Patriots fall to Park Tudor, draw New Castle

SELMA — Some poor weather resulted in the Patriots’ trip to Selma being cut short after one game.

But amidst the struggles the first day of the weekend brought, they got some better news the next day.

The Jay County High School baseball team fell to the Park Tudor Panthers at the Wapahani Baseball Invitational 8-2 in the opening game on Saturday. On Sunday, the Patriots drew the New Castle Trojans in the opening round of the IHSAA Sectional 24 hosted by Yorktown.

Jay County’s offense struggled against Park Tudor (8-3), only collecting three hits and scoring two runs. Both runs came in the top of the seventh when Hunter Collins scored on a passed ball and Carter Fugiett got hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.

Wyatt Foster, Gavin Byrum and Aiden Phillips collected the only hits for Jay County (4-8).

A.J. Myers took the loss after giving up three earned runs through the first three innings. The Panthers broke things open in the fourth, putting up five runs against Phillips.

The consolation game, which would have pitted the Patriots against the Bluffton Tigers, was canceled because of earlier delays to get the field ready and threat of rain later in the day.

JCHS learned who it will see in the sectional one day later, drawing the Trojans in the second opening-round game. The Patriots beat New Castle (5-11)  by a 3-1 score in their regular season matchup on April 15.

A win against NCHS would earn the Patriots a chance to face the winner of Connersville (9-8), a newcomer in Sectional 24, and defending champion Delta (9-6). The Patriots have a regular-season game scheduled against Delta on May 19.

In the bottom half of the bracket, the other newcomer to Sectional 24, Hamilton Heights (6-9), will take on host Yorktown (8-7) for a spot in the championship.