Tiger Cubs roll past Thunderbirds in baseball opener

Despite it not feeling like spring again, Greencastle’s baseball team brought all the heat it needed in its bats Wednesday evening, knocking out North Central (Farmersburg) in its season opener 12-2 in five innings.

“Overall, for being our first game in almost two years, I was pretty pleased with how we played,” Greencastle head coach Ben Wells said. “We had one inning where we were a bit sloppy defensively and had some pretty questionable base running decisions, but overall we played a pretty solid game.”

After Nick Sutherlin swept through the top of the Thunderbird batting order on the mound, the Tiger Cub bats got to work as Brody Whitaker reached on an error, eventually moved to third on a Chase Carrington sac bunt and scored on a wild pitch for a 1-0 start.

Sutherlin walked, stole second and scored on a Keifer Wilson single to double the advantage.

Wilson made it to third before Ben Huff came in as a courtesy runner, scoring on the next pitch as Brandon Glaze doubled to center field.

Bryce Barger followed with a single to center field that plated Glaze for a 4-0 lead.

The hosts added two more runs in the second as Whitaker and Sutherlin drew walks and scored on a Wilson single.

A scoreless third gave way to the only runs for North Central as Greencastle made four errors in the inning to allow the Thunderbirds to plate twice.

The Tiger Cubs got both runs back and more in the bottom half of the frame but needed some help to do so.

Whitaker walked with one out but was picked off first and Carrington swung and missed at a wild pitch, reaching on a dropped third strike.

Sutherlin then grounded towards first but another error allowed the senior to reach and the inning to continue.

Wilson drew a walk and Ryan Kempf singled to plate two runs while Glaze singled to add a third and Barger singled for a third-straight run-scoring hit to make it 10-2 heading into the fifth inning.

Glaze took over on the mound and despite giving up a lead-off walk suffered no damage to leave the eight-run lead intact.

Greencastle closed the deal with a two-out single from Wilson that plated Whitaker and Carrington to enact the 10-run rule and send the Tiger Cubs to 1-0 on the season.

“Offensively, there were a lot of positives tonight,” Wells said about finishing the night early. “Of the 12 runs we scored, 10 of them came with two outs which is nice to see clutch hitting this early in the season.

“The middle of our line up really came up big tonight and overall we did a good job all night of making contact and making (North Central) make plays.”

Sutherlin picked up the win on the mound, tossing four innings, allowing a hit, a walk and a earned run against nine strikeouts. Wilson led the offense with three hits and five RBIs while Barger, Kempf and Glaze drove in a pair of runs each.

“Defensively Nick was really sharp tonight,” Wells said about the senior pitcher. “He did a great job of working ahead in the count and keeping the ball low.

“We were a little shaky in the 4th and gave up some extra outs which cost us a couple of runs, but overall I was pretty pleased with what we showed tonight.”

North Central 000 20 — 2 1 8

Greencastle 420 42 — 12 9 4

WP — Sutherlin (1-0) 4 IP, H, 2 R (ER), BB, 2 HBP, 9 K

LP — Bonacorsi (0-1) 4 2/3 IP, 9 H, 12 R (3 ER), 5 BB, 6 K

2B — Glaze

RBI — Wilson (5), Barger (2), Glaze (2), Kempf (2)