NEW MARKET – North Montgomery’s Jarrod Kirsch had his best stuff Saturday afternoon at Southmont.
The sophomore left-hander tossed a complete game no-hitter with 15 strikeouts to lead the Chargers past the Mounties 2-0.
“You can’t say enough about Jarrod Kirsch,” North Montgomery coach Matt Voorhees said. “Jarrod, every day is just a professional. He just has that business approach with whatever he does.”
It was Kirsch’s second no-hitter of his career.
Southmont ace Nick Scott was almost just as good on the mound, but the Chargers managed seven hits and scraped across single runs in the third and fifth innings. Kirsch drove in pinch-runner Thomas Laffoon with a sacrifice fly in the third, while Austin Sulc scored in the fifth on a Jakob Kirsch safety squeeze after reaching on an error.
“I give huge credit to Nick Scott,” Voorhees said of the opposing pitcher. “He had us off balance today. The umpire really liked that outside corner, and Nick did a great job of attacking that. So we were getting those lazy fly balls and weak ground balls. I think he came up with seven strikeouts and that’s not typical Charger baseball right now. We’ve been pretty good at adjusting with two strikes and today I felt like we were hoping to not strikeout a couple of times.”
Scott allowed five hits in six innings of work, giving up just one earned run and struck out six.
“I was happy with our defensive intensity though and Nick pitched a good game and Conner did a great job behind the plate,” Southmont coach Brad Wininger said.
The offense just didn’t click for the Mounties. And six of the 15 strikeouts were looking.
“We’ve struck out a lot this year, but Kirsch pitched a nice game,” Wininger added. “He pitched away away and then would ride it in on them. He just did a good job and was attacking hitters. That (15 strikeouts) was disappointing.”
North Montgomery junior Brookes Walters continued his hot hitting with two hits, including a double in sixth, while senior Brayden Martin had a pair of base hits for the Chargers.
