Patriots rout Jets in opener

Jay County was patient at the plate.
The Patriots’ pitching shut down the Jets.
Jay County High School’s baseball team struck for 11 hits and walked 10 times, while Jake Myers and Jake Carpenter combined to pitch a one-hit shutout in a 15-0 thumping of the Anderson Prep Jets in five innings on Monday.
“It was a good start,” said JCHS coach Lea Selvey, whose team hosts the Wayne Generals at 5 p.m. tonight. “(Jacob Geesaman) got us started with a nice little hit.”
Geesaman had a single through the left side of the infield in the first inning.
“Maybe the biggest hit of the day was (Mitchell) Kunkler’s,” Selvey said. “He drove in the first run. I think once we got that lead it allowed us to relax a little bit.
“Then we just went on and took care of business.”
Kunkler hit a two-out double to deep right-center field in the bottom of the second inning, driving in Andy Kohler, who reached on a walk and advanced on a balk. Kunkler sparked a string of three consecutive RBI doubles — Levi Stant and Geesaman followed suit — as the Patriots lit up the scoreboard for five runs in the second inning, all with two outs.
Tanner Reynolds, a senior, capped off the scoring with the first of his pair of two-run singles, the second of which came an inning later.
 “It was all about enthusiasm,” said Reynolds, who was 2-for-2 with a pair of walks and a team-high four RBIs. “When I got up there I just felt comfortable. I caught on to the pitcher after my first walk. I felt real good.”
 After freshman Cole Stigleman drew a leadoff walk in the third inning, he stole second and scored on a double to right field by Kohler. Two batters later Kunkler, who was also 2-for-2 with a pair of RBIs, a walk and three runs, hit a single, and Stant followed with another RBI single.
Like Reynolds, Stant was 2-for-2 with a pair of walks, and he drove in three runs. Kunkler and Stant both came around to score on Reynolds’ two-out single, pushing the Patriot advantage to 10-0 after three innings.
“We’ve really concentrated on hitting strikes and letting some strikes go that we can’t hit — in other words, narrowing our zone until we get two strikes,” said Selvey, whose team had four of its 11 hits in two-strike counts. “They put it in that zone, have at it. If not, lay off of it. Don’t help them out.”
The Patriots’ patience started to kick in during the fourth inning, as they drew six walks — four of those came from the first five batters — on their way to six more runs. Nate Brackman, Stigleman, Kunkler, Stant, Reynolds and Kohler all took free passes as the Patriots sent 12 batters to the plate. It was the third straight inning in which Jay County batted through the order. Stigleman also notched his first career hit later in the frame.
In the meantime, Myers tossed four strong innings, facing two more than the minimum 12 batters. He struck out four, including the first batter he faced, walked one and gave up one hit in his varsity debut.
“Jake is going to be good for us,” Selvey said. “Sometimes it’s tough to keep your focus when you start getting some runs. Sometimes you have to treat that 11-nothing (score) like it’s one to nothing.
“He was up and down (with) long innings. Early in the year I didn’t want to go much longer than what I did with him.”
Carpenter came in for the fourth and mowed down the Jets, striking out all three batters he faced on just 10 pitches.