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The Paper file photo
Crawfordsville senior Quinten Anderson and the Athenians hung on for a 4-2 victory over Lebanon on Tuesday. |
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| Baseball
Tuesday
At Crawfordsville
Crawfordsville 4 Lebanon 2
Lebanon 101 000 0 – 2 5 3
Crawfordsville 101 101 X -4 3 3
WP: J.D. Rice (5-0). LP: Jacob Shike.
Lebanon runs scored: Brenden Shearer, Brett Metcalf
Crawfordsville runs scored: Brett Linn 2, Austin Evans, Evan Raymond
Lebanon RBI: Chris Hoover, Metcalf
Crawfordsville RBI: Steven Rice, Brett McKinney, A.J. Ehrlich, Caleb Rasmussen
Lebanon hits: Shearer 2, Metcalf, Hoover, Shike,
Crawfordsville hits: Linn, Evans, Erhlich
HR: Metcalf L
2B: Shike L; Shearer L
Stolen bases: Lebanon 0, Crawfordsville 4 (Steven Rice 2, Linn, Raymond)
LOB: Lebanon 9, Crawfordsville 4
Record: Crawfordsville 12-1 (5-0 SAC)
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Reprinted courtesy of:
The Paper of Montgomery County
www.thepaper24-7.com
By Bob Cox
bcox@thepaper24-7.com
After
giving up his first home run of the season, Crawfordsville’s senior
pitcher J.D. Rice found himself behind against Sagamore Athletic
Conference rival Lebanon.
However, Rice credits the big hit by
Tigers’ senior Brett Metcalf, as the reason he was able to calm down
and earn the 4-2 victory.
“Giving up the home run actually helped me,” Rice said after the game. “It really made me concentrate more and stay focused.”
After the third-inning home run, Rice went on to shut out the Tigers.
In fact, he struck out the next three Lebanon players in the inning and didn’t give up another hit until the fifth inning.
Class 3A No. 1 Crawfordsville coach John Froedge acknowledged Rice stayed tough.
“J.D.
battled tonight,” Froedge said. “Having J.D. throw into the sixth
inning is big for us. The conditions were not great but he hung tough.”
Lebanon
had upset on the mind, as sophomore pitcher Jacob Shike kept the
Athenians’ offense off-guard most of the game. The righty only gave up
three hits – all singles – to Crawfordsville (12-1, 6-0 SAC).
“Shike pitched a great game,” Froedge said. “He never allowed our offense to get into any kind of a rhythm.”
With the Athenians’ bats not making noise, Crawfordsville turned to playing small ball.
Freshman Caleb Rasmussen had his hand in two of the plays that led to Crawfordsville runs.
It was Rasmussen’s sacrifice bunt that allowed Crawfordsville to take the lead for good in the fourth inning.
And
then he executed a ******* squeeze in the sixth inning, scoring
pitch-runner Evan Raymond giving the Athenians a two-run lead.
“We
are capable of scoring runs in a lot of different ways,” Froedge said.
“A baseball team cannot count on 10 or 12 hits a game. Tonight we
executed and scored when we had to.”
Froedge, whose team has won
several close games this season, said winning close games helps prepare
his team for post season tournament games.
“Winning by scoring
in different ways will payoff for us later on down the road,” Froedge
said. “When you face good pitching in the state tournament you have to
find ways to score and tonight we did.”
With Crawfordsville up 3-2 in the sixth inning, Lebanon’s Shike hit a double chasing Rice out of the game.
Froedge inserted his ace, junior Steven Rice, into the game.
Steven Rice struck out four of the five batters he needed to pick up his third save of the season.
“Our kids have a lot of confidence,” Froedge said. “Tonight we did what we had to do to win the game.”
Lebanon
entered the game with only four upperclassmen as seven players have
been suspended for violation of the school’s athletic policy.
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