Stigleman stellar in win

Cole Stigleman plays well beyond his age.
He pitches with poise and he swings a good bat.
So at first glance, it’s difficult to notice the right-hander is only a freshman.
Making his first varsity start on the bump, the 15-year-old Stigleman pitched five strong innings and recorded a three-hit day at the plate to lead the Jay County High School baseball team to an 11-2 victory Friday night against the Winchester Golden Falcons.
 “I felt good,” said Stigleman, who noted that his nerves calmed down after the first pitch, a strike to Cullen Hall. “About first pitch you’re in the zone and just keep on going.”
After striking out Hall, Stigleman gave up a double — one of three hits the Patriot pitcher allowed — to Austin Myers, assisted on a putout of Brandon Martin and sat Winchester pitcher Aaron Beatty down on strikes.
Stigleman struck out six total and didn’t allow a walk. Two of the six base runners against the youngster reached third.
“He’s pretty confident in himself, which is good,” said JCHS coach Lea Selvey, whose team has posted back-to-back wins since splitting a doubleheader April 18 with Centerville. “He’s got the confidence of a senior but he’s a freshman.”
Stigleman retired the next six batters, including striking out the side in the second inning.
Offensively, he wasted no time making an impact for Jay County (7-5). He ripped the first pitch of his at bat in the first inning to drive in Levi Long. The base knock followed an RBI groundout by Tanner Reynolds. Stigleman’s first of three RBI base hits gave the Patriots a 2-0 lead in the game’s opening frame.
A dozen games into his freshman campaign, he feels at ease every time he steps to the dish.
“(I’m) a lot more comfortable,” he said. “It’s a lot easier now.”
Stigleman hit an RBI single in the second inning to cap a three-hit, five-run frame in which the Golden Falcons committed three fielding errors. It was a situation Winchester coach Chris Martin is all too familiar with.
“We have one bad inning, we make those errors and they compound them with hits,” said Martin, whose team committed 12 errors in a 19-0 loss Thursday to Hagerstown. “It just digs a hole, it’s hard to come back from.”
Already leading Winchester 7-0, Jay County added one more run in the fourth on an RBI double by — who else? — Stigleman.
Two  errors by the Patriots led to the Golden Falcons’ pair of runs in the sixth. Myers and Brandon Martin led off the frame with back-to-back singles, and Beatty drew a walk to load the bases.
JCHS shortstop Levi Stant had trouble fielding a slow roller allowing Myers to score, and Martin crossed the plate following another error, this time by Max Moser at third base.
Myers and Martin both had a pair of hits for Winchester, which also got singles from Dalton Hensley and Hall.
“They’ve been four-year varsity players and that’s what we expect out of them,” said Chris Martin, who also praised his team for not giving up with an eight-run deficit. “They battled back, we just started so flat … once we were able to get in the flow of the game, we obviously let it get away from us.”
With most of its starters giving way to reserves, Jay County scored three more runs in the sixth to put the game out of reach. Jacob Geesaman, one of two JCHS starters still in the game at the time, walked to lead off the frame, and reached third when Winchester catcher Jacob Lahey sailed a pickoff attempt into center field. He later scored on a wild pitch.
Moser drew a one-out walk in his first varsity plate appearance and scored on an RBI single by Jake Carpenter. Josh Vaughn, who has gotten pinch hits in back-to-back nights — Jay County defeated Woodlan 11-1 on Thursday — scored Lance Ferguson for the game’s final run.
“That’s the mark of a decent team,” said Selvey. Jay County had eight players with hits. “Anybody in the lineup can help us.”