DANVILLE – Crawfordsville’s baseball team got the Sagamore Conference season off to a good start with a pair of wins Tuesday night over Danville.
The 3-1 and 9-6 victories move the Athenians to 3-5 on the season and 2-0 in the league, while the Warriors fall to 0-3 overall and 0-2 in the Sagamore.
The doubleheader, played with the threat of wet weather for the second game on Wednesday, turned into an Athenians night as they used contributions from many to chalk up the two wins.
“It’s really good to get the conference started off with two wins,” C’ville coach Brett Motz said of the 3-1 and 9-6 victories. “This is such a confidence builder for us. We got off to the rough (0-5) start and the win over Fountain Central last Saturday just kind of catapulted us. We did some good things, we have things to work on, but I’ll sure take two wins here.”
The Athenians used well-known and not-so-well-known guys for hero moments as they won the pair of games. They played small ball most of the night, but got a couple extra-base hits when needed.
Above all, the got good pitching and solid defense.
GAME 1
There is no surprise that Kale Wemer pitched well for the Athenians.
The Purdue-bound senior threw a three-hitter and threw in some offensive help in the 3-1 opening game win.
Using 89 pitches in the complete-game win, Wemer struck out eight and walked only one.
Ironically, it was that one walk that came in to score Danville’s only run of the game.
After three scoreless innings, C’ville put the first runs up with a pair in the fourth.
Bryce Dowell led off with a double, and after an out, Wemer reached on an error. Daniel Surface came in as his courtesy runner.
Matt Miller laced a single to right-center to score Dowell, and two batters later, Henry Bannon hit a ball so high off home plate that everyone was safe. That infield single scored Surface.
Crawfordsville got their third run in the seventh when Wyatt Motz singled and advanced a base on a wild pitch. The junior scored on a Wemer hit, the third time Wemer reached base, including a 10-pitch walk in the second.
The Athenians defense did their job behind Wemer, with only two errors. Six of Wemer’s eight strikeouts came in the last three innings as he picked up his second win of the season.
“We rely on him to carry us,” Motz said of his senior pitcher. “What he did so well tonight was pitch to get outs. All pitchers love to get strikeouts, but sometimes getting strikeouts runs up the pitch count. Kale let the defense get outs tonight, and pitching for outs can lower that pitch count.”
The Warriors had Kole Miller on the mound to start, and the junior pitcher into the sixth inning, throwing 91 pitches and picking up the loss. He allowed five hits, walked two and struck out three. Alex Fuesler pitched the rest of the game for the Warriors, giving up the third run.
Aiden Chiodo got that walk and scored Danville’s only run in the fourth, on an RBI single by Jack Warner.
GAME 2
It was a lot more helter-skelter in the 9-6 Game 2 win.
There were a couple lead changes, the game was tied a couple more times. Plenty of guys on base, some made, some missed opportunities. A handful of errors came into play. Good pitching by both starters and relief throwers, and good hitting in some spots.
Another familiar name the baseball past, Jude Coursey, swung the hot bat, as the junior reached base all four times he came to the plate.
Adding a double from Game 1, Coursey had three doubles on the night. He scored three runs and turned in a stellar performance at shortstop.
Dowell reached base three times, including a triple, scored twice and drove one in. He will also be mentioned when pitching comes up.
Wemer reached base three times, scored once and drove one in. Kaden Patton had a double that drove in a run, Sam Minnette reached base and scored once.
Mason McCarty was involved in a play that gets its own paragraph.
The game was tied 4-4 in the bottom of the fifth. There were two outs and Wemer was on base. McCarty hit a three-hopper to second and with Wemer on the move, the play was to first for the Danville second baseman.
Except he threw it in into the dirt in front of the first baseman, and the ball rolled to the fence (a good way away at Danville).
Wemer easily scored and McCarty was headed for second. The Danville first baseman then threw the ball into left field, and McCarty, instead of making the third out, scored the second run of that play, giving the Athenians a 6-4 lead and dousing most of the fire in the Danville dugout.
This was after Crawfordsville’s defense got out of a major jam in the top of that same fifth inning, as Jayden Jiminez was pitching his first inning of relief.
Yes, Jayden Jiminez.
The freshman whose name was only on the scorecard turned in by the coaches and not yet on the roster that the fans picked up.
Jiminez was in to pitch in relief of Dowell, who threw the first four innings but needed 84 pitches to do so.
He promptly got himself in hot water by hitting the first batter he faced, and then giving up a single after that. A pair of stolen bases made it runners on second and third with no outs.
Jiminez and the defense came up huge, as the runner at third was thrown out at home on an infield chopper, Motz to Miller. A hit back to Jiminez got a force out at second and a fly ball finished undoing the jam.
“Jayden worked all winter with Coach (Rhett) Welliever and changed his arm angle,” Motz said of the frosh, who got some work in Tennessee but was seeing his first Sagamore action. “He makes hitters adjust because he doesn’t throw as hard as Dowell (who started) and he really attacks the strike zone. He will certainly be in the mix – he did a good job.”
The freshman picked up the win in relief, his first high school victory. He went two innings, gave up one hit and one run.
Motz came in to pitch the seventh and picked up the save. He struck out two.
The Athenians got a run in the first and the second, a pair in the fourth, the crazy two in the fifth an three more in the seventh.
The Warriors started Ethan Wooten, and the sophomore went three innings. Noah Origer pitched the last three and picked up the loss. In total, Crawfordsville picked up eight hits against the pair, but six Warriors errors led to four unearned runs. Fuesler led the offense with two hits, two RBI and a run scored.
The Warriors are back in action Thursday, weather permitting, with a game against Clinton Prairie.
The Athenians are back in action Saturday when they host the Athenian Invite. They play Bethesda Christian at 10:30.
BOX SCORE
GAME 1
CRAWFORDSVILLE 3 DANVILLE 1
Records: CHS (2-5, 1-0); DAN (0-2, 0-1)
Score by Inning
CHS 000 200 1 – 3 7 2
DAN 000 100 0 – 1 3 3
Hits: CHS (Motz 2, Coursey, Dowell, Wemer, Miller, Bannon); DAN (Warner, Wenzel, Stafford).
2B: CHS (Coursey, Dowell).
Runs: CHS (Dowell, Surface, Motz); DAN (Chiodo).
RBI: CHS (Miller, Bannon, Wemer); DAN (Warner).
Pitching: CHS Wemer W 7IP 3H 1R 1ER 1BB 8K; DAN Miller L 5.1IP 5H 2R 1ER 2BB 3K, Fuesler 1.2iP 2H 1R 1ER 1BB 0K.
GAME 2
CRAWFORDSVILLE 9 DANVILLE 6
Records: CHS (3-5, 2-0); DAN (0-3, 0-2)
Score by Innings
DAN 010 301 1 – 6 7 6
CHS 110 223x – 9 8 2
Hits: DAN (Fuesler 2, Wenzel, Miller, Stafford, Hackleman, Wooten); CHS (Coursey 3, Dowell 2, Motz, Patton, Miller).
2B: CHS (Coursey 2, Patton).
3B: (Dowell).
Runs: DAN (Miller, Hackleman, Fuesler, Wooten, Groce, Stafford); CHS (Coursey 3, Dowell 2, Minnette, Wemer, McCarty, Motz).
RBI: Dan (Fuesler 2, Wooten, Wenzel); CHS (Dowell, Motz, Patton, Wemer).
Pitching: DAN Wooten 3IP 3H 2R 0ER 4BB 1K, Origer L 3IP 5H 7R 5ER 1BB 2K; CHS Dowell 4IP 5H 4R 4ER 5BB 8K, Jiminez W 2IP 1H 1R 1ER 0BB 0K, Motz S 1IP 0H 1R 0ER 0BB 2K.
