PAGE B4 • MAY 22, 2012
THE POSEY COUNTY NEWS • SERVING THE COUNTY SINCE 1882 • WWW.POSEYCOUNTYNEWS.COM
Vikings take three of four in final week of regular season
North Posey junior Colton Martin has become a staple of the North Posey pitching staff this season. The Viking staff will have to be deep if they are to have a chance to win the tough Southridge sectional. Photo by Dave Pearce of four games. The Vikings ble-header with the MarBy Dave Pearce The North Posey baseball finish the regular-season tinsville Artesians near Vikings concluded a very with a 19-7 record and a Indianapolis on Saturday. successful regular season No. 9 ranking in the final Despite the split with the Class 5A school, Smith was under Coach Kevin Smith poll of the season. The Vikings split a dou- convinced that his team did this week, taking three out
not have their “A” game on Saturday and perhaps on a better day, could have swept the double-header. But as much as anything, Smith wanted to get some work for his pitchers as he used six pitchers during the contests. The Vikings were able to win the first game 4-2 before dropping the night-cap 4-3 after entering the bottom of the seventh inning with a 3-2 lead. Despite having only three hits in the opener, the Vikings were able to find a way to win. After giving up a two-run homer in the first inning, the Vikings found their backs against the wall. But as they have so many times this year, they responded. “Cody Voelker delivered a big two-run double in the seventh that put us ahead 3-2 and that was really the biggest play of the game,” Smith said of the opener. “”We really battled all day yesterday, even though we weren’t really at our best.” Kyle Voegel pitched a strong game against Martinsville and picked up the win while Shane Neumann got the save. Jared Meliff had the Vikings’ only other hit in the contest. Although Smith refused to use the long trip as an excuse, the Vikings were on a bus well over three hours on the way to Martinsville and had little time to prepare for the games, once they did arrive. “I was very pleased with our pitching staff and we were able to throw six guys,” Smith said. “These games were kind of a tuneup for sectionals coming up this week. We were not going to overwork our pitchers. Martinsville pitched well against us and our of-
fense just wasn’t up to what it has been. It was just a long, draining day.” In the second game, the Vikings led 3-2 going into the bottom of the seventh inning and in a very unlikely turn of events, after giving up a double to the first batter, the Vikings made back-to-back throwing errors on the infield to allow the winning runs to score. Martinsville scored the first two runs of the second game in the bottom of the fifth inning. “We walked a guy and then hit two batters and then they had a two-run double,” Smith said. “But we came back in the sixth and got a run when Austin Bender’s sacrifice scored Zach Scheller.” The Vikings took the lead in the top of the seventh when Meliff led off with a double. He scored and later, Wes harness scored to give the Vikings the lead. “I think we just kind of ran out of gas at that point in time, after riding on a bus for nearly four hours and playing 14 innings of baseball,” Smith said. “It was obvious we were tired and maybe we were thinking a little about the three-and-ahalf hour bus ride home. It was a long day for the kids but I thought we battled and stayed in contention, giving ourselves a chance to win the second game late but I just thought we ran out of gas. I was pleased that we battled as hard as we did for as long as we did.” Earlier in the week, the Vikings defeated Washington by a 10-7 count on Monday before shutting out Tecumseh 7-0 on Tuesday. The Vikings and the Hatchets each had eight hits in the game but the Vikings
were able to string some hits together to come up with a big four-run fourth inning. “They came back and scored a run in the top of the sixth but Colton Motz was able to shut them down with a 1-2-3 inning in the top of the seventh to get the win,” Smith said. “That was a nice win to get on the road on another long trip. Motz also had three RBIs for the day. Tyler Stoltz started the game and only gave up two runs in the first four innings. Kyle Voegel also pitched in the middle innings.” On senior night at home, senior Shane Neumann had a complete 7-0 shutout in what Smith referred to as one of the best team approaches to the game he has ever been a part of. “We had a six-run fourth inning to open things up,” Smith said. “In the Tecumseh game, in my 13 years around high school baseball, I thought our kids had the best approach at the plate. We laid off of pitches that were out of the zone and we let the curve balls fall short. We ended up getting nine hits that night.” Colton Martin led the team, going 2-for-3 with three RBIs and Meliff was 2-for-3 with a pair of RBIs. Kyle Voegel was 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI. Casey Voelker also went 2-for-3 on the night. “We had a lot of offense spread up and down the line-up that night,” Smith said. “We had seven runs on nine hits.” The Vikings will open their post season against a red hot Perry Central team. Earlier in the season, the Vikings won a very good one-run ballgame in Perry County.
St. Wendel is off to terrific start in Babe Ruth league April, shot down in May. Well, that doesn’t really describe Jacob McLain’s first week of the South Gibson Babe Ruth baseball
season, but it might come close. McClain pitched a no-hitter in the St. Wendel Babe Ruth team’s season opener,
a 20-0 romp over Oakland City, but on Saturday, things weren’t as successful, as McClain took the decision in St. Wendel’s first loss of the season, 9-3 at the hands of Fort Branch VFW. That’s life? Actually that’s more like baseball. St. Wendel came back in their next game and shut out North Posey Black 6-0 at the Athletic Club field. Wildeman and Cumbee combined to shut out Black, with Wildeman going five innings. On Wednesday, the opposition finally got to a St. Wendel pitcher, as visiting Princeton Red touched Martin for two runs, but just like clockwork, Cumbee came on after five innings and shut the door as St. Wendel posted a 6-2 victory. St. Wendel opened its season in rousing fashion with a 20-0 victory in six innings at Oakland City. McCain threw a no-hitter, fanning six with two walks. He helped himself out at the plate with three hits and a stolen base. The St. Wendel hurler scored four runs and drove in one. Bryce Martin also collected three hits and scored three runs, with a pair of stolen bases and two RBI’s. Drew Cumbee, Curtis Wildeman, Jake Wenderoth, Klan Jourdan and Noah Scheller each banged out a pair of hits. Cumbee tripled and scored three runs, while stealing a pair of bases and driving in a run. Jourdan doubled, drove in a run and scored two, while Wildeman scored two runs and drove in a pair. Wenderoth and Scheller each drove
in three runs and Scheller scored one. Josh Elpers dabbled, scored two runs and drove in two, while stealing two bases. Kyle Luigs singled, scored a run and drove in one, while Josh Cook stole a pair of bases and drove in two. The North Posey teams played a Saturday doubleheader at the high school baseball field Saturday, with Black outslugging Haubstadt Merchants 14-7 in the nightcap after Red dropped an 8-6 batter with Haubstadt Legion in the opener. So, what was the er, word from Black coach Damien Word? “Improvement,” Word said. “Improvement, we’re working on it, we’re moving forward. Signs of improvement tonight. We hit the ball well, we put the ball in play, and we were really aggressive offensively. The pitching was a lot better.” While improvement was the key word in the sense that the coaches saw improvement, it was also a key in the need for improvement, especially on the defensive side.
“When we score runs like we did today, it’s okay,” Word said. “But we’re going to have to tighten the screws on defense.” Austin Graves cracked three triples, while James Marshall belted a pair of doubles and Ethan Morlock drove in two runs. Jared Hostettler also had two hits. Black outslugged Oakland City 18-13 on Wednesday and no, the North Posey team did not play good defense and shake off three missed extra points to preserve the win, but the pitching struggled after Graves pitched two solid innings and the team jumped out to a 9-0 lead. “We wound up taking a 9-0 lead into the third inning and walking everybody,” Word said. “It was a dogfight after that, we traded punches, but fortunately, we were able to come out on top.” Against St. Wendel, Black had a number of runners on third base with less than two outs, but couldn’t produce, as Wildeman was just slow enough to keep Black’s hitters off balance.
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Poseyville Red baseball player Ethan Rose takes his turn at the plate during recent Babe Ruth baseball action. Photo by Dave Pearce