VEEDERSBURG – It was a hungry Crawfordsville baseball team that traveled to Fountain Central to take on the Mustangs on Saturday. The Athenians, who were ranked #5 in 3A on MaxPreps coming into the season, came off a trip to Tennessee where they dropped four games to some great competition and they were looking to turn things around in Veedersburg.
The team did just that as they started with a six-run first inning that saw ten Athenian batters come to the plate with four hits, three walks and a grand slam by Kale Wermer.
After setting down the Mustangs in order, Crawfordsville added three more runs in the second inning on three singles and a sacrifice bunt by Mason McCarty that moved two runners.The bottom half saw Fountain Central go down in order and then the Athenians added one more run in the top of the third on a single by Bryce Dowell who then stole second and scored on a single by Kaden Patton for a 10-0 tally.
Fountain Central got their first baserunner in the fourth when a pitch hit Bryson Davis and then Cole Garbison singled courtesy runner Wyatt Clark to second.
The inning ended with the runners stuck there as the next Mustang batter struck out to retire the side.
Fountain Central put two runners on in the bottom of the fourth on a single by Owen Acton and an error that allowed Ayden Batchelor to reach base with no outs.
Wyatt Motz had taken over on the mound in that inning for the Athenians, but he retired the next two batters on a pair of strikeouts and got the third on a ground ball to keep the Mustangs off the scoreboard.
In the top of the fifth, Crawfordsville added two more runs on a walk to Dowell, a double by Patton and a ground out by Wermer that made it 12-0.
Fountain Central could not score in the bottom half of the inning, so the game ended 12-0 on the ten-run rule.
“We are starting conference play next week,” Brett Motz, the Athenian head coach said, “so we wanted to give all three pitchers one to two innings to get ready.”
He continued, “I thought all of our pitchers did well – we sometime want them to pitch to put the ball in play rather than go for strikeouts to cut back on their pitch counts and they did that.”
Motz said that by having the defense make plays behind pitcher, it gave the hurlers confidence in their teammates.
“Heading into conference play, a win here today gives us positive momentum going into next week.”
Fountain Central head coach Adam Acton said he was happy with his pitching despite the score because “they hit the ball better than we did – they hit spots – but we seemed to always hit it right to them.”
He complemented Uriah Wildman for his first game as a varsity starting pitcher and said that the other three who threw (Owen Acton, Bryson Davis and Asher Davis), pitched well enough.
“We just need to hit the ball better,” Acton said. “We fielded well and our pitchers threw strikes, but we need to get runs.”
Crawfordsville with the win gets their first of the 2024 season and improves to 1-5 on the year while Fountain Central falls to 2-2 with the loss. CHS travels to Danville on Tuesday to open up Sagamore Conference play before hosting the Warriors on Wednesday. Saturday the Athenians will host their annual Athenian Invite.
Fountain Central will have the week to prepare for Southmont who they welcome to Veedersburg on Friday.
