North Putnam blanks Tiger Cubs Monday to open its season, 11-0

ROACHDALE -- North Putnam had three cracks at Greencastle last season on the baseball diamond and failed to pick up a win in any of the contests.

The Cougars wouldn't be swept again after taking the conference opener for both squads 11-0 in five innings.

The home side struck early and often, compiling runs in all four plate appearances, starting in the first with a Coy Flynn double. Flynn scored off a steal when the ball from home plate sailed into the outfield.

The Cougars added two in the bottom of the second after Bennett Hazelgrove singled to drive in Blake Knowling and Beau Green for a 3-0 lead.

North Putnam added one more in the third after back-to-back walks opened the door for Knowling to knock in a run on a fielder's choice for a 4-0 lead.

The hosts then blew things open in the fourth after loading the bases with no outs. Kyler Badten walked to force one run across before Kaleb Belcher notched a single to score two more.

Jake Haste followed the score up with a three-run home run over the left field fence to stretch the lead to 10-0. Michael Herrmann added another unearned run later to finish the Cougars scoring at 11-0.

Badten, meanwhile, only allowed two runners past second base on four hits, a walk and two hit batsmen while striking out five over five scoreless innings.

The loss dropped the Tiger Cubs to 0-3, while the Cougars move to 1-0 on the season.

North Putnam head coach Norm Fish was worried how the team would come out after not having practiced over the spring break period.

"Kyler did what I expected him to do by being strong. I was pretty happy since it was a really tough schedule for us. We had 10 days of practice and then nine days off because not many kids stayed for the break," Fish said.

"Greencastle already had two games under their belts, so I was concerned."

With only one senior on the squad, Fish said that many of the starters two years ago are showing signs of the potential that they have.

"A lot of these kids played as freshmen and this is their third year starting. They looked like juniors, and there's a big difference between them as freshmen and them as juniors," Fish said.

"They came out and played well. They hit the ball fairly well while Kyler was dead on. I told them it would be a different story Tuesday night and Greencastle is a better team than that.

"We've got some kids that we're counting on to do some big things this year. Jake Haste had a big hit and that's something we're expecting out of him this year," Fish added.

Fish added the both sides of the ball did well against the Tiger Cubs.

"We put the bat on the ball and put the ball in play. That was what we were focusing on. We worked on being patient and getting one pitch we like each at bat and putting it in play," Fish said.

"Guys got big hits tonight. We don't want to go down looking. We want to hit the ball and put pressure on the defense. That's a good sign.

"We had a couple of base running errors. They were trying to be aggressive but we need to be sharper on the base paths," Fish added.

"We had a lot of good things happen tonight. We can't let this win be more than what it was. We need to stay focused," Fish said.

"Tonight, they showed what they're capable of, but there's a lot more there, too."

At North Putnam

Greencastle 000 00 -- 0 4 3

North Putnam 121 7X -- 11 5 0

WP -- Badten (1-0)

LP -- Linton (0-1)

HR -- Haste