Cougars get the better of Tiger Cubs

North Putnam's Brayden Dahlstrom beats the tag of Greencastle first baseman Austin Miller during last night's opening night contest.

The Greencastle Tiger Cubs suffered an opening day loss at the hands of the North Putnam Cougars, 7-2, at home on Monday.

"The opportunities were there, we just couldn't take advantage of them," GHS coach Troy Greenlee said.

Both teams started the game tight, mainly due to a long layoff, but soon hit their stride.

"We started off a little slow," North Putnam coach Norm Fish commented. "We were pretty tight."

For Greencastle, Derrik Patterson pitched a complete game going for eight strikeouts and six walks in the loss. Patterson also went 1-for-4 with a walk and a strikeout.

"I thought Derrick (Patterson) pitched very well," he said. "For his first outing, he did everything we could expect from him."

Zac Remsburg got things started for the Tiger Cubs by drilling a shot to right field for a double. Michael Richardson followed with a walk and Patterson with a single. After Blake Robinson struck out, Kendall Faust hit into a doubleplay to end the inning.

Offensively, Greencastle never could get on track, with no batters for the Tiger Cubs going for multiple hits.

The game was tied 2-all going into the fifth inning when North Putnam's Jake Mullis came to the plate and blasted a liner into the gap in left-center field. Shelby Reed sent another shot to the outfield two batters later to bring in Mullis and Griffen Dahlstrom to put the Cougars on top 4-2.

The Cougars scored three more runs in the next two innings to grab the victory.

Mullis grabbed the win, throwing for 10 strikeouts and allowing eight walks. Control seemed to be an issue for Mullis on the night but with superb play from the defense, North was able to control the game.

"Jake had a slow start. Hopefully he realizes that he has to get more ready," Fish said. "I don't think he was quite warm enough. He got stronger as the game went on."

"I thought we competed well against Jake (Mullis) for the most part," Greenlee commented. "He's a tremendous pitcher. We just have to take care of opportunities, which we didn't do."

The play of the night belonged to Brayden Dahlstrom. With two outs, Remsburg cracked a shot to shallow right field, Dahlstrom came rushing in to make the diving catch to end the innings and give the Cougars a lift going into the last frame.

"We're going against them tomorrow night and hopefully we'll be ready to play," Greenlee said.

Fish was happy with the team effort and hopes that the team will continue on its good play.

"I was really happy with our execution," Fish commented. "Hopefully we won't do anything too drastically different tomorrow night."

Greencastle travels to North Putnam to face to Cougars today at 4:30 p.m.

At Greencastle

WP -- Mullis (1-0)

LP -- Patterson (0-1)

2B -- Remsburg (GHS); Mullis, Reed (NPHS).

Next game -- Greencastle travels to North Putnam to face to Cougars today at 4:30 p.m.