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The Paper photo by Lori Poteet
Crawfordsville freshman Caleb Rasmussen helped the Athenians score three third-inning runs on no hits. |
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The Paper photo by Lori Poteet
Crawfordsville senior Brett Linn (left) celebrates his sixth-inning home run.
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| Baseball
Monday
IHSAA Danville Sectional
At Danville HS
Semifinals
Game 1
Crawfordsville 9, Lebanon 2
Crawfordsville 213 001 2 – 9 7 0
Lebanon 000 200 0 – 2 2 3
WP: Steven Rice C. LP: Joel McMasters L.
Crawfordsville
runs scored: Brett McKinney 2, Josh Rager 2, A.J. Ehrlich, Quinten
Anderson, Caleb Rasmussen, Brett Linn, S. Rice,
Lebanon runs scored: Matt Beard, Jacob Molter
Crawfordsville RBI: Rager 2, Linn 2, Jordan Kiger, McKinney
Lebanon RBI: Alex Zobrist
Crawfordsville hits: Linn 2, Austin Evans, S. Rice, Ehrlich, McKinney, Rager
Lebanon hits: Brett Metcalf, Zobrist
HR: McKinney C; Linn C; Rager C
2B: S. Rice C; Evans C
Stolen bases: Crawfordsville 5 (Kiger 2, McKinney, Evans, Rasmussen), Lebanon 0
LOB: Crawfordsville 8, Lebanon 5
Records: Crawfordsville 27-2
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Reprinted courteay of:
The Paper of Montgomery County
www.thepaper24-7.com
By John Groth
Sports Editor
DANVILLE – Crawfordsville’s early small-ball approach ignited their offense.
They started by manufacturing runs Monday afternoon.
Then,
the Athenians’ baseball team ended their Indiana High School Athletic
Association sectional semifinal game by powering them home.
Now, they’ve reached their fifth consecutive IHSAA sectional championship game.
Class
3A No. 2 Crawfordsville scored nine runs – including three off no hits
in the top of the third – en route to a 9-2 IHSAA Danville Sectional
semifinal victory over Sagamore Athletic Conference rival Lebanon.
It’s the third consecutive game where Crawfordsville has scored three or more runs in an inning with no hits.
“We
put the pressure on the other team,” said senior Brett McKinney, who
scored two runs and also hit one of Crawfordsville’s three late-inning
home runs. “We know how to score runs any way possible. Coming into the
tournament, we’re looking to just score runs.”
Crawfordsville
(27-2) advances to play county- and conference rival North Montgomery
(16-10) in today’s 6:30 p.m. IHSAA Danville Sectional championship
game.
North Montgomery defeated Danville 6-3 in Monday’s second sectional semifinal.
It’s
the fifth-straight year the Athenians have reached a sectional
championship game and they’ll aim for their fourth consecutive
sectional title tonight.
They followed coach John Froedge’s
patented small-ball way at first against the Tigers before showing some
power in the final two innings.
After scoring two runs off
just one hit in the top of the first, Crawfordsville added three more
on no hits in the top of the third to take a 6-0 lead.
The Athenians capitalized on an error, a walk, a fielder’s choice and two-straight groundout bunt sacrifices.
“We
have good situational hitters,” Froedge said. “We hit behind the
runner, put the ball in play, bunt, don’t strike out and stay
aggressive on the bases.”
While their offense manufactured runs, junior pitcher Steven Rice continued to shut down opponents on the mound.
Coming
off a 10-inning, 21-strikeout performance in last week’s first-round
IHSAA sectional win over county and conference rival Southmont, Rice
didn’t allow Lebanon to score against him either.
He struck out eight consecutive batters to open the game and 10 of the 11 he faced in 3 1/3 innings pitched overall.
Rice
pitched the first three innings and struck out nine batters before
re-entering in the bottom of the fifth inning to relieve sophomore
cousin Cory, who had allowed two runs and gotten into a bases-loaded
two-out jam.
With Crawfordsville leading 6-2, Steven Rice sent
Lebanon senior Brittain Warner down swinging to end the inning and the
scoring threat.
Rice now has 31 strikeouts in his last 13 1/3 innings pitched.
After
throwing 10 innings this past Thursday, he said his arm felt fine. He
ran four to five miles Friday and Saturday, along with doing some
short- and long-toss over the weekend.
He’s available for six innings in tonight’s title game.
“I
was pretty confident,” Rice said. “This was the first game we’ve really
seen Warner. When he was swinging, we saw he had a slow bat. So we
decided to bust him inside and throw breakers . . . I did a good job of
mixing up my pitches and keeping them off balance.”
Crawfordsville’s
offense added some power late, with three players hitting solo home
runs off sophomore relief pitcher Jacob Shike in the final two innings.
McKinney
hit a solo shot in the top of the sixth, while seniors Brett Linn and
Josh Rager hit back-to-back home runs in the top of the seventh.
For Rager, it was his first career home run.
He acknowledged the Athenians had prepared for Shike to start instead of entering in relief. But he was ready.
“I
expected for [Jacob] to go up and get everything outside, outside,
outside. Then, he roped me in. I was trying to get my hands out. I
thought it’d be a stand-up double,” Rager said. “It’s about time my
slugging percentage and batting average aren’t the same anymore. It
gives me a little jump in it.”
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