Published: May 09, 2008 12:11 pm         

Farver, Drudge lift Goshen

Pitching and defense, rather than scoring a bunch of runs, worked just fine Thursday for a surging Goshen High School baseball team.

The Redskins, who had been winning mostly high-scoring games, won a contest of the more tidy variety 3-1 over the Plymouth Pilgrims at Phend Field.

That’s seven consecutive Northern Lakes Conference victories for the Redskins who are now 9-7 overall and 7-3 in the league heading into a 5 p.m. game today at Concord.

Junior right-hander Brandon Farver pitched six solid innings for Goshen and senior lefty Jake Drudge got the final three outs for a save.

Senior Jordan Short had the only run-scoring hit of the day for the Redskins, a double in the third inning. Goshen’s other two runs came on a Plymouth throwing error in the fourth.

Redskin coach Hal Farmwald said, “The thing we have to like is getting a good pitching performance and playing solid defense. We had been relying on our hitting and scoring a lot of runs.

“We did manage to get just enough runs across when we had the chance. It’s actually nice to win a game like this with the type of things it will take to win sectional games.

“Farver did a great job, getting a start because our schedule is crowding up, and Drudge came in to shut the door with a couple runners on base in the last inning.

“We have won seven in a row in the conference and it’s nice to be a couple games over .500. But, you must be ready every night in the NLC and now we must focus on Concord.”

Short, the Redskins’ center fielder, made another dazzling catch to help keep his team on top.

This one came with two Plymouth runners on base and nobody out in the top of the seventh. He sprinted into left center to chase down a drive by Pilgrims’ junior leadoff hitter Brandon Elliott.

Both Farver and senior catcher John Sevison made good plays on taps in front of the plate, displaying strong throwing arms to retire Plymouth batters at first base.

Goshen left the bases loaded in the first inning, but broke through in the third after the first two Redskins were retired.

Drudge poked a single to left and sailed home when Short’s long double went over the Plymouth center fielder’s head.

Senior Josh Ortiz singled to start the bottom of the fourth and was sacrificed to second by junior Spencer Oversen. Sophomore Carl Kay was hit by a pitch with two out.

Both Ortiz and Kay scored when Sevison hit an infield grounder and the throw was wide of first base.

Short was the only player in the game to have two hits. Kay and junior Brock Bender also hit safely for the Redskins.