Triton’s Lucas Newman throws a pitch in the seventh inning of a game at Culver Community Wednesday. (Photos by James Costello)

CULVER — Lucas Newman’s stats in Triton’s game at Culver Wednesday weren’t exactly eye-popping — a 1-for-4 performance at the plate, a single inning pitched — but if his impact wasn’t immediately apparent in the stat lines, it was definitely felt on the field at the Hoosier North Athletic Conference-opener.

Newman’s grounder to second with two on in the top of the seventh scored the go-ahead when Cavaliers short stop Brandon Jones overthrew to first trying to turn two on the play, and he followed up with an efficient, eight-pitch inning on the mound, fanning two and earning himself both the win and the save for the Trojans in a 4-3 thriller.

“It was a good win,” said Triton head coach Tyler Hensley. “Finally we battled, and we started hitting the ball finally today.”

After leading the entire night, the Trojans (2-2, 1-0 HNAC) were suddenly trailing 3-2 after a three-run sixth by the hosts. But after six innings of work, Culver senior pitcher Cody Russell started to tire in the seventh, Triton capitalized with two hits, and two big errors by the Cavs (1-3, 0-1 HNAC) proved decisive.

Triton head coach Tyler Hensley talks with Dylan Hensley before his at-bat in the seventh. He doubled in the game-tying run.

Delano Shumpert grounded into a fielder’s choice ball at third, but the speedy junior made it all the way to third when Russell overthrew to first attempting to pick him off, and Dylan Hensley cranked a double all the way to the left field fence to score him. Keegan Mosier was hit by a pitch but thrown out at second when Newman hit to second, but Hensley scored the go-ahead and Newman made it all the way to second when Jones overthrew to first attempting the double play. Ryan Kaufman popped out to short to leave Newman stranded, but that’s all the run support he would need headed into the final frame.

Replacing struggling Triton reliever Ty Ferry, Newman faced just three batters and needed just eight pitches to finish it off against the heart of the Culver order. Russell flew out to left trying to help his own cause, Jake Fisher went down looking, and Newman fanned Weston Keller for the game’s final out.

“He really didn’t pitch a whole lot last year so I’m very happy that he’s throwing strikes. If you don’t throw strikes you don’t give us a chance to win. He did very good, did his job,” said Tyler Hensley of Newman. “I was a pitcher so that’s one of the things that I actually know how to teach. It’s good when you see them improving from what you teach them.”

Triton jumped on top quickly when Max Slusser singled, stole second and then scored on an error at third when the Cavs attempted to pick him off stealing again in the top of the first. Trojans starter Kaufman held that lead through four, giving up just two hits and a walk while striking out four, and the visitors added another run by Newman during a three-hit sixth.

That top of the sixth had the potential to be a big inning for Triton, but for a pair of base running errors by the Trojans.

Tye Orsund connects with a pitch Thursday.

Dylan Hensley led off the inning with a single but was thrown out trying to take third on Mosier’s single to right, and Mosier was in turn thrown out going to third on Newman’s fielder’s choice grounder to short with one out. Kauffman singled into shallow center, Tye Orsund looped one between the short stop’s legs to load the bases, and Vince Helton was hit in the head by a pitch to score Newman and bring the top of the order back around. But Slusser popped out to short, and the Trojans left the bags loaded, their biggest missed opportunity on a night where they left nine stranded on base.

“That was two mental mistakes on the base paths. A lot of these guys, we’re still teaching every day, and it’s almost like going back to All-Stars and they’re playing high school baseball,” Tyler Hensley said. “We’ve just to keep doing those little things. The little things matter, and making an error like that later in the season cannot happen. That’s alright that we made it tonight; now it’s something I can work on tomorrow.”

Down but not out, Culver rallied with three runs in the sixth against a beleaguered Ferry and a suddenly-struggling Triton defense, which committed two errors in the frame.

Keller singled into center with one out, took second on a passed ball, Jones coaxed a walk, and both advanced a base on a wild pitch. Keller came around when Damien Sullivan’s routine grounder was booted at third, and a dropped Ethan Shuman fly in center with two out allowed both Jones and Sullivan to score runs, putting Culver ahead 3-2 before Ferry induced a groundout back to the mound by Gavin Minix to end the inning and set the stage for a thriller in the Trojans’ last at-bat.

Dylan Hensley finished with two hits and an RBI to lead a Triton offense that out-hit Culver eight to five. Two of those hits came from Keller, who reached base three times and scored a run in the loss.

“We really haven’t been hitting. Tonight it was a lot better,” said Tyler Hensley. “We left, I think, nine or 10 on base so it was good to see that in the last inning that we actually made something happen.

“We’ve got a lot of kids that haven’t played baseball in five, six, seven years, so it’s more of a teaching stage this year. Last year I was caught up on wins and losses. I like to win, but that’s not what you do when you’re trying to bring back a program. We’re trying to just teach them.”

Triton and Culver square off again tonight, this time in Bourbon. The Cavs will field a team of only nine as Russell, Minix and Shuman all depart for their senior trip. First pitch is scheduled for 5 p.m.