The Press-Dispatch

April 11, 2018

The Press-Dispatch

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B-2 Sports Wednesday, April 11, 2018 The Press-Dispatch er to hit a pop fly that was caught by junior shortstop Joey Church in shallow centerfield for the second out of the inning. Wright, tagging up on the play, raced home and scored, giving the Jug Rox a 5 -0 lead. "When that ball's in the air, the call is 'tag, tag, tag' – that way, they know whether the guy's tag - ging," McDonald said. "Well, I guess on the in- field, you're just not think- ing that that's even an op- tion, and if I were that coach, I would have do- ne the same thing. With nobody shouting 'tag' ... it's going to take a couple of seconds to figure out somebody's going home." Belcher, who also tagged up at second and advanced to third on the play, would score the Jug Rox's sixth run on an error by Church on a grounder hit by the next batter, Greene. Britton subsequent - ly retired Doane on a come-backer to end the in- ning. In the bottom of the sev- enth inning, Sorrells – af- ter retiring junior first baseman Kyle Williams on an infield grounder – walked junior second base- man Troy Rickard, who advanced to second when Shoals junior second base- man Ryan Hawkins boot- ed a grounder by senior designated hitter Nathan Welch, giving the Char- gers runners on first and second. The next batter, junior left fielder Draven Huff, hit a grounder to Sorrells, who threw the ball to sec - ond base for the force-out on Welch as Rickard ad- vanced to third base. With runners on first and third, sophomore cen- terfielder Connor O'Neal took a called third strike to end the game. "It's a shame that we couldn't scratch a run across," said McDon - ald. "That's part on just how the game falls some- times, and part on me, but if we scratch a run or two across, I feel like it's a dif- ferent ballgame going into the seventh." "We've got to score four or five, six runs, to even be in games,' added Mc - Donald, whose Chargers opened its season with a 12-1 loss at Washing- ton on Friday, March 30. "Once you start scoring, pitching and defense be- comes easier, where one or two runs scored doesn't make such a severe effect on the game. It puts a lot of pressure on the defense to have to go out every sin- gle inning and put zeroes up. You should do that any- way, but it's added pres- sure whenever you're put- ting zeroes up on offense." For the game, Pike Cen- tral left seven runners on the basepaths, including three in scoring position. Back-to-back hits by Rice and Church to start the second inning put run- ners on first and second with no outs in the second inning. However, an in- field pop-up by Williams, a force-out at third on a grounder by Rickard and an infield ground-out by Welch ended the scoring threat. In the fourth inning, Williams singled with two outs and advanced to sec- ond on a wild pitch. Sor- rells subsequently picked Williams off for the final out of the inning. Then, with one out in the sixth inning, with the game still tied at 0 -0, Ben- ton belted a double over the head of Belcher. As Benton reached sec- ond base, McDonald – watching as Belcher re- trieved the ball at the fence – waved him over to third. However, Wright cut off the throw from Belcher and relayed it to third base, where Fischer tagged Ben- ton out. Rice followed with a double of his own to cen- ter field, then advanced to third on a wild pitch before Sorrells retired Church on an infield ground-out to end the inning. "I gave up a run for us in the sixth inning," McDon- ald said. "I got Brannon thrown out at third. That's on me. But little did I know that he tripped com- ing around second. I don't see those things. I won- dered why he was out by so much. That's got to be one of those things where it's better base running, or I have to be paying atten- tion. But I'm looking at the ball only and trying to tell my guy whether he's got to get down or not." "I asked him after the game, 'Brennon, what in the world happened? When I looked up, you were rounding second, and the ball was still on the fence,'" McDonald added. "He said, 'Coach, I tripped on the bag coming around second.' I was, like, now it made sense. Those types of thing happen. Those are the types of things that are going to happen." Rice, who went 2-for-3 with one double at the plate, allowed just four hits while walking one and striking out 12 in four scoreless innings. He also hit one batter with a pitch. "Braxton's really pitched well," McDonald said. "I think that he has the abil - ity to throw his fastball for a strike whenever he wants to. His fastball is hard enough and moves enough to be a solid pitch. And it's only going to get better." "What hurts me right now is the pitch count I'm keeping these kids on, be- cause we have so many games coming up," Mc- Donald added. "I wanted to keep him under 80 pitches, and I think when I pulled him out, he had 76." Britton, meanwhile, hurled two innings, allow- ing six runs – five of which were earned – on four hits while walking two and striking out three. He also hit a batter with a pitch. "I thought Race did a good job," McDonald said. "He got some bad breaks in the last inning. We prob - ably should have thrown that guy out at home on that wild pitch. Then he gets hurt and it kind of opened up from there." Sorrells, meanwhile, threw seven shutout in- nings, allowing six hits while walking two and whiffing seven – including five on called third strikes. "He throws strikes," Mc- Donald said of Sorrells. "That's the coach's son. His fundamentals are go- ing to be good, or you'd hope they would be. I mean, he has a really good curveball and I think he probably will have the best curveball command that we'll see of maybe any - body that we face all year. We hit his fastball pret- ty well. He was probably 70 percent curveball, and we've got to get better hit- ting that." "Our approaches were better than they were against Washington at the plate," McDonald added. "Right now, we've scored one run in two games. We've had 13 hits and we've scored one run. We should scored a run for ev - ery two hits, roughly, so we need to do a better job of scoring runs when we get hits." With the loss, Pike Cen- tral fell to 0 -2, while Shoals – which opened its season with an 8 -5 loss to Clarks- ville on Saturday, March 31, improved to 1-1. "That's a really good team," McDonald said. "We beat them 5 -1 last year and they ended up with 12 wins – got second in their conference – and they're all juniors. So I knew we were going to be in a bat - tle." "I was, overall, pleased," McDonald added. "It was 6 -0, but it's probably a 1- 0 or 2-1 ballgame, realis- tically. It could have went either way. We've just got to figure out ways to close games. I know the record's 0 -2, but just like the kids were saying, we're close. You can feel it whenever you're in the dugout." INJURY Continued from page 1 UPCOMING SPORTS SCHEDULE WEDNESDAY, APRIL 11 High School Baseball: Jasper at Pike Central, 5:30 p.m. High School Girls' Tennis: North Posey at Pike Central, 5:30 p.m. Middle School Softball: Pike Central at Vincennes Clark, 6 p.m. THURSDAY, APRIL 12 High School Boys' Golf: Pike Central at Wash- ington, 4:30 p.m. High School Girls' and Boys' Track and Field: Pike Central in Dubois/Pike Invitational at Jasper, 4:30 p.m. High School Softball: Pike Central at Castle, 6 p.m. ( JV 1st) Middle School Girls' and Boys' Track and Field: Southridge at Pike Central, 5 p.m. Middle School Girls' Tennis: Barr-Reeve at Pike Central, 5 p.m. Middle School Softball: Heritage Hills at Pike Central, 6:30 p.m. FRIDAY, APRIL 13 High School Softball: North Knox at Pike Cen- tral, 5 p.m. ( JV 2nd) Middle School Baseball: Boonville at Pike Cen- tral ( JV only), 6:30 p.m. MONDAY, APRIL 16 High School Girls' Tennis: Pike Central at For- est Park, 5 p.m. High School Boys' Golf: Pike Central at Heritage Hills, 5:30 p.m. High School Softball: Pike Central at Heritage Hills, 6 p.m. ( JV 2nd) High School Girls' and Boys' Track and Field: South Spencer at Pike Central, 6:30 p.m. TUESDAY, APRIL 17 High School Boys' Golf: Southridge at Pike Cen- tral, 4:30 p.m. High School Baseball: Pike Central at Heritage Hills, 6 p.m. High School Softball: Pike Central at Princeton, 6 p.m. ( JV 2nd) High School Boys' Track and Field: Pike Cen- tral at Northeast Dubois (Freshmen/Sophomores on- ly), 6 p.m. Middle School Girls' and Boys' Track and Field: Pike Central and South Knox at Gibson Southern, 5:15 p.m. Middle School Softball: Pike Central at North- east Dubois, 6 p.m. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18 High School Girls' Tennis: Pike Central at South- ridge, 4:30 p.m. High School Baseball: Eastern Greene at Pike Central, 5:30 p.m. Middle School Softball: Pike Central at Forest Park, 6 p.m. THURSDAY, APRIL 19 High School Boys' Golf: North Knox at Pike Cen- tral, 4:30 p.m. High School Baseball: Pike Central at South Knox, 5 p.m. High School Girls' Tennis: South Knox at Pike Central, 5:30 p.m. High School Softball: Pike Central at Wood Me- morial, 6 p.m. ( JV 2nd) High School Girls' Track and Field: Pike Cen- tral in Pike Central Invitational, 6 p.m. High School Boys' Track and Field: Pike Central in Southridge Invitational, 6:30 p.m. Middle School Baseball: Forest Park at Pike Cen- tral, 6:30 p.m. SATURDAY, APRIL 21 High School Baseball: Pike Central at Tell City, 11 a.m. Middle School Girls' and Boys' Track and Field: Pike Central in Princeton Invitational, 10 a.m. Middle School Baseball: Pike Central at Tell City ( V and JV ), 10 a.m. ter relay with a time of 10 :41.10. Pike Central will com- pete in the Dubois/Pike Invitational hosted by Jas- per on Thursday, April 12, before returning home to host South Spencer on Monday, April 16. The Chargers will then com- pete in a freshman/soph- omore meet hosted by Northeast Dubois on Tues- day, April 17, and in the Southridge Invitational on Thursday, April 19. FIRST Continued from page 1 Pike Central High School junior shortstop Jo- ey Church (top) reaches for the throw from ju- nior catcher Brennon Benton as Shoals sopho- more third baseman Max Fischer (bottom) steals second base during varsity baseball action on Wednesday, April 4. The visiting Jug Rox scored six runs in the seventh inning to defeat the Char- gers 6-0. Ed Cahill photo Pike Central High School junior pitcher Race Britton (top) tries to tag out Shoals junior right- fielder Tanner Doane (23) as Doane scores on a wild pitch to snap a scoreless tie during varsity baseball action on Wednesday, April 4. The visit- ing Jug Rox scored six runs in the seventh inning to defeat the Chargers 6-0. Ed Cahill photo Pike Central High School junior left field- er Draven Huff leads off first base during var- sity baseball action against visiting Shoals on Wednesday, April 4. The Jug Rox scored six runs in the seventh inning to defeat the Chargers 6-0. Ed Cahill photo Pike Central High School junior first baseman Kyle Williams (18) reaches for the ball as Shoals junior pitcher Kenyon Sorrells (left) dives back into the bag during varsity baseball action on Wednesday, April 4. The visiting Jug Rox scored six runs in the seventh inning to defeat the Char- gers 6-0. Ed Cahill photo PCHS boys' track team posts 23 best performances in tri-meet at South Knox The Pike Central High School boys' track and field team won seven out of 16 events while finishing sec- ond in a three-team meet hosted by South Knox on Thursday, April 5. Senior Gavin Boyd placed first in pole vault with a leap of 11 feet, 6 inches; junior Colton Carpen- ter placed first in the 400 -meter dash with a personal-best time of 56.72 seconds; junior Andrew Krieg placed first in discus with a person- al-best throw of 117 feet, 4-1/2 inch- es; junior Nate Woolery placed first in the 3,200 -meter run with a time of 11:01.28; and freshman Colt Arm- strong placed first in high jump with a leap of 5 feet, 4 inches. In addition, Armstrong, Boyd and Tyler Kirby teamed up with soph- omore Sam Theising to place first in the 400 -meter relay with a sea- son-best time of 46.68 seconds; and Carpenter teamed up with junior Ja- cob Vest and freshman Ijaa Cham- bers and Ethan Huck to place first in the 1,600 -meter relay with a sea- son-best time of 3:54.82. Placing second in individual events for the Chargers were Cham- bers in the 800 -meter run with a time of 2:16.34; Tyler Kirby in the 100 -meter dash with a personal-best time of 12.25 seconds; Theising in the 300 -meter hurdles with a time of 46.00 seconds; Woolery in the 1,600 -meter run with a personal-best time of 5:01.55; and junior Adam Kir- by in the 400 -meter dash with a time of 57.16 seconds. Placing third in individual events for the Chargers were Armstrong in the 100 -meter dash with a time of 12.30 seconds; Carpenter in long jump with a personal-best leap of 18 feet, 6 inches; Chambers in the 1,600 -meter run with a person- al-best time of 5:10.04; Tyler Kirby in pole vault with a leap of 11 feet; An- drew Krieg in shot put with a throw of 34 feet, 9 inches; Theising in the 110 -meter high hurdles with a time of 19.77 seconds; and sophomore Jo- el Henson in high jump with a leap of 5 feet. Placing fourth in individual events for the Chargers were Huck in the 200 -meter dash with a time of 25.62 seconds; junior Christian Benson in the 800 -meter run with a time of 2:24.40 ; sophomore Blake Henson in discus with a personal-best throw of 101 feet, 1 inches; and Stephen Krieg in shot put with a personal-best throw of 33 feet, 3-1/2 inches. In addition, the 3,200 -meter relay team of Benson, Chambers, Wool- ery and freshman Sam Jones placed second with a season-best time of 9:27.72. Also posting personal-best per- formances for the Chargers but not placing were Huck in long jump with a leap of 18 feet, 3 inches; Jones in the 3,200 -meter run with a time of 12:50 ; freshman Cody Davis in shot put with a throw of 25 feet, 3-1/2 inch- es; freshman Colson Dillard in the 800 -meter run with a time of 2:29; sophomore Avery Dyer in shot put with a throw of 30 feet, 1-1/2 inch- es; sophomore Alec Frederick in dis- cus with a throw of 83 feet, 4 inches; sophomore A.J. Hill in the 3,200 -me- ter run with a time of 12:20 ; fresh- man Lane Potts in the 3,200 -meter run with a time of 13:12; freshman Connor Young in the 300 -meter hur- dles with a time of 51.28 seconds; and freshman Trent Zimmerman in the 3,200 -meter run with a time of 12:54. As a team, Pike Central scored 71 points. South Knox finished first with 76 points, while Sullivan was third with 19 points. "We had a lot of good performanc- es from a lot of people," Chargers head coach Chris Kramer said. "Our distance guys really did a great job and got quite a few personal bests. They've been working really hard in practice and it's showing in what they are doing in the meets. Despite our throwers not getting a whole lot of work outside at practice due to the weather and wet conditions, they seem to be improving as well." Pike Central, which hosted North Posey on Monday, April 9, will partic- ipate in the Dubois/Pike Invitational at Jasper on Thursday, April 12, be- fore returning home to host South Spencer on Monday, April 16. SOMETHING NEWSWORTHY? Give us a call: 812-354-8500

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