North's Big Inning Puts Them Over South

Local baseball and softball teams wrapped up their regular seasons this past week.  It was also rivals week for North and South as these two teams squared off on the diamond.  Both baseball teams have had successful seasons and entered the game with winning records.  Although South scored first in this close game, North had a big inning that put the game away.

Both teams were scoreless through the first 3 innings.  Jacob Bassler pitched for South, while Austin Elmore took the mound for the hosts.  South scored their 2 runs in the 4^th inning.  Wes Cole reached on a walk and scored on a double by Brandon Simpson.  Simpson advanced to 3^rd on a wild pitch where he scored off of a hit by Gunter Lautensleger.   This put South up 2-0 and in their half of the 4^th, North was 3 and out.

South seemed poised to score again in the 5^th when they loaded up the bases with one out. But Elmore struck out the next batter and the next popped out to leave 3 stranded.  North also loaded the bases in their at bat in the 5^th, but were able to drive the runners home. Logan Elmore, Steve Miller, Austin Elmore, and Nick Gray all got hits in the inning.  South finally had to switch pitchers and went with Austin Roell.  He ended the inning by fielding a hit ball and completing a double play which sent North back to the dugout.  But South was down 4-2 with 2 innings left.

North made a pitching change the next inning with Zach Edgin taking the mound after Elmore walked 2 batters.  He did his job, closing out the side and South left the 2 runners stranded.  Neither team would score the rest of the way and so North would earn the 4-2 win.  North also had a comeback win earlier in the week against Milton Union 11-8. Bo Hendrickson was the pitcher of record.

 Finally, North played spoiler to Arcanum later in the week – beating them 3-1 behind the pitching of Nick Gray.  Arcanum had locked up the conference crown but was trying to end their season undefeated in the CCC,  but North took that away with the victory and will be carrying momentum into the post season.

 “We just had one bad inning,” stated South’s coach Bassler after the game.”we got that early lead and in the 5^th inning they got on Jacob Bassler, they had him figured out.  I might have been 1 or 2 batters late getting him out of there.  We hit decently today, they had a nice pitcher, but we also left a lot of runners on base.

The tournament, “We play Preble Shawnee and someone has to come ready to play.  We played each other in the regular season and we know each other.”

South did have two wins earlier in the week.  They beat Bradford 7-5 behind winning pitcher Code Roell.  The team celebrated Senior night at McBride stadium (where the Richmond Roosters played) in Richmond.  Their opponent was Seton Catholic which they beat 7-5. Winning pitcher was Gunter Lautensleger – who was selected as a starter by the South Seniors who got to select the opening lineup on Senior night. The night was highlighted by a Wes Cole home run that was hit out of the stadium.

North’s coach Tucker commented after the game, “I think we battled really well.  We saw Jacob Bassler – the same pitcher we saw last year. He has some off speed stuff and he really made us work until we figured it out.  It took a couple of times through the lineup, but as a good hitting team we should be able to figure out a pitcher on the 3^rd time through.  Elmore had a good game pitching, I think he is going to be a big factor in the tournament for us.

Coach Tucker was asked about the tournament, “We face Northridge and they have played some good teams this year.  They have a couple of good pitchers – they have played close with some good teams and beat some teams that you would have thought they wouldn’t. We have to be ready for whoever they put on the mound and we have to battle with them.”