LINDEN -— Byron Cox Post 72 baseball knew that it had a lot of talent coming into the 2023 summer season. Through the first nine games that talent has been on full display . Tuesday night Post 72 welcomed Terre Haute Post 346 to North Montgomery and wasted no time in continuing their hot start. Their offense scored 11 runs in the very first inning and never looked back en route to another dominating win as they defeated Terre Haute 19-5 in five innings.
In that 11 run first inning Post 72 sent 17 batters to the plate and showed their patience as well by drawing seven walks. The offensive display isn’t something new for Post 72 as in six of their seven wins this season they’ve scored at least 10 runs. Post 72 coach Kyle Proctor noted how his teams ability to swing a hot bat carried over from their win on Sunday against Muncie. They scored four runs in the top of the seventh to break a 4-4 tie to win the game 8-4.
“This started on Sunday,” he said. “When you’re in a battle like we were that day and then all of sudden score four to win it, that’s going to carry over. We have a lot of guys right who are hitting the ball hard. Dylan Braun and Roman Utterback are right there at the top for us as of late. Keifer (Wilson ) has been hitting well since the first game for us. Everyone has been hitting it well for the most part and I’ll take this all year long. Sometimes in games like these it’s hard to judge where you’re at as a team, but as long as we keep pitching well and hitting the ball even remotely close like this we’ll be just fine.”
Through their first nine games Post 72 is batting a blistering .395 as a team. Olney Central product and former Greencastle Tiger Cub Keifer Wilson leads the way with a .552 average and 17 RBI’s. Former Frankfort Hot Dog Deacon Spencer is right behind him with a . 545 average. A trio of North Montgomery Chargers in Jarrod Kirsch (.429), Ross Dyson (.450), and Roman Utterback (.389) are all swinging a hot stick. Crawfordsville’s Bryce Dowell (.360), Covington’s Karver Fye (350), North’s Dylan Braun (.333) and former Athenian AJ Hall (.308) are all batting over .300.
In the blowout over Terre Haute both Wilson and Braun had three hits while Kirsch, Utterback and Hall all had two. Dowell, Spencer and Dyson ended with one. Kaiden Underwood got the start on the mound and despite a semi-rough outing, he still picked up the win. In 2.1 innings Underwood gave up six hits and five runs (four earned) while walking and striking out one. Wilson and Dowell each came in for some relief.
“We wanted to get a couple of different guys into throw since we have the tournament coming up,” Proctor said. “We’ll start with two games on Thursday so we’ll need some good arms.”
Post 72 is just now beginning to see what its full roster is capable of as they’ve seen the addition of both Jose and Oscar Lopez from Frankfort. Quentcy Perry will be there Saturday with the team to make his Post 72 debut.
Beginning on Thursday Post 72 will travel to Terre Haute for a three-day tournament. They’ll play Washington, MO at 1:30 pm on Thursday followed by Danville, IL later that evening at 6 pm. They’ll have Friday off before playing Lancaster, OH at 9 am on Friday before finding out how the semi-finals and finals will pan out.
With their win over Terre Haute Post 72 improves to 7-2 on the season and looks to capture a championship down in Terre Haute this weekend. Let’s hope the hot bats travel down south.
