NEW MARKET — Crawfordsville junior pitcher Kale Wemer was perfect on Tuesday when Crawfordsville and Southmont met up in county baseball. Well that depends on who you ask. The Athenians won the game 6-0 but that wasn’t what everyone at South was talking about. Connor McKinney led off the game and reached base as CHS shortstop Jude Coursey went deep into the hole and bobbled the exchange. Wemer was then perfect for the rest of the game not allowing another Mountie base-runner as he struck out 14 Mounties in the win.
The debate that is to be had is how that play by Coursey should be ruled. The Mounties ruled that Mckinney got a hit, while Crawfordsville ruled that it was an error. By that ruling for CHS they are crediting Wemer with a no-hitter. While it’s a debate that will be talked about for quite sometime, it doesn’t change the fact that Wemer was flat out dominant.
Last week against Tri-West the junior hurler lasted just 2.2 innings while giving up seven hits, seven earned runs, and seven walks. This time against the Mounties, it was a different story.
“I wasn’t happy with my performance plain and simple from Tri-West so this week it was all about watching film and working on my mechanics,” Wemer said. “I knew that I could figure it out and my I was able to locate my fastball a lot better tonight. We needed this win to continue the big goals we have for ourselves.”
CHS coach Brett Motz gave his junior pitcher all the praise for being able to bounce back after a rough last outing.
“It was a huge pick me up for the team and for him especially to go out there and have the game he did,” Motz said. “He attacked hitters from the opening pitch and that’s what he’s been doing for the last three years. After a little falter last week it was just good to see his approach what it normally is.”
Crawfordsville (11-4, 4-2 SAC) scored their six runs sporadically throughout the game scoring one in the first, three in the third, and single runs in the fifth and seventh. Their offense tallied just four hits the entire night but was able to be patient at the plate drawing eight total walks, all from Mountie starting pitcher Carter Hubble.
Bryce Dowell, Cale Coursey, Kaden Patton, and Isasc Rogers had a hit each for the Athenians.
Hubble in 5.2 innings allowed just two three hits and only three of the five runs against him were earned. He added six strikeout in the loss.
“The walks were the main thing that we still need to work on,” Southmont coach Bill Woods said. “Overall though it was a much more competitive game than what our games have been as of late. In that three run inning we just had too many mental errors that cost us. We should’ve gotten out of the inning without any runs scoring. Those don’t go down in the score book but if we make the plays we’re supposed to make we get out of the inning.”
Motz did credit Hubble for his performance on the mound as he was able to do just enough to keep the high-powered Athenian offense at bay.
“He is just sporadic enough to keep our hitters timing off,” he said. “When a pitcher isn’t consistently around the plate, it’s hard to stay locked in as a hitter. Our offense was just off-balance a little bit and give him credit for keeping us not as productive as I thought we’d be.”
Southmont falls to 4-9 (0-6 SAC) with the loss.
The two county rivals will once again square off again on Wednesday back at Crawfordsville for the conclusion of the two-game county and SAC series.
“We’re going to have to bring the same effort that we did tonight and clean up some mistakes,” Woods said.
“Every conference game from here on out is going to be competitive like it was tonight,” Motz added. “We look forward to being as good as we can be each day and give ourselves a chance to win each one.”
