tied 1-1 after both teams capitalized on defensive miscues to score their respective run. Connor Davidson scored the go-ahead run, which ended up being the first of an eight-run rally.

“We took advantage of some missed plays on their end and put the ball in play,” Lieser said, “struck out way too much early in the game but eventually made some adjustments.

“Early in the season, most arms are going to be ahead of the bats,” he said. I would say, one of the things from our side is we’ve been swinging it so well up until today.”

The Pirates answered back with six runs of their own at the top of the seventh but a low strike 3 at the knees ended the rally and the game.

The Tigers finished last season with a 9-20 record, a steep dropoff from going 15-12 in 2021. In this year’s Tigers, Lieser sees “a lot of growth, a lot more grit, and a lot more maturity.”

“I think the ones that were on the team last year didn’t like how that tasted,” Lieser said. “They’re out here and work hard every day, making sure that doesn’t happen again. We tell the guys all the time, it’s gonna take every single one of us. You saw it today. We got almost everybody in the game as far as you know.”

Lieser sees his senior catcher Carter Crosnoe leading the way to a potentially productive season.

“Crosnoe behind the plate does an amazing job,” Lieser said, “just a great leader showing people how to win and how to get better.”

The Tigers travel to Farmington on Wednesday, at 4:30 p.m.