As Freeport’s longtime baseball coach, Ed Carr has seen a thing or two.

When he says that undefeated Riverside’s team might be the best he’s seen, it’s high praise.

“That’s a very good team,” Carr said after his Yellowjackets (15-6) bowed to the Panthers, 9-1, in a WPIAL Class 3A quarterfinal Monday night. “That’s one of the best teams at this level that I’ve ever seen — if not the best. You’re facing a 90 mile-an-hour fastball. You’re seeing a kid that’s committed to Duke for a reason.

“We made some adjustments. I thought we took really good swings on him, to be honest with you. You were going to have to win this game 1-0, 2-1. We battled. I didn’t see us hanging heads when the strikeouts were starting to get racked up for him.”

Freeport notched just two hits against Riverside (19-0) sophomore hurler Christian Lucarelli, a 6-foot-2 righty who’s already pledged to play for the Blue Devils. The ‘Jackets didn’t retreat into a shell at Michelle Krill Field at Historic Pullman Park — not even with a Panthers base-runner on second, two outs, and a score away from the mercy rule in the bottom fifth.

Freeport pitcher Mathhew Corfield got Riverside’s Drake Fox to ground out, keeping the game going for Brady Stivenson to bang out hits in the sixth and seventh inning. Malik Febinger led off the former frame with a walk and came all the way around for the ‘Jackets’ only run of the night.

“Our backs were against the wall,” Carr said. “We could’ve gotten 10-runned there in the score and to have runners on base there in that last inning, that shows the character of these guys and the fight in these guys.

“That’s really the lesson learned here. Persevering no matter what life throws at you and keep fighting until the final out.”

Lucarelli finished the outing with a dozen punchouts and seven of the nine in the Panthers’ order recorded a base hit.

“It is a good team,” Riverside coach Dan Oliastro said. “We’re good defensively. This kid (Lucarelli) has been one of our best pitchers.”

Jonathan Hotalski hit a triple off him in the visitors’ second, but was stranded 90 feet from home with the scoreboard yet to be dented.

Freeport 000 001 0 — 1 3 0

Riverside 030 150 x — 9 10 0

W: Christian Lucarelli 5.1IP (12K, 2BB). L: Michael Hanz 1.2IP (2K, 3BB).

Freeport (15-6): Brady Stivenson 2-1B, Jonathan Hotalski 3B, Malik Febinger R

Riverside (19-0): Evan Burry 2-1B RBI R, Ashton Schlosser 2-1B 2RBI R, Bo Fornataro 1B RBI R, Hunter Garvin 1B R, Mitch Garvin 2B 1B 3RBI, Drake Fox 1B R, Daren McDade R, Sam Barber R, Sean Hayes 1B R