Patoka, Brownstown pick up day one victories

RAMSEY – Senior Austin Hunter threw a complete game for Brownstown and collected three hits to lead the Bombers to a 5-1 win against the hosts on Monday in the opening game of the Ramsey Tournament.

Hunter (1-0) surrendered a few hard-hit balls, but only a handful made it through Brownstown’s defense, which committed no errors during the game.

“We had some quality at-bats and put the bat on the ball early, but some of those line drives didn’t get through the holes with runners in scoring position,” said Ramsey coach Tony Kreke. “If we keep swinging the bats, good things will happen.”

The Bombers (1-0) will lean on Hunter throughout the season, and the more times he plays like he did on Monday, the more chances Brownstown will have of winning.

His only run allowed came in the fourth, when Ramsey senior Tyler Pryor led off the inning with a double and scored when senior Colton Hunt singled two at-bats later.

After that, Hunter struck out five, and the only base runner for the Rams (0-1) came via a hit-by-pitch in the seventh.

“Austin pitched very well,” said Brownstown coach Ken Milano. “He got it up in the zone to a couple of guys, but he corrected those problems and came back to finish strong.”

Brownstown got on the board after a controversial play at first base allowed junior Jeff Taylor, who tripled, to score on an infield single from senior Shane Sefton. The bang-bang play at first appeared to have gone in Ramsey’s favor, but Sefton was ruled safe.

The Bombers added another run in the third, when Hunter reached by hitting a ball into the hole at short, before sophomore Nate Matthews doubled him home.

Without a pair of base running errors, the inning could have been a big one for Brownstown, but Milano knew that some mistakes would happen, considering that more than half of his team is in their first or second year of high school baseball.

“We made some beginning-of-the-season mistakes and some inexperience mistakes,” he said. “But as a whole, I thought the game was well-played on both sides.”

Milano praised Pryor, who took the loss for the Rams, but allowed just three earned runs over six innings. Kreke said the reason the Bombers were able to tag Pryor (0-1) for nine hits was because of their patience at the plate.

Hunter had an RBI single in the fifth, bringing home junior Jake Behrends, who reached on an error, and Behrends again crossed the plate in the sixth, scoring on an error after walking.

Taylor also scored in the inning, walking and coming home on another single from Hunter.

“One, we got guys on base, which is good,” Milano said. “Two, we didn’t always get them in. We need to get that clutch hit, but it’s just the first game.”

Brownstown left 10 runners on base, and twice left the bases loaded.

Box score
Brownstown 5
Ramsey 1
B: 0-1-1-0-1-2-0—5-9-0
R: 0-0-0-1-0-0-0—1-6-3
WP: Hunter (1-0); 7 IP, 8 K, 1 ER, 6 H, 0 BB, 1 HBP
LP: Pryor (0-1); 6 IP, 5 K, 5 R, 3 ER, 9 H, 6 BB, 2 HBP
Bombers: Hunter, 3-for-4, 2 RBI, run; Dustin Lawson, 2-for-2, 2 BB; Taylor, 1-for-3, 3B, 2 runs, BB; Matthews, 1-for-4, 2B, RBI; Shane Sefton, 1-for-4, RBI; Calvin Boggs, 1-for-3, BB; Behrends, 2 runs, 2 BB.
Record: 1-0
Rams: Pryor, 1-for-3, 2B, run; Waylon Davis, 2-for-3, 2B; Hunt, 1-for-3, RBI; Tristan Wesselman, 1-for-2, HBP; Tylor Knisley, 1-for-3.
Record: 0-1

Game 2
Patoka vs. Mulberry Grove

RAMSEY – When junior Johnnie Clift rocketed a ground-rule double to left with two outs in the first inning on Monday, it didn’t really mean too much.

But when senior Mark Rogers followed with a double, and junior Clinton Hood rifled a single to center before the next three batters walked, Clift’s hit turned out to be all that Patoka would need in a 13-1 win against Mulberry Grove in the second game of the Ramsey Tournament.

“Getting those three runs set the tone and relaxed everybody,” Eddy said. “The big base hit by Johnnie means nothing without Mark hitting a hard ball and Hoodie hitting a ball up the middle.”

Patoka (1-0) left the bases loaded after those walks, but senior Quinn Wadkins singled to open the second, and after two outs, Rogers and Hood each again delievered RBI hits off of Mulberry Grove (0-1) sophomore Derek Childress.

Childress (0-1), a soft-tossing left-hander, often gives opposing teams fits the first time he faces them, but Patoka had an inside track on his tendencies, despite having never faced him.

“Four of our guys played with him during Legion, so we had a pretty good scouting report,” Eddy said. “I said to the those guys, ‘You played with him. Now, help your teammates out.’”

The approach worked, as Patoka rattled out 12 hits in the game, including seven with two outs. Wadkins led the Warriors with three, and Rogers, Hood and junior Seth Allen each had two.

Patoka took a 6-0 lead after the top of the fourth, when Wadkins led off with a double and scored on a fielder’s choice by Johnnie Clift.

Hood (1-0) was Patoka’s starter, and after cruising through the first three innings, with one hit allowed and three strikeouts, he hit a rough stretch, allowing back-to-back doubles to Childress and sophomore Alex Goodin, but that would be the only blemish on his complete-game effort.

He struck out seven over five innings, allowing four hits, one walk and one hit batsman.

“If he didn’t have that one bad inning, it would have been a really efficient outing,” Eddy said. “(His low number of pitches) sets us up well for the rest of the week.”

Patoka showed good plate discipline in the fifth, drawing six walks in the inning to help produce seven runs and take a commanding lead. Five of the runs scored with two outs, and Allen had a big two-run single on a full count.

Senior Jake Orrell struggled during the game, going 0-for-3, but Eddy said he has been the team’s best hitter thus far in practice, so there’s not a lot to worry about there. Otherwise, all of the starters who played the whole game reached base at least twice.

“We came in expecting to win, because we have to, knowing what we have coming back,” Eddy said. “Our question mark was our hitting, and we had 12 hits that were up and down the lineup.”

Box score
Patoka 13
Mulberry 1
P: 3-2-0-1-7—13-12-0
M: 0-0-0-1-0—1-4-2
WP: Hood (1-0); 5 IP, 7 K, 1 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 1 HBP
LP: Childress (0-1); 4 2/3 IP, 7 K, 9 R, 8 ER, 10 H, 4 BB
Warriors: Wadkins, 3-for-4, 2B, RBI, 3 runs; Rogers, 2-for-3, 2B, 2 RBI, 3 runs, BB; Hood, 2-for-3, 3 RBI, run, SB; Allen, 2-for-3, 2B, 2 RBI, run, 2 SB, BB; John Houston, 2-for-2, RBI, run, BB; Clift, 1-for-3, 2B, RBI, 2 runs, SB, BB; Orrell, SB, run; Dustin Mays, BB, run; Ryan Miller, 2 BB; Tristan Hull, BB.
Record: 1-0
Aces: Goodin, 1-for-2, 2B, RBI; Childress, 1-for-2, 2B, run; Matt Korte, 1-for-2; Kaiah Miller, 1-for-3; Dalton Crisman, BB.
Record: 0-1