Jay advances to semifinal

DECATUR — The Patriots’ pitching wasn’t spot on by any means.

Sure, the three hurlers combined to fan 15 batters.

But they also walked 10, and at times left too many pitches over the plate.

The offense made up for struggles on the bump.

The Jay County High School baseball team knocked off the Mississinewa Indians 12-7 on Wednesday in the opening round of the Class 3A Sectional 23 tournament at Bellmont.

“We could never really quite put them away,” said JCHS coach Lea Selvey, whose team moves to 17-5 on the year. “Pitching was all right, just couldn’t put them away. We’re playing again so that’s all that matters.”

Jay County advances to the sectional semifinal at 5:30 p.m. Friday against the Norwell Knights, who needed just five innings to beat the Marion Giants 11-0 in the first game Wednesday.

Heritage and host Bellmont meet in the other semifinal at 7:30 p.m. Friday, with the championship game slated for 1 p.m. Monday.

The Patriots raced out to a 6-0 advantage after the first two innings, highlighted by a Payton Heniser solo home run in the bottom of the second. Two Mississinewa errors let a total of three runs cross in the first inning.

The Indians (10-14) cut the deficit in half thanks to a Cade McCoin RBI double, an Owen Felver walk with bases loaded and a fielder’s choice off the bat of Colin Yoder.

But Jay County sent 10 batters to the plate in the third inning, which included a Max Moser two-run double, and scored four times to make the score 10-4 heading to the fourth.

Moser finished 2-for-3 with three RBIs, two walks and a pair of runs.

After laboring through the third inning, JCHS starter Noah Arbuckle struck out all three batters in the fourth before getting into a little bit of trouble again one frame later.

McCoin reached on a dropped third strike to start the fifth, and Arbuckle loaded the bases on consecutive walks. He struck out Hunter Smalley for his 10th and final punchout of the game before giving way to Gaven Hare.

“He bounced back after a rough inning and was able to extend his inning,” Selvey said.

Arbuckle lasted 4 1/3, allowed four runs — two earned — on six hits with four walks.

McCoin was Mississinewa’s leader at the plate, as he had two doubles, drove in a run and made a pair of sliding catches in center field on balls destined to fall in behind second base.

Tyler Jakob had three singles, including two that didn’t leave the infield, from the leadoff spot. Landen Swanner also had two hits.

“It was good we got Hare in there,” Selvey said. “He started to look like the Hare of old and was huge for us.”

Hare issued a bases-loaded walk to the first batter he faced, but struck out the side to prevent further damage. The senior fanned four and walked two in 1 2/3 innings, and Wyatt Geesaman — he’s slated to start Friday against Norwell — allowed three earned runs on three hits with one walk and a strikeout in the seventh.

Jay County defeated Norwell 6-5 when they met May 9 in Portland. This time around Selvey is expecting the Knights to be looking for revenge.

“Bottom line if we stay within ourselves and we hit strikes I feel pretty confident about our kids,” he said. “We hit pretty well when we don’t help them.

“We’re going to try to get them. It’ll be a good game. We’ll just have to come back, play with confidence, play some defense and score some runs.”