Greencastle struggles with Southmont

After a rough and tumble contest with Cascade Friday night, Greencastle's baseball squad played Southmont early Saturday morning.

The turnaround might have been too soon for the Tiger Cubs, who struggled heavily at the plate, only tallying two hits and a run as the Mounties ran out 6-1 winners.

Southmont hurler John Ruiz set a blistering pace on the mound, only allowing two base runners through the first six innings, walks to Jesse Vermillion in the fourth and Keegan Remsburg in the fifth.

In the meantime, the Mountie offense was able to crank out all the offense it needed in the second and fourth innings.

Back to back singles were followed by consecutive outs in the second before Greencastle pitcher Hunter Mitchell lost some command of the ball, giving up two walks and a hit batsman to push two runners across the plate.

Mitchell then found himself in a jam in the fourth inning. A lead-off single was followed by a pop-fly to center.

Three consecutive hits followed, including a suicide squeeze from the Mounties, to plate three more runs. Two more walks and two more singles was all Tiger Cub coach Troy Remsburg would watch, as Mitchell was replaced by Dylan Linton.

Linton recorded the final out of the inning but not before the hosts found themselves down 6-0. Linton also saw the rest of the game out comfortably, as the defense of the Tiger Cubs came to life.

The Greencastle bats, however, were being kept quiet by Ruiz until the final inning of play.

Vermillion led off with a single that he tried to stretch to a double. An errant throw from the Mountie shortstop allowed Vermillion to scamper down to third, where he was driven in on Landon Miller's single.

Miller would be out at second on a fielder's choice by Andy Bell. Remsburg advanced bell on another fielder's choice before Ruiz walked Dustin York and Natanial Velazquez to load the bases.

Ruiz would get Ryan Pettit to strike out, though, ending the game with his eighth K of the contest.

For Remsburg, the loss ended what had looked to be a good week on a sour note.

"We play better when we play more games in a row. They just weren't ready to go today. They weren't focused this morning. I think the boys were looking past them. They thought they could just show up here and win," Remsburg said.

"Ruiz was pitching good enough that we were swinging and balls in the dirt and over our heads, not swinging at strikes like we had been in the last three games. He outsmarted our hitters."

The week started with a split with 2A No. 8 Monrovia, which led to a three game winning streak.

"It went well. It started off bad at Monrovia. Then they turned it around and beat Monrovia and then Owen Valley. We went last night to Cascade and won and then end up getting beat here this morning," Remsburg said.

"We started off horrible, got better in the middle, but finished horrible. Splitting with Monrovia was a positive after the way they got beat in the first game."

Another busy week awaits Greencastle as games with all sorts of ranging implications play out. It's a week that will need the right kind of focus, according to Remsburg.

"We've got South (Putnam) Monday and Tuesday and you can't go by South's record, they've got some good players and they'll sneak up on you. We're going to have to come ready to play," Remsburg said.

"We can't worry about county until it's time. We've got Edgewood Thursday, a potential sectional opponent. We've got to play sharp against them, then we can worry about the county," Remsburg added.

"We've got North Putnam in the county tourney and that's a team you cannot take lightly. They've been playing pretty well, from what I understand. We're going to have to come with our "A" game all week."

At Greencastle

Southmont 020 400 0 -- 6 10 2

Greencastle 000 000 1 -- 1 2 1

WP -- Ruiz (4-2)

LP -- Mitchell (0-1)

Next game -- Greencastle travels to South Putnam Monday at 4:30 p.m.