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The Paper file photo
Crawfordsville junior pitcher Steven Rice struck out 12 batters in Friday night’s game against West Lafayette Harrison. |
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The Paper file photo
Crawfordsville senior J.D. Rice had the game-tying RBI in the top of the seventh inning. |
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| Baseball
Friday
Joe Heath Classic
At Crawfordsville
Crawfordsville 4,
West Lafayette Harrison 3
Crawfordsville 002 000 2 – 4 9 1
West Lafayette Harrison 000 102 0 – 3 3 2
WP: Steven Rice C (2-0). LP: Vonn Richards WLH
Crawfordsville runs scored: Caleb Rasmussen, Brett Linn, Quinten Andereson, Brett McKinney
West Lafayette Harrison runs scored: Ryan Black 2, Austin Siple
Crawfordsville RBI: Anderson, J.D. Rice, Steven Rice
West Lafayette Harrison RBI: Tyler Dunk, Black
Crawfordsville hits: J.D. Rice 2, Brett Linn 2, Rasmussen 2, Austin Evans, Steven Rice, Anderson
West Lafayette Harrison hits: Dunk 2, Black
2B: Linn C; J.D. Rice C
Stolen bases: Crawfordsville 0, West Lafayette Harrison 9 (Black 4, Cody Slate 2, Siple 2, Cory Wooland)
LOB: Crawfordsville 9, West Lafayette Harrison 6
Records: Crawfordsville 4-0, West Lafayette Harrison 1-1
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Reprinted courtesy of:
The Paper of Montgomery County
www.thepaper24-7.com
By John Groth
Sports Editor
Before the bottom of the seventh inning, Crawfordsville senior J.D. Rice made his cousin a promise.
It was his game and he and the Athenians’ defense would finish it off.
J.D. didn’t let him down – and now they’re a part of school history.
Junior
Steven Rice hit a go-ahead RBI single in the top of the seventh, then
his cousin J.D. made a game-ending unassisted double play off a squeeze
to give Crawfordsville a 4-3 come-from-behind victory over West
Lafayette Harrison in the 2009 Joe Heath Baseball Classic.
Crawfordsville
won its 21st-straight game, setting a school record and giving the
Athenians a huge boost heading into today’s two Joe Heath Classic
games.
J.D. acknowledged they’ll remember this wild ending and record-breaking win for a while.
“It
was a great game,” said J.D. Rice, who went 2-for-3 and had the
game-tying RBI in the top of the seventh. “For us to come here and play
seven innings, it’s great preparation for us to have for the end of the
year – just like we had last year.”
Although Crawfordsville
(4-0) wasn’t considered the home team, the Athenians won their
17th-straight game at Crawfordsville. In fact, they haven’t lost at
home in 22 months. The game was moved to Crawfordsville because of the
wet weather.
They’ll continue the Joe Heath Baseball Classic
today, but head to Lafayette’s Loeb Stadium where they’ll face
Lafayette Jeff at 10 a.m. and then West Lafayette at 12:30 p.m.
They’ll also have a momentum surge after pulling out a thrilling last-inning win.
“The
whole reason we got in these two early-season tournaments was to see
good competition,” Crawfordsville coach John Froedge said. “We did
tonight. For this early in the year to have to play all the way will
help us in the future.”
Crawfordsville had led the entire game, until West Lafayette scored two runs in the bottom of the sixth to go up 3-2.
But the Athenians staged a seventh-inning rally.
With runners on first and second, they regained the lead on J.D. and Steven’s back-to-back RBI hits in the top of the seventh.
Then, the two cousins pulled together on the defensive end.
With
one out and runners on second and third and Steven struggling for the
second straight inning, West Lafayette senior Rennie Troggio popped up
a bunt to the right side of first base.
J.D. Rice raced over to make the catch, then stopped and paused trying to figure out what to do next.
He looked around and then heard his teammates yelling at him to go to third base.
Both
of West Lafayette’s runners were there and Rice raced over to tag out
senior Josh Burkhalter, who should have been at second.
Rice still had trouble afterward trying to describe the wild ending.
“We
knew there was a chance for a squeeze. I saw [the ball] go up, caught
the ball. Then, I was lost,” J.D. Rice said. “I heard everybody yelling
and saw two guys over on third base and tagged the guy that was
supposed to be on second. It was intense, [down] 3-2 and to come back
and win 4-3.”
Steven Rice pitched all seven innings, throwing more than 100 pitches and Froedge said he was going on fumes at the end.
He recorded 12 strikeouts, walked three batters, allowed three hits, had a wild pitch and hit a batter.
He struck out five of the first six batters he face and eight of the opening 11.
After struggling the final two innings, Steven Rice couldn’t wait for the chance to earn redemption on the offensive end.
“I
hoped I’d get an at-bat,” Steven Rice said. “If we got the lead I
wanted to come back out for the team. I got down but picked us back up.”
Senior Brett Linn and freshman Caleb Rasmussen had two hits each for Crawfordsville.
Junior Tyler Dunk had two of West Lafayette Harrison’s (1-1) three hits. West Lafayette also had nine stolen bases. |
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