The ring of the ball connecting to the bat was a sweet sound for the Crawfordsville baseball team Wednesday evening at John Froedge Field. After a subpar hitting performance the night before in a last inning loss at Western Boone the Athenians (14-6, 6-3 SAC) turned the table en route to a 10-6 Sagamore Athletic Conference win over the Stars.
“High school kids can go through all sorts of emotions after a heartbreaking loss like last night,” Crawfordsville coach Brett Motz said. “I had some good conversations with the guys and here we are.”
Motz credited his hitters’ eyes to take advantage of Stars pitching and the count with a lot of two-pitch takes to open at bats.
“I felt like we didn’t even get back on track until late in this game. The guys really started to be patient at the plate and get some good swings going.”
The home team’s biggest inning offensively was the third really without having to put the bat on the ball. Motz’s squad plated four runs with winning pitcher Cale Coursey getting the only hit. Four walks, a hit batter and an error played into the output which sent 10 to the plate. Kaden Patton, Kaiden Underwood and Kale Wemer all had RBIs off bases loaded walks or hit by pitch. Dylan Farley also drove in a run with a ground ball.
Those four make up the tail of the order for Motz and were very productive being on base 10 times in 16 plate appearances.
“It’s happened a couple games recently where the bottom of the order has stepped up and got on base. More than that is all nine guys in the line up gain confidence and gain trust in each other.”
Cale Coursey had three hits with Bryce Dowell adding two. Jude Coursey also had a pair of singles to finally get on base although contact has been there.
“Jude has been hitting the ball better than anybody in the lineup the last three or four games. He’s just been hitting it right at players. Hopefully, he doesn’t get discouraged from that and continues to get the barrel to the baseball. His average doesn’t show it, but he’s one of our hottest hitters.”
“It’s been a little frustrating,” Jude Coursey said. “I’ve been hitting the ball hard, but right at people. Seeing it drop certainly helps.”
Western Boone used four pitchers. That did not matter to the freshman Coursey.
“Mentally you just have to be locked in,” Coursey said. “In the on deck circle I have to find my timing. That’s what coach Motz has said all along to get timing right and know what to expect in the batter’s box.”
The Stars (7-11, 1-8 SAC) got on the board first with two runs in the opening inning, both driven in by third baseman Luke Jackson’s triple. He would add an RBI double in the fifth.
Cale Coursey threw six innings, gave up all six runs on seven hits. He struck out eight and walked three to run his record to 5-1. Wemer pitched the seventh inning to close out the win.
The Athenians play at North Putnam Friday and West Lafayette Saturday before playing SAC foe North Montgomery next week. Motz looks for even more improvement.
“We’ve got to try and play as relaxed as possible. We still haven’t seen our best ballclub on the field and I can’t wait for that to consistently happen. We have so much potential on this team. We’re still striving to click on all cylinders.”
