Knights knockout Cougars

And after an impressive 9-2 win over visiting Half Moon Bay on Thursday -- its fifth win in its last six games -- Hillsdale (4-4 PAL Ocean, 11-12 overall) is playing with plenty of confidence. No wonder the Knights were all smiles coming out of the postgame huddle -- they're enjoying their best stretch of the season coming at a most opportune time.

"We knew going into this week that if we split with the No. 2 team (Half Moon Bay), it would be a good week," Hillsdale manager Neal Donohoe said. "We had a three-run lead Tuesday (in a 8-6 loss to the Cougars), and we made a couple of errors to give it away. Defense is still our biggest weakness. Unless you can consistently make outs on defense, you're not going to go far."

The Knights were solid if not spectacular at times defensively against Half Moon Bay (6-2, 15-9-1). They turned in three double plays, each time with the Cougars threatening to score. Offensively, Hillsdale couldn't be held down. The Knights recorded 14 hits and scored in every inning it came to bat.

Showing solid plate discipline throughout the lineup, Hillsdale pounded HMB pitching to give a nice cushion for Fredendall, who was making just his third start of the season and second start since coming back from a pulled chest muscle injury he suffered in his first outing against Sobrato March 14.

Fredendall was so eager to get on the baseball field after basketball season ended that he overworked himself into the injury, he said. The setback forced him to miss three weeks, and his absence left a major void in the Knights' pitching corps. It's easy to see why. Fredendall wasn't at his best Thursday but still went the distance, yielding only five hits and one earned run.

"I was leaving the ball up and felt I couldn't hit the spots where I wanted to, but my defense made all the plays," Fredendall said. "There was nothing special about my pitching today. I had trouble getting in rhythm, but things turned out OK because we won."

It's a good thing Fredendall is healthy again, because around the same time he came back, Bielagus got hurt pitching in a game against Menlo-Atherton. Bielagus was in the lineup Thursday and Donohoe is hoping he can return to the mound before the season ends. Both pitchers have been outstanding this season. Against HMB, Fredendall ran into serious trouble just once, in the fourth inning.

That's when the Cougars' Spencer Waddell took the first pitch he saw and launched a shot to right field that got out in a hurry, bouncing off the scoreboard for a home run. One pitch later, Gavin Long hit a sharp single. But Fredendall got Cody Silveria to line out to second baseman Jack Ritzo, who then threw to first to double off Long for the double play.

That turned out to be a pivotal play because the next two HMB batters reached base, only to see Fredendall induce a groundout to escape with minimal damage. Hillsdale's lineup did the rest, scoring single runs in the first two innings before putting together a three-run third. Fredendall helped his own cause, leading off the third with a double, the first of four consecutive Hillsdale hits -- the first three of which were doubles.

Bielagus and Nick McHugh followed with run-scoring doubles and Chad Ratcliffe capped the inning with a RBI single to make it 5-0. The Knights never stepped off the pedal, scoring single runs in the fourth and fifth and two more in the sixth off a Ratcliffe double.

Hillsdale leadoff hitter Daniel Spaizman (2 RBIs) finished with a game-high three hits, and Fredendall, Bielagus, McHugh and Ratcliffe (three RBIs) had two hits each. Long had two of the Cougars' five hits, both singles. Donohoe said plate discipline has been a focal point of practice lately, and his hitters have obviously got the message. Thursday, they showed plenty of patience at the plate, forcing the Cougars' pitchers into laborious innings.

"We've really been talking about our hitting approach a lot lately," Donohoe said. "We had problems with strikeouts earlier in the season. We had a 12 strikeout game and 11 strikeout game, and this week our batters struck out only three times."

Despite the loss, HMB still stands in second place behind division leader Aragon, while Sacred Heart Prep, Terra Nova and Hillsdale are all within a game of each other for third.

"We don't look ahead, but the playoffs are always in the back of our minds," Fredendall said. "We've turned things around and everyone is having fun. We're playing for keeps."