Greencastle retains bucket in extra-inning thriller against South Putnam

You never know what you are going to get with a Putnam County Bucket game.

The Greencastle Tiger Cubs had their second county game in a row go extra innings, but managed to defeat the host Eagles 10-8 in eight innings as a host of players came through playing different roles for the Cubs.

Greencastle took advantage of some Eagle fielding miscues and had timely hitting and fielding to pull out the Western Indiana Conference baseball game. The visitors had to overcome an Eagle team who swung the bat well all night and their own injury concerns. The Cubs improved to 11-10 and 4-6 in the WIC. South dropped to 3-14 and 1-9 in the conference.

“We are not sure who else we are going to pitch this week. We have a lot of kids missing and some playing out of position at times, but we really came through. I have said it before, we have ballplayers. These kids just play ball,” Greencastle head coach Ben Wells said.

The Eagles hammered out 13 hits in the game, but on the defensive side they committed seven errors. That was the good and the bad for South who came close, but in the end came up a little short.

“You have to catch the ball and throw the ball. I don’t know, we did not make plays we should. We did hit the ball well tonight, we’ve got some younger kids who are getting it,” South Putnam head coach Kurt Kyle said.

Both teams picked up a run in the first inning. Greencastle’s Trevin Long singled in Jaylen Bushong while Wyatt Mullin scored on a single by Ethan Harcourt for the Eagles.

The Cubs picked up three runs with two outs in the second inning. Bushong had a two-run single to highlight an inning where the Cubs had two hits, a walk, and took advantage of an Eagle error to take a 4-1 lead.

Mullin brought the Eagles closer in the bottom of the third with a towering home run to bring the deficit to 4-2. Bushong picked up another RBI, plating Owen Huff and taking a 5-2 lead. The Cubs would then score on a passed ball in the top of the fifth inning to lead 6-2.

South rallied in the bottom of the inning. Mullin doubled, Kenny McDaniel singled. Harcourt scored Mullin on a single and both McDaniel and Harcourt would score on a Kyle Glasson double to make it a one-run game at 6-5.

Greencastle seemed to take command again as a couple of errors and a big knock by Nathan Sutherlin brought in two runs to give the Cubs an 8-5 lead.

“We battled, we wanted this as a county and conference game. We didn’t play our best but give credit to South Putnam. They hit the ball tonight,” Wells said.

South rallied again in the bottom of the seventh inning. Mullin led off with a hit to left, ending up on third base, and would score on a McDaniel groundout.

A couple of walks, a hit batsman and some wild pitches and passed balls led to the Eagles getting two more runs to tie the score at 8-8 and forcing an eighth inning.

“We are so young and sometimes it is tough to stay up and ready to go,” Wells said.

Greencastle was able to get a pair of runs in the top half of the extra inning. Connor Sullivan singled, allowing Cooper Williams and Long to cross the plate.

The Eagles could not rally a third time, setting the final score at 10-8 in favor of the Cubs.

Mullin had a game at the plate, hitting for the cycle. In addition, McDaniel and Harcourt also had multi-hit games for South.

Bushong and Huff had two hits each for the Cubs, with Bushong picking up three RBIs on the night.

“If we can get healthy, I like what we are doing heading towards the tournament. We just have to get everyone back,” Wells said as his team missing two regular starters.

South will travel to White River Valley Wednesday and Greencastle will host Clay City on Thursday.

Greencastle 130 112 02 — 10 7 1

South Putnam 101 030 30 — 8 13 7

WP — Clark 6.0, Gooch 1.0, Long 1.0

LP – Bozell 5.1, Mullin 2.2

2B — Mullin, Glasson (SP)

3B — Mullin (SP)

HR — Mullin (SP)

RBI — Bushong 3, Long 1, Sullivan 2 (GHS), Glasson 2, Mullin, McDaniels, Harcourt (SP)