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The Paper photo by Lori Poteet
Crawfordsville High
School sophomore Steven Rice struck out nine batters in five innings in the
Class 3A No. 6 Athenians’ win. |
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The Paper photo by Lori Poteet
Crawfordsville High
School junior Quinten Anderson steals a base as Southmont High School’s Brayden
McKinney tries to make a
tag. |
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| Baseball
Wednesday
At
Crawfordsville
Crawfordsville 10, Southmont 1
Southmont 000 010 0
– 1 4 1
Crawfordsville 002 026 X – 10 9 3
WP: Steven Rice C. LP:
Lucas Miller S.
Southmont runs scored: Derek Linn
Crawfordsville
runs scored: Cody Dowell 2, Cameron Hobson 2, Steven Rice, Justin Wright,
Quinten Anderson, Brett McKinney, Blake Harris, Mitchell Ray
Southmont
RBI: Lucas Long
Crawfordsville RBI: Cameron Hobson 4, Steven Rice 2,
Mitchell Ray 2, J.D. Rice
Southmont hits: Brayden McKinney, Derek Linn,
Lucas Long, Jared Earle
Crawfordsville hits: Mitchell Ray 2, Brett
McKinney, Cody Dowell, Scott Hunt, Quinten Anderson, Steven Rice, Cameron
Hobson, J.D. Rice
HR: Cameron Hobson C
3B: Mitchell Ray
C
Stolen bases: Southmont 1 (Scott Paris), Crawfordsville 2 (Quinten
Anderson, Cody Dowell)
LOB: Southmont 6, Crawfordsville 6
Records:
Crawfordsville 20-4 (10-1 SAC), Southmont 11-10 (5-6 SAC)
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Reprinted Courtesy of:
Paper Of Montgomery County
www.thepaper24-7.com
By John
Groth
Sports
Editor
Cousins
Steven and J.D. Rice got to relive their glory days.
Before Wednesday
afternoon, the two Crawfordsville High School pitchers hadn’t thrown in the same
game since middle school.
They put that five-year drought to rest – along
with the bats of their county- and Sagamore Athletic Conference
rival.
Senior Cameron Hobson continued his torrid hitting pace, blasting
a grand slam, and the Rice’s combined for 12 strikeouts in Class 3A No. 6
Crawfordsville’s 10-1 victory over county- and conference rival Southmont at
Baldwin Field.
Steven, a sophomore, earned the win – and J.D., a junior,
closed out the game.
“It’s pretty sweet,” J.D. Rice said. “Cousins out
there throwing made it fun.”
Crawfordsville (20-4, 10-1 SAC) won its
second county- and conference game in two days and fifth-consecutive overall.
The Athenians will go for a clean sweep at 7 p.m. today against county- and
conference foe North Montgomery.
But this game belonged to the two
pitchers.
Steven Rice (4-0) kept Southmont hitters off balance and sent
plenty down swinging. He struck out nine batters in five innings, including
striking out the side in the second inning. But his most important play came on
the defensive end.
With Crawfordsville leading 2-1 in the top of the
fifth inning, the Mounties had runners on first and third base with two outs.
They had just scored their lone run, on sophomore Lucas Long’s RBI
single, and had Tanner Hill up to bat.
Hill hit a ground ball near first
base, making Hobson race up from first base to come get the ball.
As
Hobson fielded the ball, Steven Rice ran behind him and towards first base.
Hobson turned and flipped the ball to Rice – who dove (although he admitted he
tripped) and still managed to slide his glove across first base before Hill
stepped on the bag.
“I tried to make it look graceful,” Rice said.
“That’s one of the plays we’ve been working on as a team. That’s been one of my
main problems all year – I haven’t been able to get to first base all
year.”
Steven Rice added a two-RBI single in the top of the fifth inning,
pushing Crawfordsville’s lead to 4-1 before Hobson turned the game into a rout.
With the bases loaded, Hobson crushed a grand-slam to right field,
giving the Athenians an 8-1 lead.
It’s Hobson’s fourth home run this
season and second in his last three games. He hit a walkoff home run in the
bottom of the eighth inning last Saturday’s Athenian Invitational championship
game, giving Crawfordsville a 3-2 win over Park Tudor.
J.D. Rice relieved
Steven in the sixth inning. He allowed only one hit, and just like his cousin,
struck out the side in one inning – the top of the seventh. After
“Coach
Welliever just said ‘let it go, let it loose,'” he said.
Froedge planned
to have both Rice’s pitch in the game – even admitting that Steven went a little
further than he expected. But there’s not anything wrong with that.
“I
wanted to get Steven Rice the start,” he said. “He’s 100 percent now. I wanted
to push him a little bit. You never know when we might need him to come in and
have a start in the postseason. J.D. just needs to get more
innings.”
Southmont coach Adam Acton only wishes he had enough extra
pitchers.
Southmont has to play four conference games this week and with
Acton forced to play musical pitchers for the second-straight game, the Mounties
weren’t able to find a groove.
Acton used four pitchers – Lucas Miller
and sophomores Trevor Woodcock, Logan Petry and Tanner Hill – during Wednesday’s
game.
All four struggled with their control, as they combined for eight
walks and five hit batsmen.
Miller started and walked three in 2 2/3
innings pitched. Woodcock hit two batters in his 1 1/3 innings pitched. Petry
walked three and hit a batter in 1 1/3 innings pitched and Tanner Hill walked
two and hit a batter in his one inning.
“We had some tired arms,” Acton
said. “Our pitching is not deep and it caught up with us. I can tell when a
pitcher loses his stuff. All four pitchers pitched (Tuesday) night at least a
little bit. I knew they did not have a lot of gas. When they ran out of steam,
that’s when they came out.”
Acton better hope they still have some fire
left, as Southmont plays at 6 p.m. today at conference rival Lebanon.
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