Indians win baseball opener

The Comanche Indians gave new baseball coach Fabian Reyes a special win on Monday afternoon as the Indians beat Frederick on the road, 18-8. Reyes, who has been coaching at Comanche for a few years, but is in his first year as the high school baseball coach, has deep ties to Frederick..

“It meant a lot,” Reyes said. “I used to coach (youth) baseball with their head coach and he was my neighbor. I know most of their players since they played machine pitch.”

The Bombers grabbed an early 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning, but Comanche scored five in the top of the second and would never trail again.

“I was pretty pleased with the way we played,” Reyes said. “We hit the ball really well. Every time they scored runs, we would come right back and score. It was good to see them not get their head down and step up for each other.”

The Indians added two more runs in the top of the third before the Bombers scored three in their half to cut the lead to 7-4. Comanche answered with three more in the fourth and Frederick added two in the bottom half of the inning.

The Indians would get the two runs back in the top of the fifth and then put the game away with six runs in the top of the sixth. The Bombers added two runs in the bottom half of the inning, but it wouldn’t be enough as Comanche won by the 10-run rule.

It was not only a first-game win, but a district win as well for the Indians.

Freshman Carson Vansickle started on the mound for Comanche and got the win. He pitched 3 1/3 innings, giving up four hits, six runs, three earned runs and struck out five. Payton Jones closed out the game, tossing the final 2 2/3 innings, giving up one hit, no earned runs and striking out two.

Eight Comanche players had at least one hit with five players collecting extra-base hits.

“This team can compete, but we’re really thin,” Reyes said. “We need to stay healthy. If we can stay healthy, I think we can make a good run.”

Colby Shannon had a double and a triple to lead Comanche at the plate. Vansickle, Kanon Clift and Ty Lane each had a double. Lane went 3-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored.

Shannon went 2-for-4 with 3 RBI and two runs scored. Clift and Evan Dodd also had two hits each. Vansickle, Cooper Dobbins, Landon Steele and Jones each had one hit.

Comanche had eight errors to Frederick’s seven, but Reyes was expecting his team to clean things up defensively on Tuesday against Frederick in the Indians’ home opener.