JCHS drops pair to the Tigers

HAGERSTOWN — The Patriots’ pitchers struggled to keep the Tigers bats quiet. Their bats couldn’t make up for it either.

Jay County High School’s baseball team got swept by Hagerstown on Saturday by scores of 11-5 and 5-2.

The Tigers jumped on Kade Sommers with a four-run second inning, but the Patriots were able to answer back with one of their own. They didn’t, however, have an answer for the five-run, third inning from the Tigers. Jay County would be held down for the rest of the game outside of a sixth-inning single by Connor Specht that scored Christian Runkle from first base.

Game two didn’t start off much better when a pair of singles plated runs for Hagerstown in the second inning. Runkle had the only RBI for the Patriots, driving Dusty Pearson in on a groundout.

Jackson Edwards was saddled with the loss, giving up five runs on seven hits through six innings.



Patriots slide

ELWOOD — The Jay County softball team lost a pair of games Saturday at the Lady Panther Classic. The Greenfield-Central Cougars beat the Patriots 16-8 before host Elwood took them down 11-2.

The Cougars lit up Jozey Shimp for 16 runs on 23 hits in the sophomore’s first pitching appearance of the year.

Both teams hit four home runs in the game, but an early 8-0 lead and a six-run seventh inning put Greenfield-Central on top. Riah Champ had two home runs to put her at 10 on the season.

The Patriots (15-4) struggled to score in the second game, only doing so on a wild pitch and a single from Jaelynn Lykins.

Taylor Brown suffered the loss, giving up seven earned runs on 12 hits, including a home run to Alivia Boston.



Doubles dominance

MUNCIE — Jay County’s girls tennis team snuck past Muncie Central 3-2 Friday.

The Patriots won both the No. 1 and No. 2 doubles matches.

Meredith Dirksen and Sophie Sprunger cruised past Lily Carpenter and Maddie Gaskill 6-2, 7-5 at the No. 2 spot.

It took a little bit more work for Kaylee and Melana Zimmerman to take down Taj Isom and Andrea Lopez at No. 1 singles. They lost the first set 7-4 in a tiebreaker, but took the match after dominating sets two and three (6-1, 6-0).

Brenna Haines added a 6-3, 6-1 victory at No. 1 singles to give the Patriots the win.

Norah and Isabel Quirk took the No. 2 and No. 3 singles matches, respectively, for the Bearcats, topping Brenna Bailey and Maggie Dillon respectively. Both girls lost the first set 6-3. Bailey won one game in the second set while Dillon got shut out (6-0).