LINDEN — Jacob Braun delivered the final blow to give North Montgomery a 3-2 win in a marathon 10-inning Sagamore Conference affair with Tri-West on Monday night.
The senior took a 3-1 pitch to the wall in centerfield with two on and two out in the bottom of the 10th to lead the Chargers (12-10, 6-7 SAC) to the win over the Bruins (6-13, 5-7 SAC), and snap a three-game skid.
“Jacob had a great line drive, 3-1 count and just smoked it to center field to seal the deal,” North Montgomery coach Ryan Nuppnau said. “Definitely right off the bat you knew it wasn’t even going to be questionable at all. He’s struggled a little bit here and there so it’s good to have him have that confidence boost.”
It was Braun’s second hit of the game as it scored Jarrod Kirsch, who led the bottom of the 10th off with a single.
Kirsch also took the ball and pitch nine strong innings. The freshman gave up a pair of unearned runs, one in the first and another in the fourth, while he allowed just five hits, walked two and struck-out four earning a no-decision.
“He’s that type of person that he kind of calms down and gets a feel for the umpires and how they’re calling it,” Nuppnau said. “And also our defense really stepped it up after the first couple innings, because that’s how they got their runs (two errors). He’s the type of player and pitcher that it doesn’t really bother him. He’s able to move on and do what he needs to do and that’s special, especially coming from a freshman out there on the mound.”
North Montgomery scored a pair of runs in the fifth to tie the game at 2-2 behind a RBI hit from Austin Sulc. The freshman had two hits to go along with Jakob Kirsch’ three hits. Kirsch also picked up the win from the hill with a scoreless inning in relief.
“Jarrod Kirsch pitched a great game,” Nuppnau said. “And Jakob came in and sealed the deal for us. We executed at the plate there in the second half of the game and especially in the extra innings to do what we wanted to do to get runners on bases and then move them across.
“Tri-West is a tough team, they’ve show in conference play that they can play right along with everybody else. So being able to pull out a win against them in 10 innings is huge for us.”
North Montgomery travels to Tri-West today, before hosting Central Catholic Thursday, Harrison on Saturday, and Greencastle on Monday.
“I think that it’s huge that we’ve played right along with a lot of good teams,” Nuppnau added. “We look back and wish we could have that Lebanon and Danville series back. We know we can compete better than we showed, but being able to compete in the past few games against Crawfordsville and now Tri-West. We are in every game and that’s all you can ask is give yourself a chance to win.”
