NEW MARKET — Fountain Central’s baserunners got the green light, and never stopped running, on their way to an 11-2 baseball win over Southmont Friday.
The win breaks a six-game skid for the Mustangs, who sit at 4-6 with a big home conference doubleheader today, while the Mounties drop to1-6.
“We’re a fairly quick team,” FC coach Adam Acton said of his team’s 11 stolen bases. “We’ll run til we get thrown out. We try to read both the pitcher and the catcher and tonight we got good jumps.”
The swipes went along with an 11-hit effort from the Mustangs, who scored runs in four at-bats and left guys on in two more.
“We jumped on some fastballs early,” Acton noted. “We’ve been getting after pitches earlier in the count lately, which is good. We were letting too many fastball strikes go by, and that was getting us down in the count, which is always an advantage for the pitcher. We told the guys to be ready from the first pitch, not get in those holes and put the ball in play. We did a much better job at the plate tonight.”
Conversely, the Mounties could only get a pair of runners across in the third inning, and left 10 on base, at least one in six of seven innings. A couple baserunning foibles and an FC double-play squashed more chances.
“The growing pains continue,” South coach Brad Wininger said. “First, we are a better-hitting team than we showed tonight. We got behind in the count, and like other games, one mistake always seems to turn into a bunch. We are such a young team, with zero varsity experience coming into the season and then being a couple months behind on even that. We haven’t recovered from that late start, but it’s still disappointing.”
The Mounties got their two runs in the third, when Adam Cox led off with a triple, South’s first of the season, and Conner McKinney walked. They both scored on a Mason Hall single, which increases his team-best RBI total to 11. He also had a double, which keeps his batting average above .500.
Hall also came in to pitch for the Mounties, one of three relievers behind starter Nick Scott, who picked up the loss.
The Mustangs offense started with leadoff hitter Carson Eberly, as the senior walked, singled, doubled and tripled, driving in three runs. He scored all four times, breaking out of a slump, according to his coach.
AJ Hall added three hits, a pair of RBIs and scored once. The sophomore also picked up the pitching win, coming in to throw in the third inning, and scattering four hits and no runs in five innings of work.
Michael Geller and Cole Garbison each scored twice. Garbison delivered a two-out, two-strike, two-RBI triple in the fifth. Nic Swenson started on the mound for FC.
“It was good to get the (losing streak) monkey off our backs,” Acton said. “We’ll take the momentum into Saturday (and the WRC double-dip against North Vermillion).” First pitch is scheduled for 10 a.m.
The Mounties are idle this weekend and get back to action next Tuesday with a Sagamore Conference game at Frankfort.
