BASEBALL Maplewood earns return trip to Division IV regional

By JOHN BUTERA
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
STRUTHERS -- For the second consecutive year, Maplewood High has advanced to the Division IV regional baseball tournament.
Using errors by Mathews to their advantage, the Rockets earned a 3-2 victory Thursday at Cene Park.
"This is really great," said Maplewood coach Mark Trevelline, "especially since no one picked us to win or finish second in our league and we've really got a young team with only two seniors."
Matt Chronister went the distance as Maplewood (19-4) overcame a 2-0 deficit.
"Even when we down 2-0, I knew we would play it to the end," said Trevelline.
Chronister seemed to get stronger as the game went along, retiring the last six batters in a row. He scattered four hits, three of them singles, and all coming in the first three innings.
"I struggled a little bit in the second and made some bad pitches, but I stayed confident and had confidence in my teammates," Chronister said. "Right now I really like our chances because we have more depth on pitching than last year and we are hitting the ball well too."
Mathews rally
In the second inning, Mathews' Anthony Jones led off with a triple. Chronister then got two batters out, before John Gardner came up with an RBI single.
Two batters and a passed ball later, Matt Walters singled home Gardner with Mathews' second.
The Mustangs weren't able to threaten again.
After three singles produced a run in the third, Maplewood took the lead for good when Dan Morrison came up with a one-out triple. Jake Abbott's sacrifice fly tied the score.
Then the bottom fell out for Mathews (15-10), which committed two costly infield errors, leading to Maplewood's third run.
"Mistakes in the field killed us," said Mathews coach Joe Herubin, "plus Maplewood made all of their plays.
"I think when we got the 2-0 lead we became a little too relaxed."