NEW MARKET — Revenge is a dish best served cold is the old saying. Southmont baseball got it’s revenge on Monday as they opened their 2023 season against Parke Heritage, the team that bested them for a sectional title a year ago. Monday the Mounties began its season with a 6-4 win over the Wolves to begin the year at 1-0.
The Wolves three of their four runs in the second innning to take a 3-0 lead. South went on to outscore them 6-1 the rest of the way with the big inning coming in the bottom of the fifth. A three-run inning broke a 3-3 tie as Southmont capitalized off of a Wolves error that would’ve ended the inning then two straight wild pitches to score their runs.
The win also gave first-year head coach Bill Woods his first win at the helm of the Mounties.
“That’s what happenes when you’re able to put the ball in play, anything can happen,” Woods said. “I think we still have to do a better job mechanically on the mound and defensively in the field. We worked behind hitters too much tonight but were able to get out of a lot of tough situations because they popped some pitches up. We felt fortunate in that regard but were always competing and our seniors played a big part in that.”
The Wolves had their chances in countless innings but left the bases loaded on three separate occasions including in the final frame.
Carter Hubble began the game on the mound for Southmont, but after two innings where he five batters and threw 67 pitches, Woods called on senior Adam Cox to come in relief. All Cox did over the next five innings was allow just two hits and a single un-earned run while striking out seven Wolves hitters to pick up the win on the mound.
“Adam is one of our senior leaders and he’s a competitor out there,” Woods said. “He wanted to be out there and gut it out so we trusted him to do just that.”
Offensively the Mounties tallied eight hits in their season-opening win. Dylan and Chayce Howell both had two hits each. Trip Ward added two as well and Cox and Caden Jones both recorded a hit. Jones’s lone hit was by far the loudest of the evening for either team as he crushed a two-run home run to dead center field back in the third inning to get the Mounties on the board.
Parke Heritage (0-1) recorded four hits as both Lewie Woody and Brayden Luce each had two. Luce took the loss on the mound for the Wolves as in four innings he gave up five hits while striking out four Mounties. Two of his three runs were earned.
Southmont did struggle some with their command on the mound as Woods noted as the Mounties walked 10 batters, but were able to escape with limited damage most innings.
The Mounties have a busy week ahead as they’ll travel to take on Covington on Tuesday. They’ll host North Putnam on Thursday before traveling again to Clinton Central on Friday for what will end up being four games in five days. A season ago the Trojans bested the Mounties 6-5 in nine innings.
“They received some votes in the Class A pre-season poll so it’ll be a challenge,” Woods said of the matchup against the Trojans. “We’ll have to be better with our command and not give up as many walks.”
The game against the Trojans is slated for a 5:30 first pitch.
