Greencastle beats North Putnam, gets first win of season

Thursday, April 10, 2014
Greencastle senior Brant Mangrum takes a swing in the first inning of the game against North Putnam. Mangrum was able to get on base three times for the Tiger Cubs scoring two of the three.

Neither a slow start, nor a final-inning North Putnam rally could stop Greencastle High School from getting its first win of the baseball season on Wednesday.

The Tiger Cubs tops the Cougars 13-10.

After the Tiger Cubs took a 1-0 lead on a wild pitch, Greencastle senior Seth Brown started the game with three strikeouts.

"It was the first game jitters," North Putnam interim coach Brian Jeter said. "The game speed compared to practice is so different. We can't simulate the speed of Greencastle against our starters. Seth Brown is one of the best (pitchers) in the county."

In the bottom of the second, both senior Jordan Nauert and freshman Jackson Kendall stole second base and managed to score.. This put North Putnam ahead 2-1.

"I don't know if they had nerves in the beginning," said Greencastle coach Troy Remsburg. "I told them to quit trying so hard. Just to go out there and have fun and make contact."

Senior Holden King of Greencastle stole second after his single in the third inning and a Brown sacrifice fly tied the game. An RBI from North Putnam senior Shane Beaman brought in senior Coy Flynn for the Cougars and Nauert brought in Beaman making the score 4-2 North Putnam, at the top of the fourth.

Sophomore Kyler Jeter dives for a grounder in the early innings of the North Putnam 13-10 loss to Greenastle. North Putnam had seven hits and scored six of its runs in the final inning. (Banner Graphic/JAY LOCKETT)

That's when Greencastle rattled off eight runs in the fourth, all on the final out. The run started with junior Levi Lewis' single and featured RBIs by senior Kaleb Flemming and sophomore Riley Cook. Greencastle senior Jonathan Newgent also batted in two runners giving the Tiger Cubs a 10-4 lead.

"I always say hitting is contagious," Remsburg said. "When your leadoff hitter is putting the ball in play, they all will."

According to North Putnam coach Art Laker, some of those runs were avoidable but the Cougars couldn't stem

the tide.

"We just had error after error," Laker said. "We had at least four errors that were like blooper hits. We maybe had one walk so (North Putnam senior Beau Green) was throwing pretty well. When you have errors, it's contagious."

Three more RBIs were tacked on by Greencastle's Brown, King and sophomore Anthony Rossok. This put the Cougars in a 13-4 hole heading into the final inning.

North Putnam rallied, helped by Kendall's and junior Nolan Ensor's RBIs, the Cougars were able to score six runs off of Greencastle's Brown, who finished the game with 10 strikeouts.

"Our pitcher was getting tired," Remsburg said. "He didn't want to admit it. We always talk about mental toughness. As a pitcher you depend on the other eight guys to make plays."

But the six runs were too little too late as Greencastle was able to close out the victory.

"I'm happy with how our team fought," Jeter said. "We could've rolled over. We showed some real grit."

The county rivalry game gave the coaches a better idea of what they'd like to work on in the future.

"Don't wait until the fourth to start scoring," Remsburg said. "We were like that last year. (North Putnam) they'll fight you to the end. They'll battle. Luckily we had a big enough lead. I'd like to see hits like that come earlier. Better late than never."

For North Putnam, Laker says there may be some tweaks to the lineup just to get his team in position to take advantage of the impressive batting that the Cougars are capable of.

"We'll try to move some players around to get some hits," Laker said. "But I'm pretty pleased with everybody's performance. I think we hit the ball really well."

The second game of the double header took place on Thursday and saw North Putnam bounce back with a 6-2 win.

Nauert pitched an impressive game only allowing two runs on four hits. He had 7 strikeouts with just one earned run.

Battling well for the Cougars was Flynn who recorded 5 RBIs and two doubles.

Junior Tanner Nicholson of Greencastle pitched 3.2 innings and recorded four strikeouts and gave up six runs off of seven hits.

Mangrum pitched the final 3.1 innings, to the tune of five strikeouts with no runs scoring.

North Putnam's next game is at home against Covington on Saturday at 11 a.m. Greencastle is scheduled to play Brown County on Saturday at 11 a.m. at home.


At Greencstle

NP 020 400 0 -- 6 7 2

GC 001 100 0 -- 2 4 3


At North Putnam

GC 101 821 0 -- 13 18 3

NP 022 000 6 -- 10 7 2

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