DOVER — There are no easy wins in baseball in the Sagamore Conference. Wednesday night proved the point to the tee for the North Montgomery baseball team as they traveled to Western Boone looking for a sweep of the Stars after coming away with a 12-4 on Tuesday at home. The Chargers needed extra innings to put away the gritty Stars and eventually came away with a 5-3 win in nine innings, but none of it came easy.
Trailing 1-0 into the fifth inning the Chargers scored single runs in the fifth and sixth to take a 2-1 lead. They held the same score going into the bottom of the seventh needing just three outs for the win. On a pop out to right field Western Boone runner tagged up trying to advance to third. A throwing error allowed him to score the tying run with two outs in the inning.
Despite the adversity the Charger offense kept their foot on the gas adding a single run in the eighth courtesy of Corbin Meadows who singled home Ross Dyson.
Once again needing just three out the Stars got a double from Bryce Kopriva and a wild pitch later in the inning allowed him to even the game once again.
Needing an answer for a another inning the Charger bats did just that. Austin Sulc reached second base on an error, Gage Galloway singled him home and then Jarrod Kirsch scored Galloway on laser double into deep center.
The drama wasn’t over as the Chargers held a 5-3 lead in the ninth. The Stars got a man on second base due to a Charger error and then reached third on a passed ball. Another Star reached via hit by pitch and stole second as the Stars had runners at second and third with two outs. Utterback escaped the jam and got the Chargers the win as he got the next hitter to fly out to Galloway in right field.
“What I told guys afterwards is that this is what you want to play for in these type of games and situations,” he said. “As a coach they’re not fun but it ends up paying so much more dividends than a blowout win does. You have to give Webo a ton of a credit as both of their pitchers gave us fits these last two nights. They’re a team that opposing teams might struggle with. Cade Cole gave us a fantastic start on the mound and limited the damage when they got runners on base.”
The sophomore for the Chargers threw seven innings allowing just one earned run on eight hits while striking out eight Stars in the win. Utterback, who picked up the win in relief threw two innings allowing just a single hit and one earned run while striking out three.
Offensively the Chargers (6-1, 2-0 SAC) tallied 10 hits in the win. Kirsch led the way a top the batting order going 3-4. Noah Hopkins had a 2-4 night with a pair of runs batted in as well. Meadows added two hits while Dyson, Dylan Braun, and Galloway all had one hit each.
“We didn’t make the best decisions in the field tonight, but it’s much better that we learned those lessons and were still able to come out on top,” Voorhees said. “Our guys showed a ton of resiliency to bend but not completely break. That’s where you really develop growth. We had a ton of guys step up at the plate tonight with Jarrod, Corbin, Noah and Dylan just missing hitting a ball out of here. Roman came in in just his second varsity appearance and trusted his defense and threw strikes and was able to bring us home.”
The Chargers after have high aspirations and goals of competing for a SAC title this season and this won’t be the only SAC game where they’ll face adversity. Voorhees knows there’s a long way to go, but is proud of his group for the 2-0 start.
“This goes a long way mentally more than anything with us being 2-0,” he said. “If we go 1-1 you don’t quite know what that will do to our psyche. We talk with our guys that every inning is a battle and break down those things trying to live in the moment. We’re now on to Covington on Friday night. We’ll have a good workout tomorrow and be ready to go on Friday.”
The game against the Trojans on Friday will begin at Covington at 5 p.m.
