OXFORD — The Crawfordsville offense was a little less potent than it has been of late on Friday as the Athenians made the trip to Oxford and came away with a 3-1 win over Benton Central.
Bryce Dowell got the nod on the mound for the Athenians and pitched a complete game while striking out seven and working around nine Bison hits.
All there CHS runs came in the second inning as three straight singles by Alex Kellerman, Kaiden Underwood and Wyatt Motz got CHS on the board as Motz’s single scored both Kellerman and Underwood. Dowell would help out his own cause a few batters later for the Athenians as his single would score Motz.
While it wasn’t as flashy as it has been recently for CHS, skipper Brett Motz credited his team and especially Dowell for getting through some rough innings and helping preserve the Athenian victory.
“Bryce battled in all seven innings tonight,” Motz said. “He made the pitches when he needed to to get out of some jams and also allowed our defense to make plays behind him. He didn’t walk a single guy and forced Benton Central to earn everything tonight.”
Crawfordsville while they have had a few close games this season, hasn’t routinely been in a lot of close games up until Friday night. The battle with the Bison was yet another game where CHS can look back come the post-season and use this experience when faced with a nail-biting contest.
“Tonight was a type of game where everything was magnified a little bit,” Motz said. “Bryce on the mound knew that every pitch meant a little more and our defense played well knowing that an error here or there could’ve allowed them to break the game wide open. Our pitchers continue to throw strikes and that keeps our defense involved and when those two things are happening at the same time, it usually results in us not giving up many runs which is obviously important for us.”
Like the Bison, CHS hit the ball well and tallied nine hits in the win. Wyatt Motz along with his two-RBI single collected another hit to end with two for the game. His older brother Austin also tallied a pair of hits. AJ Hall, Cale Coursey, Underwood, Kellerman, and Dowell all had a single hit.
With the win CHS just keeps on rolling with as their record now stands at 14-1 on the season. The Athenians will be right back in action tomorrow afternoon for a contest against the Covington Trojans.
