LINDEN — North Montgomery and Southmont baseball concluded their Sagamore Conference slate on Friday with the Mounties making the trip to Charger Field. With a 10-0 win in five innings the Chargers ended conference play with a 9-5 record which tied them with Western Boone for second place. It moved North to 16--7 on the season. Southmont ended the conference season at 0-14 and are now 1-18 on the season.
North scored their 10 runs by getting three in the first, two in the second, four in the third and one in the fourth. The offensive highlight came in the third inning when senior and starting pitcher Austin Sulc crushed a solo home run to left-center field to lead off the frame.
The Chargers showed their patience an discipline at the plate as Mountie starting pitcher Gunnar Shirk walked eight over three innings.
“We’ve talked with our players all season about hitting our pitches and Gunnar was throwing a lot of off-speed pitches early in the count. We did a much better job of sitting back and waiting on a pitch we could drive. We reaped the rewards of that in drawing nine walks. I was really proud to see Austin get that home run because he’d tell you he hasn’t had the year he’s wanted at the plate but he’s been such a valuable pitcher for us this season and he showed it again with his performance. He’s matured so well and has been efficient all season long.”
North scored their 10 runs on six hits. Isaiah Hopkins went 2-3 with a double, Jarrod Kirsch had an RBI single, as did Crew Cole who came in to pitch-hit in the fourth inning. A Corbin Meadows single and of course Sulc’s big fly rounded out the Charger hits. Sulc on the mound picked up the win going five innings and giving up just two hits. He struck out six and walked just one.
Southmont got their two hits from Landon Grimes in the first inning and Colton Cory in the third.
Mountie coach Bill Woods spoke on his team’s outing and chalked it up to the free passes.
“We only gave up six hits which isn’t bad at all but those nine walks were the big difference he said. “We each committed an error and they had four more hits than we did and we get beat 10-0. We can’t walk that many people and expect good things to happen. I told Gunnar that you’re not going to have your best stuff every single night as a pitcher. He was coming off a good outing against WeBo. We saw that he didn’t have his best stuff and in a normal situation we would’ve pulled him early but we just don’t have the depth right now. Both Phisher and Cale couldn’t throw against them from the first game.”
The night was also special for the Chargers as it was the final game that this senior class would play on their home field. The eight seniors in Roman Utterback, Gage Edwards, Ross Dyson, Noah Hopkins, Quintin Glassing, Kirsch, Meadows, and Sulc stopped by their senior banners after the game to all get a picture as it’s been a special senior class that Voorhees took the time to acknowledge.
“I’ve grown so close with these eight seniors and so has our entire staff,” Voorhees said. “All eight of them got to be out there for the final inning and our young sophomore catcher is looking out at eight terrific young men, that was a pretty cool moment. Our younger guys have looked up these players as role models and they’ve all done it the right way. To get to have that moment in a county game made it a little sweeter for all of them too.”
Both teams have one final game on the docket to close out the regular season on Monday. The Chargers will hit the road to take on Greencastle while the Mounties will travel to Sheridan.
Post-season play begins for the Chargers on Wednesday at Northwestern vs West Lafayette while the Mounties will be off until Memorial Day when they take on Greencastle who hosts that sectional.
