A great game between two great teams ended with a great result for Crawfordsville baseball in their 2023 home opener. CHS hosted Portage Central (MI) in what was the season opener for the Mustangs. In the end 10 innings were needed to decide a winner and senior Kaiden Underwood played the role of hero lacing a walk-off RBI single into left field to secure the 2-1 Athenian victory.
A pitching masterclass was put on by both teams as Crawfordsville’s Cale Coursey, Kale Wemer, and Jude Coursey combined to strike out 16 Mustang hitters while the Mustangs three pitchers in the game struck out 13 Athenians. The difference between the teams was that CHS didn’t walk a single hitter compared to five walks for the Mustangs.
“This felt like a championship game,” Crawfordsville coach Brett Motz said. “Everything was on the line for most of the night and every pitch and every at bat seemed to matter. All the credit in the world goes to our three pitchers, our catcher behind the plate, and our defense making plays. We were in attack mode tonight on the mound and to strike out 16 guys to go along with no walks was huge.”
Cville got their first run of the game in the bottom of the third inning as senior catcher AJ Hall doubled home Bryce Dowell to get CHS on the board. Through five innings the duo of Coursey and Wemer were throwing a perfect game. The Mustangs broke up the perfect game with a lead-off base hit from Thomas Winchester. Then with two outs Andrew Eley got the Mustangs on the board with an RBI single to even things at 1-1.
After that both teams had chances to score but neither offense could break the stalemate until Hall drew a lead-off walk in the bottom of the 10th. C. Coursey then laid down a sac bunt to get Hall to 2nd. Wemer drew a walk and that set the stage for Underwood to deliver the hit that proceeded to get him mobbed by his teammates as they celebrated the dramatic win.
“Kaiden was barreling the baseball all night, but was just a little out in from of it so for him to square that one up and come through like a senior should was special,” Motz said. “Thankfully their left fielder couldn’t make the play on the slide and the baseball gods were rooting for us tonight.”
CHS tallied five total hits in the win. Hall led the way with two with C. Coursey, Underwood and Wyatt Motz all ending with one. On the mound J. Coursey picks up the win as he came in to pitch three innings of relief and gave up just two hits and no runs while striking out three.
The Mustangs had four hits with Noah Swope, Levi Piper-Cool, Eley, and Winchester all picking up one each. Junior Aidan Rao picked up the loss as in just a third of an inning he gave up the winning run while also walking two Athenians.
With the win Crawfordsville improves to 4-2 on the season. They will be back at home on Saturday for an afternoon contest against Fountain Central (0-3) where Underwood will look to pick up where he left off on Friday as he’ll get the start on the mound for CHS. The Athenians and Mustangs will get underway at 11 am
The Mustangs begin their season at 0-1 and will stay here in Montgomery County as they’ll take on the North Montgomery Chargers (2-1) tomorrow afternoon. First pitch from Linden is scheduled for noon and can be heard on Thunder 103.9 WIMC as Codey Emerson and Kevin Kirsch will have the call.
