DOVER – Jarrod Kirsch saw the ball hit toward the pitcher’s mound and he sprinted for home plate.
No big deal, right?
It was significant for North Montgomery in a 9-1 win over Western Boone to close out an improbable doubleheader Tuesday evening on the Stars’ field.
“I felt like our hitters were more focused at the plate,” North coach Matt Voorhees said. “We hit the ball around fine in game one, but we hit a lot of fly balls and line drives at people. We’ve got a few things to work on, but we showed we have some depth, not only on the mound, but in the field.”
Taking advantage of situations was indeed the difference in salvaging a split of the two games.
Game one went to the home team in a nailbiter. Tied 1-1 against senior Austin Sulc, in relief of Cade Cole, WeBo plated the winner in the bottom of the seventh inning.
Brennan Kopriva singled and was sacrificed to second by Layton Yancey. Intentional walk to leadoff hitter Luke Jackson and another pass to Gavin Hawkins set up Jackson Grimes’ heroics, a seeing eye single up the middle to score Kopriva.
In the nightcap, the Chargers had six hits, all singles. The more impressive stat was they used 10 walks, three hits by pitch and two errors along the way to go with a marvelous outing by senior lefthander Kirsch.
The Kirsch run scored was the first of game two, part of a four-run opening inning. Walks to Kirsch and Roman Utterback and an Isaiah Hopkins hit by a pitch loaded the bases. Ross Dyson hit the nubber to drive in that first run. Corbin Meadows walked to reload the bases. Noah Hopkins then ripped a single to center to plate two. After another walk Aiden Ambriz-Cruz singled to left to get another run across before Noah Hopkins was gunned down at the plate to end the inning. North (2-1, 0-1 Sagamore Conference) added one run in the fourth and four more in the fifth.
The Chargers chased ace and IU-South Bend bound Jackson Grimes after only one-third of an inning and had their way with three other hurlers. There was production up and down the lineup.
Six different Chargers had hits led by Noah Hopkins three during the twinbill. Every player that started game two got on base at least once.
Kirsch allowed only three hits while striking out eight on 86 pitches in game two. His seventh strike out set a new school record of 234.
Cole, normally a reliever, made the start in the opener and gave up only a run on two hits over five innings.
“For him to get a start tonight was huge and after a slow start I thought he pitched well.”
The DH was the Sagamore Conference opener for both teams as the Chargers and Stars both begin conference play 1-1.
“We’re already backing our season up because of the weather. So kudos to the athletic directors for making this happen. Baseball is such a short season to get 28 games in. We’ve already got three cancellations and looking for holes to plug those guys in.”
Western Boone (2-3, 1-1) hosts Sheridan Thursday. The Chargers (2-1, 1-1) are home Friday against Covington.
“There may be times we have five or six games in a week. Fortunately, we have the arms we can go deep and still be OK. “
