Mike McGraw
Hoosier Authority
Crawfordsville baseball coach John Froedge is a low key guy.
The long time Athenian mentor can bend your ear for hours when talking about
baseball, but you can bet the word “I” won’t be heard very often. Froedge is
all about the accomplishments of his players and teams.
Modest or not, this week the spotlight is shining on
Froedge. The veteran mentor won the 500th game of his career
Saturday during Crawfordsville’s annual southern trip. The milestone came in a
1-0 victory over
in
of 501-270 in 26 years. Fifteen Sagamore Conference titles have come during
that time.
The circumstances of the monumental victory were anything
but normal. Crawfordsville was rained out on Friday when they were originally
scheduled to play the squad from
That led to the Athenians playing three games in one day on Saturday. When the
dust cleared, it was a pretty good day. Crawfordsville won two of the contests
and dropped the third in extra innings.
It started with the landmark 1-0 win over
Athenians senior leaders were right in the middle of the outcome. Brett Linn
led off the eighth inning drawing a walk and then proceeded to steal his way to
third. He scored on a passed ball to give Crawfordsville all the offense it
would need. Andrew Swart retired the side in order on the bottom of the extra
frame and the landmark victory was complete. The win was also a landmark for
swart, who captured his 30th career victory.
Senior Cody Dowell notched his first victory of the season
in the 4-2 win over
control with a three run fourth inning highlighted by a Blake Harris RBI
single. They were never headed the rest of the way.
The day was oh so close to being perfect. Crawfordsville
held a 3-1 lead heading into the bottom of the seventh against host Shelbyville
in the nightcap, but were victimized by a two run homer to send the game to
extra innings. In the eighth, Crawfordsville again seized the lead, scoring
twice. However, defense failed the Athenians in the bottom of the inning. They
allowed to unearned runs, and three in all, for the 6-5 final.
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