Gaining steam

The Patriots finally had a breakthrough game against Woodlan, but the lingering question was if they could build off the success.

The Golden Bears punched the Patriots in the mouth, but a big second inning swung the momentum. 

From there, the Patriots had control and captured back-to-back wins for the first time this season.

Jay County High School’s baseball team claimed its second straight victory with a 14-3 win over the Monroe Central Golden Bears in five innings on Monday.

“It’s finally nice to start getting something going here,” said JCHS coach Todd Farr. “The win over Woodlan was a good, quality win for us. Tonight it was just about getting momentum and moving in that right direction. They’re not a bad team. … We’re starting to make plays. We’re starting to be locked in a little bit more every pitch, so definitely getting there.”

Jay County High School’s Carter Fugiett (20) celebrates with Brady Jetmore after his three-run blast in the bottom of the second inning during Monday’s 14-3 win over Monroe Central. Fugiett led the offense with five RBIs. (The Commercial Review/Andrew Balko)

 

The Patriots (4-6) gave up two runs in the first inning, but swiped one back in the bottom half after a single by Wyatt Foster, who finished with two hits, two runs and three RBIs, and a Carter Fugiett double.

The real damage came in the second inning.

Brady Jetmore hit a single to left field and Joe Geesaman and Leighton Brown both drew walks to load the bases with two outs. Monroe Central catcher Carson Siekmann took the trip out to the mound to talk things over with Carter Duncan, but it was to no avail as Foster delivered a two-run double to left field on the first pitch.

One pitch later Fugiett, the Patriots’ offensive leader on the day with five RBIs, three hits and one run, added three more runs with a high fly ball that carried over the left field wall.

“Wyatt stepped up like that from the get go when he started for us a couple of weeks ago,” Fugiett said. “I know when he steps up there he’s going to do something positive. … 

“When I was in the dugout I saw he had a hanging curveball. In the first at bat, when I had the double, he threw me a fastball and I put it down the line. I knew he probably wasn’t going to give me a fastball again, so he threw me a first pitch curveball. It was just hanging so I just put it in the air and we’ve got a little wind so that helped it out too. But I just put it in the air and let the ball do its job.”

After JCHS took the 6-2 lead, it began to hammer the game home as A.J. Myers set the Golden Bears down in order in the third. 

Caleb Leudike led off with a flyout to Foster at second base before Myers sat the next two batters himself.

Myers went the distance for Jay County, giving up one earned run on three hits and four walks. He also struck out five batters during his five innings of work.

“He started with a lot of first-pitch strikes and just threw strikes to give us a chance for our defense to make some plays there,” said Farr. “When you do that, you give us an opportunity to stay in the ball game and get the momentum going in our direction and it was great to feed off of that.”

Right after Monroe Central got put down in order, the Patriots put up three more runs, all of which were unearned, in the bottom half without getting a hit.

Camden Fraley led off with a strikeout but reached base on a dropped third strike. Duncan hit a batter and walked two more to push Fraley in to score. Duncan struck out another batter, and a fielder’s choice secured what ended up being the first two outs without any more scoring. Duncan then plunked Patriots in back-to-back at bats to let two more cross the plate.

Two more mistakes in the bottom of the fourth inning led to Jay County scoring five more runs, only two of which were earned.

“We just weren’t able to stop the bleeding,” said MCHS coach Sean Richardson. “You boot the ball around a little bit and walk a couple here and there and they put the runs on and we didn’t answer.”

In contrast, JCHS stayed mostly clean on defense, only committing one error in the first inning.

The Patriots had a lot of balance from their lineup as eight of the nine scored a run, five collected RBIs and four notched hits. 

Outside of Foster and Fugiett, Gessaman drew three walks and three runs scored, while Jetmore collected three runs and two RBIs on two hits and a walk.