You can’t start any faster.
One pitch. One hit. One run.
For the second-time this season, Nashua-Plainfield lead off hitter Eli Kalainoff opened a game with a solo home run. On Monday, he sent the first Central Springs pitch over Stan Burkle Field’s centerfield fence.
The Huskies (12-4) went on to beat the Panthers (4-13) 11-1 in six innings in a rebound from Friday’s 9-0 road loss to conference leader Newman Catholic,
Tucker Franzen got the win by striking out seven and giving up only three singles. He walked one batter and hit one.
It was a big night for 2-run doubles. Kalainoff, Kendrick Huck, Kaden Wilken and Wyatt Bouillon each hit one.
Huck hit two doubles in the game. He also reached base on an error while pushing across a run. Huck and Kalainoff led the team with 3 RBIs.
Bo Harrington reached base in each of his four at bats, twice on errors, once driving in a run. His two hits were a single and a double.
The Huskies scored twice in the first inning, beginning with Kalainoff’s home run. Similarly, he homered in N-P’s first at bat in Rockford in June 12. It took a few more pitches, however.
Next, Harrington reached base when the Panthers dropped a pop fly at right field’s front door. He took second on a fly-ball out by Franzen and scored when Huck reached base on another Panther error.
After a scoreless first inning, Central Springs opened the second with a pair of singles. A pass ball scored 1 run before Franzen struck out two Panthers and coaxed a bouncing groundout to second baseman Huck.
N-P added 7 runs in fifth. Harrington and Dawson Glaser each singled to start the inning. With Franzen at bat, Harrington scored on a pass ball. After Franzen walked, Huck then hit his 2-run double.
Landon Pratt got a base on balls and then, with one out, Wilken drove in 2 runs with a double. Kalainoff did the same two batters later with two outs.
Harrington pushed in the final run of the frame when he reached on an error.
The game ended in the sixth when Bouillon’s double drove in Huck, who doubled, and Pratt, who singled.
UP NEXT
The Huskies will host non-conference foe Aplington-Parkersburg (9-7) on Tuesday for a 6 p.m. game
NORTH CEDAR REPORTS 