TRAVERSE CITY — Six innings just wasn’t enough for Carson Fischer.
The third-year Traverse City Pit Spitters right-hander tossed seven strong innings to lead his team to a narrow 2-1 victory over the Kokomo Jackrabbits in Wednesday’s Northwoods League baseball game at Turtle Creek Stadium in Traverse City.
“If I go six, I’m a little upset with myself,” Fischer said. “I’ve only had one nine-inning complete game, and that was my last start of my spring season. But usually when I’m in that seven to eight (range), I’m really happy with myself.”
Fischer tossed a quality start, fanning five across seven innings with two walks, five hits and one earned run on 98 pitches in the Pit Spitters’ home opener.
He worked out of a jam in the seventh, stranding a runner on third by getting a strikeout and groundout.
The team’s other returning veteran, Aaron Forrest, started the season opener at Battle Creek.
“Fischer was the guy with a lot of experience,” Rebandt said. “We decided to have him in this spot, and he lived up to the moment.”
The Hudsonville native threw 80 innings this spring for Davenport University and 86 the season prior, plus another 30 for the Spitters (2-1).
“I don’t expect guys to go seven innings often during summer baseball,” Rebandt said. “This is his third year playing for us, so we kind of have an idea of what he can bring to the table. He was getting weak contact all throughout the game, only a couple of hard-hit balls all night. And we hadn’t gone through the lineup three full times yet, so we decided to throw him back out there in that seventh inning, and he did a great job for us.”
Hard-throwing lefty Santiago Garcia came on for one clean inning of relief work, and 6-foot-5 righty Mason Hill tossed a clean ninth for the save. Neither allowed a hit.
Kokomo came in 0-2, giving up 19 runs in a two-game sweep at the hands of the Lakeshore Chinooks. The Jackrabbits scored 13 runs in those losses, however.
The Spitters loaded the bases with two outs on walks by Corey Berry, Brandon Chang and Trent Reed before Matt Earley was called out on strikes looking on a pitch well outside the strike zone.
“We kind of got hosed on some offensive stuff, but I just kept my head down and trusted my guys,” Fischer said. “They went out there and went to battle in the box, and we scraped a few across and got the win. The bullpen came in and shut down when we needed to do it after I came out of the game, so awesome by the team.”
Berry stole third base in the fourth inning, taking off when the catcher threw back to the pitcher, but was stranded as neither team crossed the plate over the first four frames.
Brody Capps doubled in Ethan Guerra in the fifth for a 1-0 Spitters lead, but Kokomo evened the score in the sixth on a John Curl groundout.
Michael Tchavdarov grounded to third in the bottom of the sixth, but an error allowed Earley to score for a 2-1 advantage.
Umpires stopped the game briefly during a seventh-inning Coast Guard helicopter flyover.
The Spitters host the Jackrabbits (0-3) Thursday for an 11:05 a.m. day game before hosting the Kalamazoo Growlers (2-1) for two contests this weekend.