By James Costello Sports Writer
CULVER — Down two starters due to injury and already outmatched by a much older, more experienced Triton squad, Culver Community narrowly escaped being dimed by the visiting Trojans Monday at Culver, but they couldn’t put up enough runs to change the final outcome.
Triton recorded 14 hits compared to five by the Cavaliers, while committing a single error compared to three by Culver for a 9-3 Northern State Conference victory on the road.

“The last couple weeks, we’ve really been working on discipline and being patient and waiting for good pitches,” said Triton baseball head coach Ted Doty. “This seems to be a pretty good offensive team. At times, we seem to be a little impatient; we chase things, and that’s when we just don’t score runs. Like that last three innings, we hit lazy fly balls and weak groundouts. We’ve really been working hard the last few games on just being patient, waiting for your pitch, and I think the kids did that tonight and that’s the result. When you wait for your pitch, and you stay back on the ball, you’re going to drive it a lot harder, and I think that was a key to tonight.”
Triton sophomore starter Brett Houlihan struck out seven and allowed just two hits for no runs in five solid innings, while Trojan batters put on a hitting exhibition with 14 hits, including three home runs and four doubles against the Cavs’ freshmen pitching staff for a 9-0 lead after four innings.
Houlihan mixed up his pitches effectively and spotted the ball well, giving up just two hits for the evening — a pair of doubles to Culver frosh Zoe Bauer in the first and fourth innings. Culver’s Sam Hendrickson also reached on an error by Triton second baseman Ben Montalbano in the fourth, but Houlihan left both stranded with two straight strike outs.
“He pitched five solid innings — six, seven strikeouts, only gave up two hits, the two doubles to that (Bauer) kid,” said Doty of his southpaw starter. “He looked good, he was hitting his spots. We’re working on him hitting his spots, and he did a better job of that tonight than he did the last outing. That was a positive.”
“Brett (Houlihan) pitched a real nice game for them hitting his spots and keeping it away from us,” said Culver baseball head coach Mike Elliott. “And of course, any time you can mix your fastball and your curve ball together it just makes you that much more effective. He did a nice job keeping us off balance... That’s the first time we’ve seen him. The first time we played them we saw McIntyre, and of course any time you can throw a lefty it’s to your benefit.”
Houlihan helped his own cause at the plate with Triton’s first homer of the evening during a four-run first inning.
The two-run shot followed singles by Mitchell Mellott and Brandon Anthony, as well as a double by number two hitter Troy McIntyre, and Ellis Edel also doubled in the game with two outs, although he was left on base.
Edel finished with two doubles and a fielder’s choice in four at-bats Monday, while McIntyre went 3-for-3 with two doubles and a two-run homer during another Triton four-run frame in the fourth. He also scored two runs and batted in three — including Mellott in the second frame to drive home the Trojans’ fifth run at the game.
“He’s just a good athlete, because there’s times this time of season when we don’t get many practices, and our last practice he was running in the sectional track meet,” said Doty of McIntyre. “He hasn’t seen a lot of BP in practice, but he’s just a good enough athlete that he can come out and do those things. It’s good to have him on the team this year because offensively, he’s hitting .400-something, driving in runs, scoring runs, and he plays a good right field for us.”
The Trojans recorded two of their three home runs in the fourth as Montalbano reached on a walk, and, after Mellott grounded out to short, McIntyre accepted a 3-1 offering from freshman Cav hurler Scotty Brown, launching one over center to add two Triton runs to the board. Anthony nearly made it two in a row with a shot off the center field fence for a double, and clean-up hitter Dustin Kreft gave one a ride into the street past the scoreboard to put up another two for Triton. Culver reliever Bryce Lindvall took the mound to retire the side.
“They hit the heck out of the ball,” said Elliott. “I think they had (three) home runs and four doubles. And Triton is improving. Ted (Doty) has done a real nice job with this group of kids. They’re a much better baseball team this time than they were the first time we played them.
“That was one thing that hurt us early on, our two freshmen boys don’t throw real hard,” Elliott added. “At times they’re real effective, but any time you’re not throwing the ball real hard and you’re getting it up around the waist, they’re just going to sit, and it’s an easy ball to pick up sight-wise. They did a good job hitting hard.”
The Cavs held Triton scoreless for the remaining three frames, and they scored three runs off three hits and a pair of walks in the final inning, as Edel struggled relieving Houlihan on the mound.
Culver’s Austin Lazo opened it up with a single to left, and Edel walked Nick Peterson, then Brown on the next two at-bats. Kyle Pugh singled on a nice line to right to score Lazo and Peterson, and Lindvall dropped one into center to score Brown.
With two on and no outs, Doty put Kreft on the mound to close and he fanned Cavs’ leadoff hitter Drew Cultice in four pitches to put up the first out. The game’s complexion nearly changed when Bauer put another ball in play, and Anthony bobbled the hard chopper at short. The Triton junior caught his balance and turned the double play instead, stepping on the bag at second to put out Lindvall and catching Bauer at first in the nick of time to end the game.
“It was a good play,” said Doty of Anthony’s game-ender. “That’s a tough play because you tap the bag, and you really don’t have time to reset your feet, so you’re kind of off-balance. Brandon (Anthony) has got good athleticism, and he just made the play on that. That didn’t necessarily bail us out, but it’s nice to close the game on something like that to where we don’t give any more opportunities.”
“It was nice to see the kids come back because I think we’d only had three hits prior to that,” said Elliott of his young team’s rally bid in the seventh. “We always talk to the kids about playing through until the last out, and it was nice to see us get the three hits and the three runs.
“We’re really extremely young. We had five freshmen out on the field tonight. Both pitchers were freshmen and with injuries and stuff like that, we just keep getting younger. So it was nice to see the kids not give up and put their heads down.”
Triton improves to 9-13, 5-8 NSC, while Culver Community falls to 4-21, 2-11 NSC. The Trojans have three more games this week before they gear up for sectional play, and they’re hoping to stay healthy on the mound, while Elliott hopes to see his two injured starters — brothers Adam and A.J. Neace back in time for the state tourney.
“Adam (Neace) is out with a concussion, and he was released today, so we’ll get him back in time for sectional,” he said. “He’ll be out the next three games; he’s got to get his practices in. And then there’s his younger brother, A.J. that’s a freshman. We’re not sure when he’ll be released if he’ll even be able to play the rest of the year.”
• TRITON 9,
CULVER COMMUNITY 3
At Culver
T: 4 1 0   4 0 0       0 — 9 14 1
C: 0 0 0   0 0 0       3 — 3  6  3
Brett Houlihan (W), Ellis Edel (6), Dustin Kreft (7) and A.J. Fleagle; Scotty Brown, Bryce Lindvall (4) and Alex Lazo, Zach Loehmer.
2B: Troy McIntyre 2 (T), Brandon Anthony (T), Kreft, Edel, Zoe Bauer 2 (C)
HR: McIntyre, Kreft, Houlihan
Records: Triton 9-13, (5-8 NSC); Culver Community 4-21, (2-11 NSC).