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Putnam County Baseball Tournament: Jayce Monnett single completes Cougars' 8-6 comeback win over Tiger Cubs
BAINBRIDGE – Wins and losses are important, but some mean more than others.
North Putnam came from behind to defeat the Greencastle Tiger Cubs in the Putnam County Baseball Tournament final, 8-6 on Saturday afternoon. The victory validated the hard work and dedication of the Cougar program by taking home the Bucket.
Jayce Monnett lofted a two-run single in the top of the seventh inning to give the Cougars their first lead at 8-6, which would hold up to bring home the Putnam County Bucket after Brayden Monnett shut the door with a perfect seventh inning on the mound. The win allowed North Putnam to improve to 7-3 on the season. Greencastle’s record dropped to 3-4.
“This was a Putnam County championship win for us, but this was really a program win for us. Literally, I think everyone contributed to this win. We had freshmen coming in and pinch running, kids keeping in the game and picking us up,” said an emotional North Putnam head coach Chris Geeser.
Greencastle seemed to take control of the game early on. The Tiger Cubs, as the designated home team at North Putnam, jumped out to a quick lead.
Sam Gooch drew an early walk, then Nathan Sutherlin reached on an error. Treyton Clark picked up an RBI on a fielder’s choice, then back to back singles RBI singles by Jaylen Bushong and Jayce Spidel allowed Greencastle to lead 3-0 after the first inning.
“We got off to a good start, we picked up an early lead,” Greencastle head coach Ben Wells said.
Gooch for Greencastle and Jaylen Windmiller of the Cougars found their rhythm on the mound and threw scoreless second and third innings.
The Cougars were able to narrow the gap in the top of the fourth as Brayden Monnett singled, Windmiller then doubled off the top of the fence and would come home on an Alec McKenzie single as the gap was narrowed to 3-2.
Greencastle would immediately answer with a pair in the bottom of the inning. Owen Huff scored on a Chase Carrington double and came home on a Gooch groundout to retake a three-run lead at 5-2.
North Putnam answered again in the sixth inning. Ian Patrick drilled a two-run double to left field bringing home McKenzie and pinch runner Kyler Hankins to again come within one run of the Cubs, 5-4.
“We got some runs and it seemed like they would answer. Give all the credit to North Putnam for how they performed,” Wells said.
Greencastle tacked on another run in the sixth as Carrington would score on a groundout by Clark, but the Cubs left two runners on base heading into the seventh. Greencastle led 6-4.
“We did a great job early, but late in the game our bats kind of went quiet. We stopped producing and left too many runners on base,” Wells said.
That set the stage for a big seventh inning. Monnett scored on a single by McKenzie and Windmiller would cross the plate on a double by Braxton Woodall to tie the score. That set the stage for Jayce Monnett’s big two-out single, scoring Woodall and Patrick, as the Cougars took their first lead of the game at 8-6.
Brayden Monnett would then close the game in the bottom of the seventh to give North the title.
“We got in the position to bring in Brayden to close the game out. That was the plan, he is our senior bulldog and shut it down,” Geeser said to close out the victory.
Greencastle would get multi-hit games from Carrington and Gooch with each having an extra-base hit. Clark would bring in two runners to lead the Cubs offensively.
Brogan Woodall and McKenzie would also have multi-hit games for the Cougars. McKenzie, Jayce Monnett and Patrick each had two RBIs.
“It is great to see all the hard work these kids do get rewarded. They do all the little things and this is just a great team win for us,” Geeser said.
North Putnam 000 202 4 — 8 12 1
Greencastle 300 201 0 — 6 10 0
WP – Windmiller 4, Monnett 3 LP – Gooch 5, Clark 2
2B – Carrington (GHS), Woodall, Windmiller, Barber, Patrick (NP)
3B – Gooch (GHS)
RBI – Clark 2, Gooch, Sutherlin, Bushong, Spidel (GHS), McKenzie 2, J. Monnett 2, Patrick 2, Woodall 1 (NP)