Cougars' baseball clinches WCC title with win over South Putnam

North Putnam junior Coy Flynn hits a double against South Putnam on Wednesday. (Banner Graphic/GRANT WIEMAN)

The North Putnam baseball team keeps putting up runs like they're going out of style. The Cougars jumped out in front of host South Putnam and came away with a 16-2 win in five innings.

The win guarantees that North Putnam (13-1-1, 8-0 WCC) will win at least a share of the West Central Conference championship. The Cougars are now two games ahead of second-place Cloverdale with two WCC games remaining.

Senior Jake Haste blasted a three-run homer in the first inning to open the scoring and the Cougars rolled from there.

Haste also started for NPHS, throwing four innings and striking out five.

After allowing a walk and a two-run home run to SPHS senior Justin Bumgardner to start the game, Haste struck out the next three batters in the top of the first before sending a shot deep over the left field wall.

South Putnam (3-10, 2-6 WCC) could not mount much offense after the first inning. The Eagles managed just three hits -- Bumgardner's home run, a single by Wyatt Nees and a double by freshman Grady McHugh in the seventh.

NPHS added four more runs in the second, then four more in the third off Eagles' starter Tyler Long.

Long allowed seven hits in 2.1 innings, then was relieved by Nick Scott. Scott pitched the final 2.2 innings for the Eagles and struck out three.

The top four in the batting order the North Putnam -- seniors Brody Perrine, Michael Herrmann, Kyler Badten and Haste -- each had two hits and at least two runs scored.

Junior Kaleb Belcher walked three times and scored a run and two other Cougars -- freshman Kyler Jeter and junior Beau Green -- each homered for the WCC champs.

Coy Flynn got the last four outs for NPHS. He struck out two Eagles and doubled.

The Eagles were coming off a solid game against Tri-West on Monday. Bumgardner scored their only run in that game with a home run as well and they lost 4-1, but it came in a solid effort.

Senior JD Briones threw a complete game and struck out five.

"Overall we played pretty well in the field and pitched pretty well," SPHS coach Zach Love said about Monday's game. "We couldn't really string enough hits together. I was proud of our effort since Tri-West is a talented team."

North Putnam looks to carry its momentum into Friday's game against Crawfordsville on Friday at 5 p.m.

South Putnam has several games coming up, including Saturday when it travels to North Vermillion at 10 a.m.

At South Putnam -- Wednesday
North Putnam................344 50 -- 16 13 0