Two teams competing for a Sagamore Conference and Montgomery County title collided at John Froedge field on Tuesday when the North Montgomery Chargers made the short trek south to take on the Crawfordsville Athenians. In the very highly anticipated game the Chargers jumped out to 3-0 lead after an inning and half. The bottom of the second is when the pendulum completely swung the other way for CHS. They used a six-run second to take a 6-3 lead and never look back coming away with an 11-5 win over their county rivals.
Bryce Dowell got things started in the bottom of the second with a solo homer to left-center field to get the Athenians on the board. Two walks and four more singles later the Athenians were able to add to their lead. In the fourth inning Crawfordsville (17-6, 7-3 SAC) added four more to their total and did it more of the same way as the second using singles and walks to score their runs.
“They had the momentum early on and we were just waiting for it to be our turn,” Crawfordsville coach Brett Motz said. “Dowell’s homer really got our guys ignited and there’s no question we were really locked in after that. When you put up six runs in an inning that just gave out guys so much confidence at the plate. Bryce is capable of a lot of things offensively and it was great to see him be the guy that got us going tonight. The middle of our order did a great job too.”
Kale Wemer for the Athenians and Cade Cole for the Chargers got the nods on the mound for the two county rivals. Wemer walked three Chargers in the two innings but settled in after his offense got him some runs. He picked up the win going 5.1 innings with seven hits and four earned runs. He struck out five. Cole lasted just 3.1 innings giving up eight hits while eight of the 10 CHS runs were earned. He struck out three and walked five.
“The little things didn’t go our way and really started to avalanche for us,” Charger coach Matt Voorhees said. “We continually to talk about avoid the big inning. We’ve been blessed for most of the year being good on the mound and tonight that wasn’t the case. We walked seven guys and hit a batter and on top of that have three errors. Against great teams like Crawfordsville they’ll take advantage of that.”
Cville had 10 total hits in the win. Dowell, Kaiden Underwood and Wyatt Motz led the way with two each. Wemer, AJ Hall, Jude Coursey, and Cale Coursey all had one.
The Chargers had seven hits and were led by Ross Dyson two hit evening. Jarrod Kirsch, Brookes Walters, Austin Sulc, Roman Utterback, and Cole all had one.
“Wemer really was able to settle in and pitch with more confidence after those first two innings,” Motz said. “I hope that continues and he pitches with the competitive spirit that we’ve seen since day one in our program. He’s a lot of fun to watch when he’s on his A-game and is effective with multiple pitches. We want him at his best at this point in the year.”
With the loss the Chargers fall to 13-8 (8-2 SAC) on the season. They’ll look for a quick rebound tomorrow when they return home to welcome the Athenians to Charger field. Jarrod Kirsch will toe the rubber for North as the junior looks to continue his stellar season.
“We’re going to have to come out and be competitive at the plate against Coursey,” Voorhees said. “You know he’s going to compete and throw strikes. Tomorrow I think will be more low-scoring where you have to execute when you’re given the chance.”
Motz knows his team will be locked in when the Athenians go for the sweep.
“It has the potential to be a really fun game to watch tomorrow,” Motz added. “We’re walking into with a lot of confidence and eager to continue this streak of playing good baseball.”
First pitch is set for 7 pm under the lights. You can listen to the game live on Thunder 103.9 WIMC as Jared McMurry and Codey Emerson will have the call.
