Patriots pummel Cougars in five

SPENCER – North Putnam’s baseball team traveled south to Owen Valley for a Western Indiana Conference baseball game on Tuesday night.

Unfortunately for the Cougars, they did not bring their “A” game with them while the Patriots dominated the contest in picking up a 12-0, five-inning victory behind a nine-strikeout shutout by Rhet Heckman.

Owen Valley used two five-run innings, taking advantage of four Cougar errors, to break the game open. The Patriots scored 10 runs off of starter Jaylen Windmiller, but only three of those were earned runs.

North could not get any offense going as it managed only two base knocks in the shutout. The loss drops the Cougars to 9-7 and 2-2 in the conference. Owen Valley improved to 10-4 and 5-2 in the WIC.

“Jaylen threw strikes and kept us in the ball game. We didn’t support him defensively. We made too many mistakes and let one mistake turn into another,” North Putnam head coach Chris Geeser said.

The two teams started out scoreless in the first inning but Owen Valley loaded the bases in the second on a single, an error and a walk.

Jaden Douglas had a two-run single and the Patriots proceeded to get three more runs, helped by a second Cougar error and an RBI single by Heckman, for a 5-0 lead.

North failed to get a base runner in the top of the third and the Patriots put nail in the coffin in the bottom half of the inning. Lee Ammerman went yard for a two-run home run early in the inning and another Cougar error, along with an RBI single by Christian McDonald, had Owen Valley up 9-0 before McDonald came home on a passed ball that the catcher could not locate for a 10-0 lead.

“We were not communicating. It really grinds my gears that we did not communicate or work together,” Geeser said.

North again could not reach Heckman and the Patriots added a pair of runs in the fourth inning. Ammerman doubled for Owen Valley then North failed to get a baserunner in the top of the fifth inning leading to the 10-run rule game ending score of 12-0.

“Owen Valley is a good team. I don’t think the score of this game is indicative of this team and the players we have in the dugout. Our bats were not very good. This was not North Putnam Cougar baseball tonight,” Geeser said.

Owen Valley’s Ammerman had a home run, a double and three RBIs to lead the Patriots as they got eight hits on the night. Windmiller and Alec McKenzie had the only hits for North Putnam.

North Putnam 000 00 — 0 2 4

Owen Valley 055 2X — 12 8 1

WP – Heckman 5.0

LP – Windmiller 3.0, Augusta 1.0

2B – Ammerman (OV)

HR – Ammerman (OV)

RBI – Ammerman 3, Heckman 2, Douglas 2, Manuel 1, McDonald 1(OV)