North Montgomery baseball is currently tied for first place in the Sagamore Conference with an 8-1 record. With just two weeks left in the conference season the Chargers are one of the front-runners for the SAC crown. What has been the key to their success has come from their top pitchers in junior Jarrod Kirsch and sophomore Cade Cole.
While coaches and the players themselves don’t necessarily care about their stats, it’s extremely difficult not to when you take a look at what both of them have done on the mound. Cole threw a perfect game against Danville back on Apr. 19 and Kirsch followed that up by throwing his fourth no-hitter of his career against county rival Southmont just three days later.
Kirsch currently boasts an absurd ERA of just .73 on the year. He’s fifth in the state in strikeouts with 71 in just 38.1 innings. Oh and he’s 6-0 on the season and has give up just 16 total hits. Cole in 32 innings has just a 1.53 ERA and has only given up 17 hits while going 3-1 in his first season of varsity baseball.
What has made this pitching duo so dominant for the Chargers? Well let them tell you along with Charger coach Matt Voorhees.
“Their work ethic has made both of them be able to pitch the way they have for us so far,” Voorhees said. “Those two started this past summer and their relationship as friends and as teammates really took off. They incorporated a certain program that worked for them and they held each other accountable. It’s neat to see how all of that work is now paying dividends for them now.”
While the both are being dominant on the mound for the Chargers, each of them has done it a little differently. Kirsch being a lefty and throws mainly off-speed has great control of his pitches and locations. Cole is a righty and while he doesn’t get the strikeouts that Kirsch does, he’s still able to locate his pitches very effectively and trusts his defense when the ball is put in play.
Kirsch who was the Chargers No. 1 last year as a sophomore has seen his game being taken to a whole other level this season while Cole didn’t quite know what to expect in his first year with the varsity team. Safe to say it’s been a best case scenario for both of them.
“Seeing all of my teammates show up in the off-season really drove me to get even better,” Kirsch said. “We all were busting our tails off and that really allowed my confidence level to rise. I’ve always held myself to a very high standard and have tried my best to keep those high expectations so that I can’t reach them every single day.”
Cole, who’s dad (Ryan Cole) is on staff for the Chargers has helped call his pitches during his games this season. Having that relationship has been something that’s allowed him to feel at ease when he’s on the mound. Cole also spent the entire winter season training and getting his body in shape since he elected to not play a winter sport.
“I had a lot of time on my hands in the winter so I figured I should put it to good use,” Cole said. “I put in a lot of hard work during that time with guys like Jarrod and some of our other teammates. That has just let to the success that we’ve had so far.”
Both Kirsch and Cole have an un-canny ability to not be phased by the highs and lows of ball game. They both stay in the moment and live pitch to pitch. For Cole that mentality was on full display during Wednesday’s game at Lebanon. The Tigers launched a go-ahead grand slam off of the sophomore in the third inning to give them a 5-4 lead. Cole from that point on finished the game and allowed just a single run the rest of the way as the Chargers won 7-6.
“Cade just kept attacking the zone with each individual pitch and after giving up the lead it would have been easy for him to just give up,” Voorhees said. “He showed real toughness to stay locked in and fight through it. Jarrod’s been in similar situations and that kind of toughness is what you want to see in your pitchers.”
Cole’s perfect game against the Warriors is believed to be not only the first perfect game in North Montgomery history, but very well the first perfect game in Montgomery County history. Cole took a moment to talk about what that game meant to him.
“That night was just un-real,” he said. “I have to give a lot of credit to my defense behind me who made plays left and right that night. I only had six strikeouts of the 18 batters I faced so our defense got the other 12 for me. I can’t take all the credit for it, because they deserve a lot of it.”
While Kirsch and Cole get a lot of the credit, Kirsch notes how every single one of the North Montgomery pitchers are able to feed off of each other’s successes. It doesn’t matter who may be on the mound because confidence is contagious with these Chargers.
“I just love seeing everyone who goes on the mound and is able to succeed,” Kirsch said. “It gives everyone else on the team that much more confident. Coach Voorhees and the rest of the coaching staff instill that confidence in us from day one and we’re able to go out there and do what we do best.”
With most pitchers who see success via the strikeout, it’s usually do their ability to have high velocity with their fastball. That’s not the philosophy that Voorhees and the Chargers take with their pitching staff.
“Too often guys get caught up in throwing 85-90 in today’s game,” Voorhees said. “We’re not trying to create those guys here in our program. Instead we focus on precision and making sure we’re hitting our spots with every single one of our pitches. Our entire staff understands that we have our methods that we’ve been using for a long time now. Some guys who throw that hard struggle with their command and we’d much rather prefer having guys like Jarrod and Cole who are elite with their precision instead of throwing as hard as possible.”
The dominant Charger duo isn’t satisfied with where they’re currently at. North Montgomery has bigger goals still ahead and that includes what they hope capturing their first SAC title in 23 years. North Montgomery has the right two guys leading the way to do exactly that in both Kirsch and Cole.
