Big fourth inning, excellent pitching send Chaffee baseball past Saxony Lutheran

Chaffee pitcher Breven Yarbro delivers to a Saxony Lutheran batter during the first inning Wednesday at Saxony Lutheran High School.

Fred Lynch

Brennan Fowler stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and a chance to break the game open for Chaffee baseball. The freshman did just that, smacking the second pitch he saw over the center fielder's head for a three-RBI double that pushed the Red Devils' lead to six.

That bases-clearing two-bagger was part of a five-run fourth inning and the Red Devils cruised from there, dealing host Saxony Lutheran an 8-0 loss on Wednesday and picking up a ninth straight victory.

"We have big aspirations for him, and he's been doing a good job all year long," Chaffee coach Brian Horrell said of Fowler. "It was nice to see him get that. As a freshman sometimes you tend to press a little bit, so that was a big situation for him, and he come through very nicely."

Saxony Lutheran shortstop Tanner King throws to first base after Chaffee's Andrew Brown was forced out at second, as Hunter Bilek looks on, during the second inning Wednesday, April 25, 2018 at Saxony Lutheran High School.

Fred Lynch

Breven Yarbro got the win on the mound and nearly had a no-hitter. He surrendered his first hit to the leadoff batter in the seventh, Andrew Hartmann, and was promptly pulled. The right-handed hurler finished with eight strikeouts, four walks and a hit batter.

"He was pretty sharp," Horrell said. "He had a few walks early in the game that ran his pitch count up and it might have been on me that last inning. He had 12 pitches left, and I said, 'You better go right at them.' So he come out and tried to go right at them, and the kid put a good swing on the ball, hit a nice line drive."

Fowler was one of three Red Devils who had two hits, joining Yarbro and second baseman Gabe Henson.

Chaffee (13-1) led all game, scoring two runs in the first inning by taking advantage of three walks. Henson scored on a passed ball, and Yarbro produced an RBI single to right field. Saxony (12-4) didn't have a runner advanced past second until the seventh.

"I thought we came out flat from the very start today," Crusaders coach Paul Sander said. "We weren't mentally prepared to play today, and that's on the coaches as much as the players. We should have them mentally prepared, but with the rain we've had, when you play as many games in a week as we do now it's hard to come out every day and be gung-ho fired-up.

"But this is a good game for us, with two good teams playing and two good records. I would have expected us to [have] a little more fire than we showed the whole game."

In the second, Saxony had a chance to put some runs on the board, thanks to an error and a one-out walk. But Yarbro retired the next two batters to get out of the jam.

Chaffee added to its lead next time up, thanks to a one-out triple from Landon Tenkhoff. He scored on Austin Copeland's sacrifice fly.

An inning later the Red Devils broke the game open with five runs, starting with Fowler's three-RBI double. Henson followed with a run-scoring double down the left-field line and later scored on a passed ball.

That eight-run lead was more than enough for Yarbro.

"He locates his curveball well, and he mixes that with a plus fastball," Sander said. "That kind of pitcher has been difficult for us. The four games we've lost they've all been hard throwers with good curveballs and locate the ball well and spot it up good. ... That's been a little bit of a bugaboo, so we're going to work on that."

Copeland got the final three outs for Chaffee after Yarbro was pulled.

Austin Fritsche took the loss for Saxony, giving up seven runs (six earned) on five hits and six walks in three-plus innings. Jonathan Klein and Tanner King both pitched two innings in relief.

Chaffee is back in action Thursday, facing Woodland as it looks to extend the winning streak to double digits.

"I just hope we stay focused and keep rolling," Horrell said. "That's the thing high school kids sometimes don't understand."

WP -- Breven Yarbro. LP -- Austin Fritsche. 2B -- Brennan Fowler (C), Gabe Henson (C). 3B -- Landon Tenkhoff (C). Multiple hits -- Chaffee: Henson 2-4, Yarbro 2-3, Fowler 2-4.

Editor's note: Saxony returns to the field Thursday in the Notre Dame Showcase, not Monday. The Southeast Missourian regrets the error