North Putnam baseball team loses at North Montgomery

CRAWFORDSVILLE -- After falling to Monrovia Tuesday night, North Putnam's baseball squad had the chance to make amends Wednesday night when they traveled to North Montgomery.

By the time the first inning was over, though, the Chargers had compiled a six-run lead and kept the Cougars at bay to win 8-3.

North Putnam head coach Phil Webster said that the start of the game showed who was playing well and who was not.

"It was a game of two halves, but they had the better half," Webster said. "They're a good baseball team. They're solid.

"Baseball seasons are long and have ups and downs. They went through a losing streak not too long ago and now they're in good rhythm and things are going well for them.

"That's the way we were a week ago," Webster added. "Now, we're in a little down spot and we need to get back up Friday before we play the county tournament Saturday. We have to try to stay loose and understand what happened out here."

Kyler Badten, who had picked up the win against Crawfordsville last Friday, was hit early and hard by the hosts.

Maverick Bacon led off with a double and was on third after back-to-back walks to Bryce Woodall and Jalen West.

Brinton Sieferman forced the first run of the inning on a sac fly before Mitch Rice's triple brought home two more runs.

North Montgomery then completed a suicide squeeze through Chase Mahoy that gave the hosts a 4-0 lead.

Baylee Adams and Devon Zachary singled, with Adams scoring off a wild pitch and an error. Badten was relieved by Coy Flynn, who saw one more run score on an error before the inning was ended on an out at third base.

North Putnam had runners on second and third in the third inning and the bases loaded in the fourth but could not find the hits to drive in a run until the sixth inning.

By that point, North Montgomery had an 8-0 lead in part due to a pair of errors that lead to a two-run single by Mahoy.

The Cougars finally got on the board after Kaleb Belcher started off the sixth with a double. A balk allowed Belcher to move to third and Kyler Jeter hit a sacrifice grounder to score the visitors' first run of the game.

North Putnam added a pair in the seventh. Brody Perrine walked to lead off the inning and Michael Herrmann hit a single and moved to second on an error.

Jake Haste knocked in Perrine and Herrmann with a single that pushed starter Jordan Lewis off the mound for the hosts.

Two walks by Sieferman loaded the bases for the Cougars and forced North Montgomery to call in West to get the final out, a pop fly by Flynn, to end the game.

Webster said that the loss might sting but the squad could not dwell too long on it.

"I was happy with the way the kids fought," Webster said. "We just did not play well in any facet of the game today. That's part of baseball, though.

"We don't need to get down. We've got a good, 14-3-1 team here and if we win Friday, we might be WCC champions and with two wins Saturday, we'll be county champions.

"We have five goals," Webster continued. "We can accomplish two of them this weekend. We're alright and we're in a good place."

With the second game against Monrovia on Friday, Webster said that it would be important to play better then and bring that momentum into the Putnam County Tournament Saturday.

"We've got to get the rhythm back and the mojo back," Webster said. "It's important that we come back and play well.

"I don't know that we have to win but we have to play well. We didn't play well today and that's not representative of North Putnam baseball."

At Northmont
North Putnam...............000 001 2 -- 3 4 5
North Montgomery.......600 020 X -- 8 7 2