Starting hot

It didn’t take long for the Patriots to make up for lost time.

The Jay County High School baseball team scored nine runs in the first inning and cruised to a 13-0, five-inning thrashing of the Elwood Panthers on Thursday at Don E. Selvey Field.

“It was a good way to open up for us,” said JCHS coach Lea Selvey, whose team had not played a game in 678 days. “We came out, got a couple hits early, scored. They walked a few and hit a few (batters).

“But we took advantage of it. After that we just kind of settled in (and) played some defense.”

The Patriots (1-0) got back-to-back hits from Quinn Faulkner and Crosby Heniser to start the game. Heniser knocked in Faulkner, who stole second and reached third on an error on the pickoff attempt.

Sam Dunlavy and Austin Curts both walked with bases loaded, and Josh Dowlen got hit by a pitch with the bags full as well, forcing Elwood pitcher Will Retherford from the game after recording just one out.

Things didn’t get much better for Colton Jetty, who got an infield-fly rule out before an errant pitch brought in another run. Heniser followed with a two-run triple, and another wild Jetty pitch scored a run to make it 9-0.

In all, the Patriots sent 14 batters to the plate and recorded four hits — two from Heniser — while drawing three walks and being hit by a pitch four times. Blake Caldwell hit an RBI single in the frame as well.

“Just looking for strikes I could hit,” said Heniser, who finished 2-for-3 with three RBIs and a walk. “That’s about it. (They) weren’t throwing too hard so I was just looking for strikes.”

Jay County scored three more runs in the second inning, which included a Dunlavy RBI double and a Dowlen RBI single, and plated the game’s final run in the third.

The Patriots totaled just seven hits but drew eight walks.

“Everybody just had quality at bats and everybody did their job right,” Heniser said of his team’s effort at the plate. “It led to runs.”

Dusty Pearson, meanwhile, tossed a complete-game shutout despite about a 15-minute delay in the top of the third inning because of rain.

The sophomore scattered just three hits, allowed his only walk with one out in the fourth inning and struck out eight Panthers. All three outs in the fourth inning came by the strikeout, and he fanned five of the eight batters he faced over the third and fourth frames.

“I think he pitched the way he had to pitch today,” Selvey said. “He got a couple outs early on two-strike curveballs. Today it was stick with the fastball. It’s kind of hard to throw a curveball when the ball is wet and today they weren’t hitting his fastball, so he just did what he had to do.”

Colton Jetty, Retherford and Delong recorded the only hits for Elwood.

Caldwell and Heniser paced Jay County with multi-hit days.