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Layton • After coughing up game one of a three-game series against Northridge, the Fremont Silver Wolves responded with a 16-5 demolition of the Knights on Wednesday to regain control of Region 1.
After the first pitch was delayed for over an hour due to missing umpires, Fremont jumped onr Northridge starter Jacob Rhoades in the top of the first. It began with a leadoff single by Haze Hadley, who was quickly driven in by Jestin Schickel during the next at-bat. Kade Skeen followed with an RBI single, and before Northridge knew it, Fremont had strung together seven singles and scored six runs before Rhoades was able to get a flyout by Schickel in his second at-bat of the inning to stop the rally.
Fremont starter Justin Flinders then took the mound with little pressure after he and his teammates created such a large cushion, but Northridge was able to hit five singles, scoring three runs before Flinders got Jacob Porter to ground out with the bases loaded.
"I was mad that they got three [runs] back," Flinders said. "I wanted to come back out and shut them down after that."
The senior right-hander came out and made good on his threat to shut down the Knights for the rest of the afternoon. After allowing a single by Ethan Udy to lead off the bottom of the second, Flinders would retire the next six batters in order and would not allow another hit until the bottom of the sixth inning before being relieved by McKade Deelstra in the seventh.
"I just focused on one spot on the glove and just started pounding the zone," Flinders said. "There's always improvements to be made, but that was a good win all around."
Flinders also led off the top of the third with a double and was brought home via a Hadley single after a walk by Cameron Howell. Schickel would follow with a single to bring Skeen back to the plate with the bases loaded and two out. The senior captain took full advantage of the opportunity, belting a grand slam over the left-field wall to put the Silver Wolves up 12-3.
"You're just trying to do everything you can to help your team out," Skeen said. "I was just trying to hit the ball."
After allowing the Knights to catch them in the region standings with Tuesday's 4-3 loss, Skeen said that his team wanted to vent its frustrations Wednesday. Now the two teams head back to Plain City on Friday for the rubber match of the three-game series.
"We came back from a hard loss yesterday," Skeen said. "We told ourselves that we weren't going to do that again, we weren't going to get behind. I think it was just a mental thing for us today. That's what we can do and we showed it."