Late rally falls just short for Tiger Cub baseball

The first half inning and the last half inning accounted for five of the seven runs scored by Greencastle and Sullivan on Wednesday night. The time in between was parade of strikeouts as the Golden Arrows were able to eke out a 4-3 victory over the Tiger Cubs in a Western Indiana Conference baseball game.

The teams combined for 28 strikeouts and just 11 hits in the contest. Sullivan scored three runs to open the game, while Greencastle scored two in the bottom half of the seventh inning, but stranded a couple of runners and could not rally to the win.

“We did not have a great approach at the plate tonight until that last inning. We were guessing at their pitches but put some solid at-bats together in that seventh inning,” Greencastle head coach Ben Wells said.

Sullivan opened the game getting three early runs. Marcus Roshel reached on an infield single, and Hunter Mason followed with a one-out single. Jaden Norris then ripped a three-run home run to left-center and a quick 3-0 lead. The Cubs could not answer in the bottom half of the inning and the Arrows led 3-0 early.

“It came down to just one pitch. I told Sam (Gooch) their three and four hitters had some pop and they showed it. Sam threw a great game overall,” Wells said of his pitcher only giving up six hits and four runs in a solid six innings on the mound.

Greencastle finally was able to put a crooked number on the scoreboard in the bottom half of the fourth inning. Treyton Clark led off the inning getting hit by a pitch. Conner Sullivan hit a bloop single to right field and moving Clark to third. Clark would get that first run scoring as Sullivan stole second and a throwing error by the Sullivan catcher allowed him to score from third base. That run was the only run that Sullivan’s Ty Hamilton would give up in his four innings on the mound for the Golden Arrows.

Sullivan would boost that lead back to three runs in the top of the fifth inning. Zane Abbot reached base on a fielder’s choice bunt, then would end up moving to third base on a pair of wild pitches and score on a Roshel groundout. That would set the lead at 4-1 for Sullivan.

Greencastle’s offense could not generate anything in the fifth and sixth inning as relief pitcher Norris picked up where Hamilton left off and the Cubs had six strikeouts over those two innings and still trailed 4-1 heading into the seventh inning.

“It has been our bugaboo in getting timely hits and runs. We are still really young,” Wells said.

Trevin Long took over for Gooch in the top of the seventh and shut the Arrows down 1-2-3 in the inning and Cubs came close to pulling off the rally in the final inning.

Long would single to center with one out and advance to second on a wild pitch and get to third on a stolen base. Nathan Sutherlin walked. Long would score on another wild pitch. Sutherlin advanced to third on the play and Ashton Dayhuff would walk to put the tying run on base. Treyton Clark would drive in Sutherlin with an infield single, but fittingly for a night with more that half the outs coming via the whiff, the Cub rally would end with a strikeout and the 4-3 loss.

“Again, we are young, and we faced two pitchers with good breaking balls and some pop. We haven’t had a bad loss this year and I like where we are as we get ready for the tournament,” Wells said.

Sullivan’s Norris led the Arrow offense with the big home run and Spencer Hanks had a pair of hits. Nathan Sutherlin had a hit and two walks, and a run scored to lead the Tiger Cub offense.

Sullivan 300 010 0 – 4 6 1

Greencastle 000 100 2 – 3 5 0

WP – T. Hamilton 4.0, Norris 3.0. LP Gooch 6.0, Long 1.0

HR – Norris (SHS)

RBI – Norris 3, M. Roshel (SHS), Clark (GHS).