BA: Crawfordsville Too Much For Western Boone In Title Game

The Paper photo by Lori Poteet Crawfordsville High School seniors Mitchell Ray, Justin Wright, Cameron Hobson, Cody Dowell, Blake Harris, Andrew Swart and Jason Spurlock celebrate the Class 3A No. 5 Athenians’ IHSAA Crawfordsville Sectional title Thursday night. The Paper photo by Lori Poteet Crawfordsville High School senior Mitchell Ray went 2-for-3 and had three RBI Thursday.

Baseball Thursday IHSAA Crawfordsville Sectional At Crawfordsville HS Championship game Crawfordsville 11, Western Boone 0 Western Boone 000 00 – 0 1 3 Crawfordsville 304 4X – 11 7 0 WP: Cameron Hobson C (7-2). LP: Jared Knox WB. Crawfordsville runs scored: Brett Linn 2, Brett McKinney 2, Cameron Hobson 2, Cody Dowell 2, Scott Hunt 2, Mitchell Ray Crawfordsville RBI: Mitchell Ray 3, Scott Hunt 2, Mitchell Ray, Blake Harris, Justin Wright, Cameron Hobson Western Boone hits: Jared Knox Crawfordsville hits: Mitchell Ray 2, Scott Hunt 2, Justin Wright, Brett Linn, Cameron Hobson 2B: Jared Knox WB Stolen bases: Western Boone 0, Crawfordsville 5 (Brett Linn 2, Brett McKinney, Cameron Hobson, Cody Dowell) LOB: Western Boone 1, Crawfordsville 3 Records: Crawfor

Reprinted Courtesy of:
Paper of Montgomery County
thepaper24-7.com

By John
Groth
Sports
Editor

No
matter what Mitchell Ray stayed relaxed Thursday night.

Bumped up a spot
in the batting order, the Crawfordsville High School senior catcher didn’t put
any extra added pressure on himself.

He stayed calm – behind the plate,
at the plate and even after the Athenians’ third-straight Indiana High School
Athletic Association sectional championship celebration.

He’s a
sectional title game veteran – being a member of all three sectional
title-winning teams – and he knows there’s still more to come.

Ray had
two hits and three RBI, while junior Scott Hunt added two hits and two RBI as
Class 3A No. 5 Crawfordsville cruised to an 11-0 five-inning IHSAA
Crawfordsville Sectional championship game win over Sagamore Athletic Conference
rival Western Boone.

“The team did an awesome job getting on base for me
to get the RBIs,” said Ray, who had a two-RBI single and an RBI flyout. “It’s an
awesome experience. It’s not easy winning three-straight sectionals. But we’re
not satisfied.”

Crawfordsville (28-4) advances to play in Tuesday’s IHSAA
Crawfordsville Regional, where the Athenians will face the Brebeuf
Jesuit/Roncalli winner of the Brebeuf Jesuit Sectional. Brebeuf Jesuit and
Roncalli play at 6 p.m. today.

Crawfordsville won its third-straight
IHSAA sectional title and its fourth in the past decade.

The Athenians
also captured baseball and softball sectional championships for the first time
since 2002 – when the baseball team won the Class 3A Westfield Sectional and the
softball team won the Class 2A Hamilton Heights Sectional.

But this
year, they accomplished another postseason milestone – for the first time in
coach John Froedge’s career they shut out all three sectional opponents on their
way to the title.

Crawfordsville no-hit conference rival Danville in a
6-0 win Monday, then threw a combined four-hitter 5-0 shut out of Lebanon on
Tuesday before senior Cameron Hobson (three innings pitched, five strikeouts)
and sophomore Steven Rice (two innings pitched, four strikeouts) combined for a
one-hitter Thursday night.

Crawfordsville has recorded 12 shutouts in 32
games this season.

“The best part about it is that we get to move on,”
Froedge said. “We also got another shutout. If we hold people scoreless, we
always have a chance. We get to play again. I’m excited about that and having
another home game is a plus, too.”

Despite facing Western Boone’s (5-18)
slow left-handed pitcher Jared Knox, Froedge moved Ray up a spot-from sixth to
fifth – in the batting order.

And Ray responded with two hits and a
team-high three RBI.

He hit a two-RBI single in the first inning, on a
hard, high-bouncing ground ball which caromed off Stars’ senior second baseman
Tyler Haney’s knees and went into the outfield after he tried to stop the ball
on a dive.

Then Ray added an RBI flyout in the bottom of the third
inning and a single in the bottom of the fourth.

Froedge also moved Hunt
into the starting line-up as the designated hitter Thursday night – and the
switch also paid dividends.

After hitting a single as a pinch-hitter in
Tuesday’s sectional semifinal win over conference foe Lebanon, he kept his hot
bat going.

Hunt went 2-for-3, recording an RBI groundout in the bottom
of the first, then adding RBI singles in the bottom of the third and fourth
innings.

He also scored the Athenians’ final run off an error and
finished with two total runs scored.

Hunt acknowledged he had some
motivation – he wanted to stay in the line-up for the Crawfordsville
Regional.

Crawfordsville players worked on hitting to opposite field in
practice, so Hunt focused more on keeping his weight on his back hip and staying
back. His concentration paid off.

“Our team is so good, you want to stay
hot and keep your bat in there,” Hunt said. “Once you get rolling, you can’t
stop. We worked on driving the ball to the opposite field in practice. The whole
line-up is rolling and we need to stay hot like that.”