JC wins with big inning

Big innings plagued Jay County in 2014.
This year, crooked numbers have helped the Patriots to a 2-0 start.
Jay County High School’s baseball team scored six runs in the fourth inning and held off a late surge by the Elwood Panthers in an 8-6 victory Friday night.
“That opened the door for us,” said JCHS coach Lea Selvey, whose team had three hits, drew two walks and was hit by three pitches in the fourth inning. The Patriots sent 11 batters to the plate in that frame, and it was the third time this season they batted through the order.
With Jay County trailing 4-1, Chandler Jacks kick-started the Patriot offense by hitting a single off Elwood reliever Trevor Shannon. They loaded the bases after Cole Stigleman was hit by a pitch, and Andy Kohler walked.
After a strikeout, Nate Brackman recorded his first RBI of the season when he too absorbed one of Shannon’s pitches with his body.
Levi Stant, who was one of four Patriot batters to post multi-hit games, walked with the bases loaded, cutting his team’s deficit to 4-3. Jacob Geesaman followed with an RBI single through the left side to tie the game, and Levi Long took a pitch off his thigh to give the Patriots a 5-4 lead.
The Patriots weren’t quite done yet.
Tanner Reynolds, who had two hits and four RBIs in the Patriots’ home opener Monday, delivered once again with a two-run single to deep left field.
“With the wind, I thought it was going foul,” said Selvey, whose team travels to Gas City to take on the Mississinewa Indians at 11 a.m. today. “Next thing I know it’s falling 2 feet fair. That was a huge hit for us. I’m glad the wind blew it back in.”
For Elwood (0-1), coach John Alexander said he made a mistake putting in Shannon for starter Jackson Tunnell.
“If I could go back, I probably wouldn’t have pulled him,” Alexander said. Tunnell had allowed only one run on four hits and struck out one. “We’ve got a doubleheader (today) so I couldn’t throw the whole bullpen.”
Instead, Shannon struggled to find the strike zone. He allowed six earned runs in one-third of an inning, taking the loss.
By then, the Panthers had already chased Patriot starter Chandler Jacks from the game, and Selvey put in Long to pitch in the fifth. He got through the inning stranding two runners, but struggled in the sixth, which is when Elwood came surging back.
J.D. Sallee walked to start the frame, and Grayson Savage followed with a double to deep center field. Jaylen Tunnell one-upped his teammate, drilling a 1-0 pitch to deep right field for a two-run double, getting the Panthers within one.
The threat didn’t last long, however, as Long picked Tunnell off from second and the next two batters went down in order.
So, Long and the Patriots answered with an insurance run in the bottom of the frame.
 Stigleman popped a pitch up into foul territory and Panther catcher Jaylen Tunnell made the catch at the opening of the dugout. Long, who was standing on third, broke for the plate with no one covering. He slid head first, colliding with Tunnell as the two bumped heads — Long with a helmet on and Tunnell without — for the game’s final run.
With Long out for the remainder of the night, Jake Carpenter came in and shut the door on Elwood, striking out a pair while sitting the Panthers down in order to record the save.
“Carp is going to throw strikes,” Selvey said of the senior. “He believes in himself, and that’s huge.”
Jake Myers was credited with the win, his second of the season. He struck out three of the five batters he faced, surrendering just one hit in one inning of relief.
Geesaman, Jacks and Kohler all had two hits for the Patriots, with Brackman and Ethan Myers also tallying singles for Jay County, which has posted back-to-back 11-hit games.
“The top of our order is kind of our spark plugs,” Selvey said of Stant and Geesaman. “They get on base, they’re going to scoot around a little bit. Our three, four, five hitters, we’re going to count on them to hit the ball.”