Crawfordsville baseball was swept by Bloomington South in a doubleheader on Saturday afternoon.
The Athenians dropped game one 5-4 in eight innings and game two 11-5.
In game one the Athenians (12-7 7-2 SAC) trailed 4-0 heading into the bottom of the seventh inning, but was able to have the bats come alive and Caleb Coons grounded out which allowed Henry Taylor to score the game-tying run.
In the top of the eighth the Panthers got an RBI double from Mason Younger but the Athenians were in prime position to score after a leadoff double by Zach Fichter. A Panther error on a Bryce Dowell bunt allowed Fichter to get to third as Crawfordsville had runners at the corners with no one out, but the Athenians were unable to score the game-tying run.
Despite the extra inning loss, Athenian coach Brett Motz was proud of the way his team battled back to force extra innings.
“Early in game one, we got down on ourselves a little bit, but they continued to stay in the game mentally and just gave us a chance to win,” the first year Athenian coach said. “I have all of the confidence in our guys to execute that bunt, but this time it just didn’t happen.”
Athenian ace Cale Coursey got the start for the Athenians in game one and a few times looked to get out of an inning, but a few errors by Crawfordsville allowed the inning to continue and the Panthers took advantage.
“I thought Coursey did a great job for us today,” Motz said. “He’s established himself as a very dominant pitcher early in games. He’s still working on trying to finish games and we know that he can.”
Austin Motz led the Athenians with three total hits in the two games. Mason Younger led all hitters with four total hits and four RBI’s for the Panthers. AJ Brinson also had three hits for Bloomington South.
With the two wins over the Athenians Bloomington South moves to 11-7 on the season and coach Phil Kluesner thinks this can be the series that jolts his team forward.
“Everytime they (Crawfordsville) seemed to get close a tie up the game, we responded,” he said. “It was nice to see they had the focus to stim the tide and always answer back. Mason Younger was a tear for us today and he’s been starting to do that for us as of late. When we play teams like Crawfordsville, we talk about things like the postseason because we’re going to see teams like this and also just having to win every inning.”
The Athenians will be back in action at home on Tuesday as they welcome county rival North Montgomery for the first of a two game series.
