Fremd defeats Prospect to advance to regional final

Clint Terry leads the way on the mound and at the plate

Published By John Juettner on 5/27/2010

Fremd’s Mike Risher reaches home safely under the tag of Prospect pitcher Miles Osei.
Story and Photo By: Charlie Burroughs
      Good pitching beats good hitting.
      For Fremd senior pitcher Clint Terry a little bit of both doesn’t hurt either. In the top of first inning in Thursday’s regional semifinals against Prospect Terry belted a two out, two-run homer off Knights’ senior pitcher Miles Osei en route to the 4-1 win.
      In most cases Prospect’s offense could overcome an early 2-0 deficit. As Knight coach Ross Giutsi pointed out after the game his team set school records in runs scored (263), RBI (248), and team batting average (.371) this season. But as the old saying goes, “Good pitching beats good hitting,” Guitsi said of Terry’s performance striking out six batters on three hits and one run. “Our goal was to score five to six runs. We have to put pressure on their defense and we didn’t do that.”
      Fremd junior catcher Richard Concialdi, the Viking most familiar with the winning pitcher’s technique, said he knew Terry was going to be on after receiving mostly strikes in the first inning. And through two innings Terry had only thrown 27 pitches.
      The two-run home run in the first was therapeutic to the Viking lineup. Fremd coach Chris Piggott said the team felt they could relax a little more and weren’t subject to as much pressure.
      “Whenever I pitch, I pitch better than I hit,” Terry said. “Today the home run gave me a ton of confidence.”
      The confidence spilled over to his teammates who executed perfect fundamentals of the game in the fifth and seventh innings. In both innings the leadoff hitter reached second on a double. The next batter bunted the runner to third, putting a Viking 90-feet away from home. In the fifth that runner, junior infielder Mike Risher who pinch-ran for an injured player, scored after a wild pitch. In the seventh junior outfielder Sean Stutzman scored on an RBI single by senior infielder Matt Koeppen giving the Vikings a three run cushion.
      The victory puts the Vikings in the regional finals for the second year in a row against the same opponent, the host site, Stevenson. Stevenson reached the finals and a milestone tying a school record 30th win with the defeat of Deerfield 10-0 in five innings. Stevenson has become a worthy adversary to the Vikings in the past two outings, winning both earlier this season and a year ago in the regional final.
      Fremd will place Stutzman on the mound 10 a.m. Saturday morning at Stevenson in the regional final matchup.