BENTON — Junior pitcher Jordan Hochstetler was among the standouts for the Fairfield High School baseball team despite it being “Senior Night” for the Falcon program.

Hochstetler allowed just six singles while striking out nine and walking one in a 6-0 NECC win over the visiting Prairie Heights Panthers Thursday night at Fairfield.

“Jordan is always around the plate,” Fairfield coach Brodie Garber said. “He was mixing his pitches well and he was staying ahead in the count. He did not have many counts where he got to three balls.

“His not walking batters is one of the reasons why we have started pitching him more. He is up over 30 innings now and is still in single digits in walks.

“With the new bats we are using this season you have to make kids hit the ball.”

Fairfield (15-6, 7-0 NECC) visits Northridge for a doubleheader Saturday beginning at 10 a.m.

“It’s feels good to still be undefeated in the conference,” Falcon senior Zach Newcomer said. “This is three years in a row we are trying to be unbeaten in the NECC.”

The sixth inning was the only one where the Panthers mounted a serious scoring threat. Junior Kyle Burkholder, senior Matt Handshoe and junior Quinten Bland all singled to load the bases with two outs.

Hochstetler then got the next batter to fly out to sophomore right fielder Ben Hunley to end the threat.

“Jordan (Hochstetler) has been doing a really good job for us this year on the mound,” Newcomer said.

“He comes out and makes the hitters put the play so we can use our defense. We have a pretty good defense behind him.”

The Falcons took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second. Senior David Mohney drew a walk and scored on a double by sophomore Tony Zook.

Zook went to third on a wild pitch and scored when Hochstetler reached on an error.

Fairfield added a solo run in the third.

The Falcons loaded the bases on a walk to Newcomer, a single by senior Riley Miller and a single by Hunley. Sophomore Austin Christner drove in Newcomer with a sacrifice fly.

Fairfield took a 6-0 lead in the fifth. Newcomer and Hunley reached on singles.

Newcomer scored when Christner belted a fly ball to deep center that was dropped. Mohney then drove in Hunley and Christner with a single.

“We didn’t get a lot of hits, but we did a good job of getting runners on base,” Garber said. “That is one of the things we have been talking to the kids about this year is getting on base to put pressure on the opposing team’s pitcher and defense.”

The Falcons had at least one runner on base in each inning.

“This was a hard game to get a feel for,” Garber said.

“The Prairie Heights pitcher was throwing a lot of curves in different counts. One thing our kids did well was not going after pitches he wanted us to chase.”

Other seniors honored by the Falcons were Brad Newcomer, Wilbur Yoder and Pierce Zent.

“The four years have gone really fast,” Zach Newcomer said. “It’s hard to believe there are only a few games left in the regular season.

“Hopefully we can make a run in the playoffs. We are capable of doing it. We have a lot of talented players on this team.”



Fairfield 6, Prairie Heights 0

P. Heights    000 000 0 — 0-6-3

Fairfield    021 030  x— 6-7-0

Pitching: (Fairfield) Jordan Hochstetler (W) nine strikeouts and one walk. (Prairie Heights) Corey Johnson (L) three strikeouts and three walks.

Hitting: (Fairfield) Tony Zook double, RBI, Zach Newcomer two singles, two runs; David Mohney single, two RBI; Ben Hunley single, run; Riley Miller single, Garrett Scott single, Austin Christner RBI. (Prairie Heights) Quentin Bland, Kyle Burkholder, Ryan Day, Travis Grubb, Matt Handshoe and Jacob Heller singles.

Records: Fairfield (15-6, 7-0 NECC) at Northridge Saturday for a twin bill beginning at 10 a.m.

JV score: Fairfield won 16-0. (Fairfield: Dustin Everage winning pitcher, six strikeouts; Reece Miller double, single; Forrest Glogouski four singles, Lucas Miller three singles, Zac Kropf two singles, Austin Erb two singles).