VEEDERSBURG — North Montgomery’s baseball team may be young, but they haven’t played that way in their first two games, as a Jarrod Kirsch no-hitter was backed up by the offense in a 14-0, five inning win over Fountain Central.
The freshman, in his first varsity start, struck out eight and didn’t allow a hit in his five innings worked.
Throwing 73 pitches, 45 for strikes, Kirsch puts a win in his stats column to go with the W his brother Jacob picked up in a Chargers win earlier in the week and puts North at 2-0 on the young season.
“My teammates got all those runs, and that really helped me focus,” Kirsch said of the 13 hits the North offense put up. “Coach (Joe) Swick told me to go out and make them swing the bat. I was a little nervous before the game, but after the first hitter, I was able to just throw strikes.”
Three years of travel ball gave the freshman baseball experience, but high school varsity is a different level.
“The big stage of varsity pitching is a different animal,” Chargers coach Ryan Nuppnau said. “Jarrod threw a good inning in the scrimmage against Western, so I wanted to see him in a game. He came in and threw strikes, and we got some real timely hits behind him.”
The Mustangs managed only three baserunners, as Kirsch hit two batters and an error put one on, but there was never a scoring threat.
“He (Kirsch) was a good lefty with good stuff today,” FC coach Adam Acton said. “The wind was coming right at him, so his offspeed stuff moved up and down, and that made it really tough for us to hit.”
The Chargers put four runs on the board in the first, six more in the third and four in the fifth. All nine starters reached base and eight scored at least once.
“After a great start and a big win Tuesday, the concern was that as a young team, we could come out flat,” Nuppnau said. “That didn’t happen at all. The guys responded well and did all the little things. We had timely hits, we had good two-strike hits. We emphasize how important it is to get baserunners on. Putting people on base changes the dynamics, and we’ve been working on different hitting situations. Our young guys are starting to understand some of these situations. The varsity game is so different from the travel ball that lots of these guys have played. The school, the community, the team is much bigger than you.”
The Mustangs, who even their season record at 3-3 with the loss, are also learning on the fly.
“It’s all about getting experience through the season,” Acton said. “These freshmen and sophomores are working hard, and learning. They are getting better, and we have a lot of pitchers that are going to get stronger with experience. I really think we are going to be a pretty good team by the end of the season. We were a little tentative tonight against the good lefty, but our defense was solid with no errors.”
Owen Acton, coming off a broken hand in the preseason, started the game on the mound for FC, and gave way in the first to Nic Swenson, who was solid into the third. Colton Robinson worked an inning plus, and Carson Eberly finished.
The Chargers bats gave all four a round go at times.
Kirsch, in addition to his no-hitter, reached base three times and scored all three. Older brother Jakob, Ross Dyson and Brookes Walters each scored twice.
Walters had three hits and three RBI, while Austin Sulc added a pair of hits and three RBI. Jacob Braun had two doubles and another three RBI.
The Mustangs take on another Montgomery County foe on Saturday with a trip to Crawfordsville, while the Chargers travel to Benton Central today.
