Jay blows away Falcons (04/17/07)

Two games have resulted in two early endings for the Patriots.

The Jay County baseball team has found it difficult to get on the field this season, but when they've played it has been impressive. It scored a second double-digit victory Monday, sending the Winchester Golden Falcons home with a 12-2 defeat.

While on opposite ends of the lop-sided margin, JCHS coach Lea Selvey and Winchester coach Kelby Weybright were both happy to at least be able to swing the bats.

"That one-and-out for a week is for the birds," said Selvey, whose team had been off since defeating Muncie Central 13-0 April 9. "I'm just happy to play."

The Golden Falcons have had it even worse, as the loss to the Patriots was their first action of the year.

"Some of the errors we had were just because we haven't been out on the field," Weybright said. "It's one of those things where you just want to get out and play. ... We saw things we need to work on and things we need to improve on."

Jay County (2-0) had the bats working as eight of its nine starters finished with at least one hit.

The leading roles came from the expected slots - lead-off and clean-up.

Michael Jobe had two hits, including a triple, from the top spot in the order.

He also walked and stole two bases, and came around to score each of the three times he was on the base paths.

No. 4 hitter Thomas McCowan continued his hot start with three hits in four at bats. One of those hits was an RBI double in the fifth inning, and he also scored two runs.

"Last year we kept telling (McCowan), 'Keep hitting the ball, it's going to fall,'" said Selvey. "He kept hitting it and it was right at everybody. ... Now everything he hits is finding the hole."

McCowan is 6-of-7 (.857) so far this season and has scored five runs.

Senior Rhett Retter, who hit a home run in Jay County's season opener, came up big again with a two-run triple in the fourth inning. Tony McCowan singled and matched his cousin Thomas with two runs, and Josh Selvey, Josh Ludy, Andy Hughes and Luke Goetz also had one hit apiece.

The only player who didn't have a hit was Casey Waters, who made up for it with a pair of walks, one of which resulted in a score by pinch runner Trey Dunn.

"I think we have a group of .300 and .400 hitters," said Selvey. "I feel pretty good about our lineup. If the pitching just throws strikes and doesn't walk people, I think we'll win ..."

The pitching wasn't an issue Monday as Derek Barnett gave the Patriots two solid innings - he gave up one unearned run on one hit - before turning the ball over to Andy Hughes for the final four.

Hughes got into a couple of jams, but worked his way out of them successfully. He gave up only a single unearned run as well, and allowed just three hits.

He struck out the side in the fourth and sixth innings, and had nine punch-outs in all.

Winchester's failure to capitalize on those situations killed its chances.

With two outs and the bases loaded in the fourth inning, No. 9 hitter Jared Bogue was hit by a pitch to bring in a run. But lead-off man Spencer Cook couldn't do any further damage as Hughes struck him out.

The Golden Falcons again loaded the bases with no outs in the fifth thanks to a walk and two singles, but Hughes induced a one-two-three double-play. A strikeout followed as he escaped the situation without allowing a run.

"A couple of key hits, and then we had some situations defensively ... if a couple of things like that go a little different it could have been a different situation," said Weybright. "But Jay County hit the ball all the way through their lineup all night. They did a good job."

Half of Jay County's 12 runs were unearned as Winchester committed seven errors.[[In-content Ad]]