Crawfordsville’s Sagamore Conference chase got off on a winning start with a 9-4 win over Danville.
Cale Coursey struck out 12 and hit a fifth-inning home run to lead the way for the Athenians, ranked sixth in the preseason coaches poll, as they move to 6-2 overall and pick up their first win in the league.
The Warriors fall to 2-2 on the season and lose their first conference outing.
Coursey picked up his second pitching win and first home run of the season, working six innings without his best stuff.
Going six innings and throwing 119 pitches, the senior allowed two hits, walked five and allowed the four Danville runs, three of which came on a double in the first after a dropped fly foul ball with two outs.
“Cale never really got in the flow, never found his rhythm or got comfortable,” Athenians coach Brett Motz said. “What he did do was battle through it all. He is a great leader, he brings so much energy, and he brings that confidence at the plate. He just used that negative play as motivation for the next five innings. I was really glad to see the entire team re-group and recover also.”
After the Warriors got the three runs in the first, Crawfordsville tied it with three in the second.
Coursey led off with a double, and Kale Wemer and Kaiden Underwood followed up with singles.
In the fourth, the home squad struck for three more, after Danville had scored one in the top of the inning.
Wemer started it with a single, followed by base knocks in a row by Underwood, Jude Coursey and Kaden Patton.
Coursey drove courtesy runner Javier Resto (running for AJ Hall) in with the left-field dinger in the fifth, the first home run for Crawfordsville this season. Bryce Dowell doubled and scored in the sixth on a Wyatt Motz hit.
Jude Coursey pitched the seventh inning in relief, and faced four hitters, striking out two, giving the Coursey brothers 14 strikeouts for the game.
The Warriors started Will Woolsey on the mound, and the senior went four innings, giving up six runs and picking up the loss. Aaron Brebec pitched the final two innings.
“We got the three in the first, but we needed a better approach at the plate,” Danville coach Pat O’Neill said. “Coursey works fast and he was just missing. Woolsey pitched one of the best games I’ve ever seen last week and he battled tonight. Brebec is a battler too. We have good senior leadership on this team, and some really good younger players who got a lot of experience from last year. Every Sagamore game is going to be a test - there are lots of battles ahead. Every team is good.”
O’Neill is also a cancer survivor, and will celebrate four years in July.
“I just thank God for baseball,” he said. “I’m here for the kids and they help keep me going.”
The Warriors were led offensively by Ryan Wenzel with the three-RBI double. Brandon Neffendorf had the other hit off Cale Coursey - a double in the fourth, and scored on an error.
Underwood finished with three hits for the Athenians. Cale Coursey finished with two, as did Wemer, as did Jude Coursey and Wyatt Motz. Wemer and Underwood scored twice each. Patton and Cale Coursey had two RBI each.
“We have great confidence in all nine guys,” Motz said, looking at the hits and runs up and down the batting order. “Every conference game is important, and every win is important. Tonight was a good win, but there are always places to improve, and the next big game, the next big test, is tomorrow.”
The same two conference foes square off at Danville Wednesday, with first pitch scheduled for 6.
