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Greencastle baseball wins Putnam County Tournament
The hard part of Greencastle's Putnam County Tournament title victory on Saturday was simply getting to the championship game itself.
The Tiger Cubs, coming off of two straight wins, recovered after a near-meltdown to knock off Cloverdale in the opening game 4-2 before smashing South Putnam for the ninth straight time 15-5 in five innings.
Greencastle head coach Troy Remsburg said the Tiger Cubs focused on doing the little things right and held their nerve when they needed to.
"I'm proud of the boys," Remsburg said. "We've never given up and even though our record is not the best, they've never given up on any game.
"I told them before the game, 'Let's have a game where we play seven complete innings of Greencastle baseball. Let's eliminate the errors, hit the ball and never get satisfied,' and they did that today."
The hosts started with Cloverdale in the opening game on the baseball diamond and had to come from behind after starting pitcher Seth Brown ran into trouble in the fourth inning.
Brayden White singled and moved to second on an error, eventually moving to third after Brown hit Joseph Martin and Andrew Howard in back-to-back at-bats.
A walk to Jacob Roach forced in the first run of the game. Martin scored on a passed ball and the bases were reloaded once Dalton Atwood walked.
Brown was pulled in favor of Kaleb Fleming, who struck out Troy Davis and coaxed a fielder's choice out of Duke Duff to end the inning with only the two runs scoring.
That proved important, as Greencastle took the lead in the bottom half of the inning.
Brown started the rally by walking and moved over on Trey Scanland's single. Fleming reached on an error and Anthony Rossok singled to get Brown in, though Scanland was thrown out at home plate.
Jonathan Newgent came up with the big hit, a single that drove in Fleming and Rossok to give the Tiger Cubs a 3-2 lead.
Tanner Nicholson walked to lead off the fourth inning, stole a base and came in on Holden King's single to cement the advantage at 4-2.
Fleming ran into trouble in the bottom of the sixth after walking and hitting the first two batters. Brown returned to pitch and got out of the jam to preserve the two-run lead.
Brown then returned in the seventh to nail down the save, fanning all three batters he faced to end the game with 11 strikeouts and a berth in the tournament final.
Despite the potential for the game to spiral out of control, Remsburg said the team stayed the course and backed both Brown and Fleming.
"Seth was struggling there and when he gets upset, he doesn't pitch well," Remsburg said. "We brought in Kaleb, who's been our go-to guy between pitchers and he's done that well for us all year.
"His speed is just off enough from Seth to keep the other team on their toes for about two innings. When he got gassed, Seth had gotten back into his groove and he has the grit and determination to want the ball back in his hands.
"We got the lead back and Seth was back to his normal self, smiling and ready to go."
South Putnam, meanwhile, utilized a sterling performing from Brandon Gierke on the mound to reach the championship game 8-1 over North Putnam.
Eagle head coach Zach Love said that between the pitching and defense, the squad had one of its best outings of the year.
"Brandon pitched a gem," Love said." He pitched well and had 13 strikeouts and only gave up one run. Behind him, we probably played our best defensive game of the season.
"We had an error but made the plays we know we're capable of and defensively that's all I can ask for."
North Putnam started off with a run after Gierke walked Coy Flynn, who later scored on Beau Green's single.
From there on, however, Gierke rolled through the Cougar lineup, facing no more than five batters in any inning past the first.
Meanwhile, the South Putnam offense got rolling in the second inning. Joe Waters provided the big hit, clearing the bases with a triple that scored Jake Schroer and Zane Crosby to give the Eagles a 3-1 lead.
In the fourth, Schroer scored on a Crosby single, Crosby came in on a Tyler Long single and Waters scored on a passed ball to increase the Eagle lead to 6-1.
Jake Carmichael then drove in a pair in the sixth inning after his double scored Waters and Gierke.
The Cougars got a runner to third twice after the first but failed to convert either time and allowed the Eagles a chance to claim their first county title since 2004.
The championship game, though, was nearly over before it started after the Tiger Cubs flattened the Eagles in the opening two innings for a 14-0 lead.
While the offense had hidden itself at different times in the season, Remsburg said the squad saw what potential they have as they hammered Grady McHugh and then Nees over 1 2/3 innings.
"I've always known what they could be," Remsburg said. "It's getting them to believe in what they could be. I think they saw that a little bit today.
"They just have to have faith in themselves and think that they can hit the ball like anybody else."
Brant Mangrum started the charge with a single and a stolen base, followed by a single from Nicholson and an RBI-single by King.
Brown struck out, Scanland walked and Fleming hit into a fielder's choice to bring up Rossok, who reached on an error while King scored for a 2-0 lead.
Newgent reached on an error to force Scanland across, followed by Ryley Cook taking a base after being hit and forcing Fleming in for a 4-0 lead.
Mangrum returned to bat a second time and singled again, bringing Rossok and Newgent in for a 6-0 advantage. McHugh's outing was over after the at-bat in favor of Nees.
Cook took third base and scored on a throwing error on the attempt. Mangrum scored when Nicholson reached base on an error, bringing up the eighth run of the inning.
The Tiger Cubs heaped the misery on the Eagles by adding six more in the second inning, starting with a single by Brown and Scanland reaching base through an error.
Two outs were recorded by Nees before the hurler walked Newgent, setting up Cook for a bases-clearing triple that made the score 11-0.
Mangrum followed with a triple of his own to score Cook and scored on a wild pitch. Nicholson walked and was driven home by a King double to take the lead to 14-0, leading to Nees' exit and replacement by Josh Stewart.
Remsburg said the hit parade built upon itself as the first two innings progressed.
"Hitting is contagious," Remsburg said. "It was evident in the second game. Ryley Cook comes up, hits a triple and clears the bases. Holden King hits a shot over the left field. Trey Scanland has a couple of nice hits."
In the other dugout, Love was disappointed with the squad for committing similar errors to the ones from Monday's meeting.
"I don't know where we are with Greencastle," Love said. "Defensively, all the positives from the first game didn't carry over. It's tough when a team like Greencastle puts the ball in play like they can and take advantage of their opportunities.
"We put ourselves in tough positions with as many errors as we made in the field."
South Putnam got on the board in the third inning after Stewart reached on an error and Crosby bunted for a single.
Waters singled to score Stewart while Tyler Long singled to score Crosby. Carmichael flied out to move Waters to third, setting up a run when Long took off before Nicholson had thrown a pitch, only to sky the throw back to second.
Greencastle got one of the runs back through two seldom-seen bats. Reggie Alex doubled to lead off the fifth inning, moved to third on a passed ball and scored on a fielder's choice by Levi Lewis.
After the bats had gone quiet in the third and fourth innings, Remsburg said the lineup needed to be shaken up.
"Reggie Alex, who's had limited playing time this year, comes in to pinch-hit and hits a double," Remsburg said. "That was just the way the team was going and Reggie continued it.
"When (Josh) Stewart came in, they got to trying too hard and that's why we put pinch-hitters in. They were relaxed, not trying to win a game, and it worked."
That run would prove to be decisive after the Eagles added a pair in the bottom of the inning.
Waters reached on an error and was driven in by a Long triple. Long scored on a Gierke sac fly to make the score 15-5 but Carmichael's fly out to Brown ended the game and allowed Greencastle to claim the county title.
Though Nicholson gave up five runs in the end, Remsburg commended the junior for getting his first win of the season.
"I thought Tanner pitched a heck of a game today," Remsburg said. "We knew once we got later in the game, they were going to hit him and we just had to make the plays.
"Tanner's pitched well enough to get wins but finally got that first win today because we backed him and hit the ball like we have with Seth all year.
"He's a kid that will battle you," Remsburg added. "He struck out Gierke twice and Gierke's probably one of the best hitters around."
At the same time, Love was encouraged that the squad kept battling until the end.
"I'm glad we didn't fold," Love said. "We kept competing, it was just a little too late. When you start off as poorly as we did on the defensive side, it's difficult to get all those back at once.
"It took us a little bit of time to muster up some runs offensively but it was too little, too late today."
Neither squad gets much time to think about Saturday's outcome as both immediately return to action Monday and Tuesday.
South Putnam travels to Clay City to open the week before returning to Greencastle to make up Tuesday's conference matchup.
Love was hopeful that the squad could move past the game quickly and return to the defensive play that they had shown against North Putnam.
"The beautiful thing about baseball is that on Monday we can come back, try to get our confidence back and get rolling again," Love said. "Hopefully we can get on track at Clay City and then get our last conference game in.
"If things turn out differently on the defensive side of things, it will be a more competitive game when we return here on Tuesday."
Meanwhile, Greencastle shuffled its remaining conference series with Cloverdale to a doubleheader on Monday night to host the Eagles Tuesday.
While the Tiger Cubs had just beaten both squads, Remsburg warned that both would be returning with the intent to return the favor.
"We can't take Cloverdale or South Putnam lightly," Remsburg said "We reminded them of what South Putnam did to North Putnam and the Cougars are a good team, too.
"Any team can beat anybody on any given day. Cloverdale will come here to play. They'll want revenge after losing today. They're a good team as well. We're going to have to continue to hit the ball like we have the last four games."
At Greencastle
Putnam County Baseball
Tournament
Game 1
CD 000 200 0 -- 2 1 3
GC 000 310 0 -- 4 3 1
WP -- Fleming
LP -- White
S -- Brown
Game 2
SP 030 302 0 -- 8 8 1
NP 100 000 0 -- 1 2 0
WP -- Gierke
LP -- Nauert
3B -- Waters (SP)
2B -- Green (NP); Carmichael (SP)
Championship Game
GC860 01 -- 15 10 3
SP 003 02 -- 5 5 5
WP -- Nicholson
LP -- McHugh
3B -- Cook, Mangrum (G); Ty. Long (SP)
2B -- King, Alex (G); Waters (SP)
Next Games: Greencastle hosts Cloverdale in a doubleheader on Monday while South Putnam travels to Clay City Monday. Greencastle hosts South Putnam Tuesday.