DUNLAP — Tommy Klem and his NorthWood Panther teammates are glad a high school baseball game is seven innings long.

The NorthWood junior pitcher gave up four runs in the bottom of the first inning before settling down and leading his team to a 7-5 victory Wednesday night in an NLC game at Concord.

“It was a tough start for us,” NorthWood coach Zach Benko said. “But the boys recognized the mistakes they made in the first inning and responded. I was happy to see how the kids battled. We had a decent game Tuesday (6-1 win at Goshen) and I think the guys came out a little too pleased with themselves. After the first inning they realized it was another game.”

Klem allowed a double and three singles in the first before holding the Minutemen to four singles the rest of the way.

“I knew once Concord started scoring runs I had to hold them to whatever I could,” Klem said. “I knew our bats would come around if I could hold Concord down.

“This is a big win for us. We consider Concord to be a rival and starting out the second time through the NLC with a win over the Minutemen is nice.”

It didn’t take long for the NorthWood batters to come around as the Panthers scored four runs in the top of the second.

“The one thing I wanted to do after the long inning I had just been through was sit in the dugout for awhile,” Klem said. “My teammates allowed me to do that and I was able to settle back into the game.

“The biggest change for me after the first inning was my location. I kept the ball down in the strike zone and the umpire was giving me those calls around the knees.”

The 4-4 tie aided the Panthers and may have had the opposite effect on the Minutemen.

“It was a tough one. We thought we had them,” Concord coach Jim Treadway said. “When our kids came in after NorthWood had tied the score you could just see the air going out of them.

“I can’t figure out what happened to our pitcher between the first and second innings. NorthWood was not fooled by anything and they took advantage of some balls we left up in the zone.”

Klem (5-1) struck out four and walked one before being relieved by sophomore Blake Cleveland in the 7th. Klem yielded a lead off single to Concord sophomore Nick DeFreese and had a 3-0 count on Concord junior Cain Crowley before being lifted. Cleveland ended up fanning Crowley and then retired the next two batters on pop ups to the shortstop.

“Cleveland did a nice job,” Treadway said. “Crowley said he was looking fast ball all the way.

“Klem got ahead in the count after the first inning and was making us hit his pitch.”

DeFreese had four of Concord’s seven hits. He had an RBI double in the first and singles in the second, fourth and seventh.

“He can swing the bat,” Treadway said.

NorthWood had three doubles in the second inning. Junior Chad Ervin doubled to begin the inning and scored on a double by Cleveland. Senior Nate Wagner capped things off with a two-run double.

“That many extra base hits in an inning has not been typical for us,” Benko said. “What has been typical for us has been players stepping up and doing what we need whether it’s a base hit, a sacrifice fly and laying down a bunt.”



NorthWood 7, Concord 5

NorthWood   040 102 0 — 7-7-2

Concord           401 000 0 — 5-8-2

Pitching: (NorthWood) Tommy Klem (W, 5-1) four strikeouts and one walk. Blake Cleveland (save) one strikeout in one inning. (Concord) Cain Crowley (L) four strikeouts and two walks. Seth Huxford one strikeout in one inning. Connor Slabach one strikeout and one walk in one inning.

Hitting: (NorthWood) Nate Wagner double, two RBI; Blake Cleveland double, RBI;  Chad Ervin double, Kyle McCoy two singles, RBI; Tanner Roberts RBI. (Concord) Nick DeFreese double, three singles, RBI; Mason Eldridge single, two RBI; Matt Kotva single, RBI; Dakota Simon RBI.

Records: NorthWood (11-5, 5-2 NLC) at Northridge Friday. Concord (8-6, 5-3 NLC) at Plymouth Friday.

JV score: Concord won 8-3. (Concord: Winning pitcher Steve Pinarski, 10 strikeouts; Jake Boyer double, Duncan Boone two singles, Steve Pinarski two singles,