Camden Karlin’s walk-off single lifts Firebirds past Belton

Free State sophomore Camden Karlin raised his right arm in the air as he rounded first base, took a few more steps and then looked back toward his baseball team’s dugout.

Waiting another two seconds for Jack Kallenberger to cross home plate, Karlin’s teammates streamed onto the field to celebrate with the player who delivered a walk-off single in the eighth inning to secure a 5-4 victory over Belton (Mo.) in the River City Festival at Hoglund Ballpark.

Kallenberger reached on a leadoff walk in the bottom of the eighth inning and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt from senior Quinton Graham. In a full count, Karlin just wanted to put the ball in play. Karlin did much more than that with a line drive down the left field line.

It was the second walk-off win in as many days for the Firebirds, who won all three of their games in the River City Festival.

“We’ve got a lot of holes in our game and that’s OK,” Free State coach Mike Hill said. “They keep battling. That’s probably the biggest piece.”

The Firebirds (8-5) forced extra innings with the help of junior sidearm pitcher Jake Zenger, a right-hander who throws his fastball around 75 mph but fools hitters with the movement on his pitches.

Zenger, who gave up three unearned runs, became a sidearm pitcher during the fall of his freshman year — “I was like, ‘Coach, can I throw sidearm?’ He said yeah and it was decent so I kept going with it.”

On Saturday, he struck out four in five innings, retiring the last nine batters he faced.

“There will be some (pitches) that start off right down the middle and then by the time they swing, it might be in the dirt,” Zenger said.

With Zenger slowing down Belton’s offense, the Firebirds gained some momentum at the plate. They scored three runs in the bottom of the fifth inning, taking advantage of three walks. Jaxson Webb scored on a balk and Peyton Sparks was plated on a groundout. With two outs, Harrison Hughes hit a sky-high pop-up around home plate and Belton (13-6) fielders couldn’t spot the ball for a 10-foot double to score Jake Rittman.

Free State’s big inning helped mask some of the mistakes that hurt the Firebirds in the early innings. The Firebirds committed a pair of errors, which both resulted in Belton runs. They made some mistakes on the base paths. And none of it mattered when they rallied and eventually pulled out another win.

“It’s just the competitiveness we play with that helps us do that,” Karlin said. “Even if we do have a bad inning, we can come back and find a way to get runs or clean it up the next inning.”

It’s the longest winning streak of the season for the Firebirds, who won their three games this weekend by a combined four runs.

“It’s unreal,” Zenger said. “I’m so proud of us. We had a rough start to the beginning of the season but I think we’re coming together.”

Belton 000 310 00 — 4 5 2

Free State 000 130 01 — 5 5 2

W — Jake Zenger. L — Jonathan Rickard.

2B — Jake Rittman, Harrison Hughes, FS.

FSHS highlights — Zenger, 5 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 4 K; Rittman, 1 for 1, 2 runs, 3 walks; Hughes, 2 for 4, 2 RBI; Camden Karlin, 1 for 4, RBI.