LINDEN — North Montgomery baseball relied on its experience to get off to a good start, but once freshman Ross Dyson smacked a RBI triple in the bottom half of the first inning, the Chargers’ youth was on full display in an 18-0 season-opening win in five innings over North Putnam on Tuesday.
Dyson had two hits, three runs driven in and scored three runs. The freshman also pitched two innings, allowing no hits. He relieved junior Jakob Kirsch, who struck-out seven of the 10 hitters he faced, pitching just 30 pitches in three innings of work. Jacon Braun completed the experienced battery to start the game for the Chargers. The senior also scored a pair of runs and had a RBI.
“You’ve got Jacob Braun at catcher, who is our only senior and Jakob Kirsch, who is our junior who is really our only other player besides Jacob that has seen really any varsity time and putting those two in the two key positions to start the first game is huge for us as a pitcher and catcher,” first-year coach Ryan Nuppnau said. “and Jakob Kirsch really set the tone that first inning at what type of game this was going to be and let everyone know that ‘we got this, even though we are a little inexperienced, we are going to take you under our wing.’
The younger players took notice — first Dyson, and then everybody else.
After taking a 2-0 lead after an inning, the Chargers broke things open in the second as the first 10 hitters reached safely, scoring nine runs and chasing North Putnam (2-1) starting pitcher Kovey Jeter out of the game.
Kirsch and Dyson each plated a pair with base-hits, while sophomores Dylan Braun and Gage Galloway each had RBI singles.
“We’ve got a good sophomore and freshman class of players that know the game and are good, so right now we are in a tough situation without some of our upperclassmen because of not enough practices because of quarantines, and these sophomores and freshmen even though they haven’t seen any varsity time stepped up and played as they’ve been up there before,” Nuppnau said. “That’s neat to see that we have people like that, that are confident with their abilities and not afraid to step onto the field and battle against another team.”
Overall the Chargers (1-0) had 12 hits offensively, and scored at least one run in each of their four at-bats. Defensively, North Montgomery pitchers only faced 16 hitters in five innings.
“He (Kirsch) had good command of the ball and Jacob Braun called a very good game behind the plate,” Nuppnau added. “And that defense really set the tone and allowed us to be more patient and relaxed at the plate. Very proud of our guys, I think we had 11 walks. We understood what the situation was up there and we were taking what the pitcher was giving us. When we had the opportunities we hit hard line-drives and were able to move people around.”
Freshman Jarrod Kirsch added a pair of hits and scored three runs.
North Montgomery will travel to Fountain Central on Thursday.
