In non-conference games you usually never know what to expect. Friday night Crawfordsville baseball welcomed in Northview and early on it looked as if both teams were going to be in for a high scoring affair. Things did settle down and when the final out was recorded it was Cville who came away wiht a 6-2 win.
Senior Mateo Flores got the nod for CHS and and after a rocky first two innnings which included a pair of hit batters, the senior settled in and ended up going the distance to throw a complete game and only giving up four hits. The biggest trouble that Flores faced was in the very first inning when he hit the opening batter and the next one laid down a sac bunt and Flored fielded the ball and his overthrow to first allowed Northview to have runners at second and third with no one out. CHS caught a break as on a wild pitch, the runner on third hesitated before deciding to come to the plate and was thrown out. The Knights did score on a sac fly to make it 1-0.
Two more base-running blunders by the Knights in the second inning cost them two outs as the runner on second was thrown out at third on a ground ball hit to short and then Flored picked another runner off at first base. The final line score for Flores eneded up being seven innings of just four-hit ball and giving up two earned runs while walking and striking out just one.
“Mateo tweaked his hamstring in the first inning and that’s an injury that he’s been dealing with for a few weeks now and he could’ve easily came in and said I’m done, but he gutted it out tonight,” Crawfordsville coach Brett Motz said. “He’s one of our senior leaders on this team and he gave us a great performance. He did get rattled early but contiued to go out there each inning and gave it his best effort. Our defense made some great plays behind him and that only helped his confidence.”
Crawfordsville (7-6) scored two runs in the first and second innings and single runs in the third and fourth. Jude Coursey got things going with a single and then Matt Miller who moved up to the number two spot in the order laced a double and two batters in CHS had the game tied. An error by Northview pitcher Jackson Farris allowed courtesy runner Daniel Surface to come home and score. In the second inning Henry Bannon got things going with a lead-off single and Hayden Craig sacrificed him over to second. Mason McCarty reached on an infield single and then a two-RBI single by Coursey gave CHS a 4-2 lead.
Coursey ended the game 3-4 with a double and the two-RBI’s but Cville fans and parents after the game were talking about the play the shortstop made in the top of the sixth. With a runner on second base, Northview’s Brayden Kreiger laced a pitch that looked headed for the left-center gap. Coursey nearly jumped out of his cleats to raise up and snag the ball and quickly toss it back to second for an inning-ending double play.
“I was able to see the ball pretty well off the bat and the runner was creeping off the base a little bit so I knew if I caught I had a chance to double him up,” Coursey said of highlight reel play. “It’s my job as a shortstop to help my pitchers in any way that I can. It’s all for the team and this game is a lot easier when we’re getting outs so I know that my team relies on me to make some of those plays when we need to get out of a jam.”
Motz made sure to praise his junior shortstop who has made many stellar plays in his three seasons.
“Jude has a natural gift to play that shortstop position,” the Athenian skipper said. “He takes advantage of those natural talents to continue to make himself better. We’ve seen him make plays like that during our batting practice sessions and he amazes us with his ability. It takes that type of effort during practice to make him comfortable doing it in games. Plays like that give our team a lot of momentum.”
Along with Coursey’s three hit night, Miller, Bryce Dwoell, Bannon, McCarty, and Craig all had one hit each.
CHS moved over .500 for the first time this season as they are now 7-6 and has a big Sagamore Conference matchup at Lebanon Saturday morning.
