LAFAYETTE — Last year, the Columbus North baseball team went up to McCutcheon’s Mav Classic riding high with a 21-4 record then promptly lost two of three to send the team into sectional play reeling.
Head coach Ben McDaniel admitted he wasn’t looking forward to the return trip, but the injury-ravaged Bull Dogs managed to win two of three games on the weekend, building some momentum for the postseason.
“I’m proud of the way the guys competed,” McDaniel said. “The guys showed a lot of heart. … We were trying to figure some things out, and I think we’re close.”
On Friday night, the Bull Dogs stunned Crown Point with a seventh-inning rally to steal a 4-3 win.
Down 3-1 with no one on and two out in the bottom of the seventh, North tied it on a base hit from Canaan Baum, a triple from Cooper Trinkle and an RBI single from Brice McDaniel. After Collin Lollar walked, Ben Thompson singled to right field to plate McDaniel for the winning run.
In Saturday’s opener, the Bull Dogs dropped a 10-9 battle with the host Mavericks. North (16-10) scored five times in the top of the sixth to take a 7-5 lead, only to have McCutcheon answer back with five runs of its own.
North salvaged a 2-1 weekend by routing Plymouth on Saturday afternoon, 14-5. The Bull Dogs put the game away with 10 runs in the bottom of the sixth, courtesy of five walks, three hit batsmen and three Plymouth errors.
Wade Rankin had three doubles on Saturday for the Bull Dogs. Trinkle had an inside-the-park home run against McCutcheon.
SOFTBALL
Jennings County routs East Central
ST. LEON — Kylee Matern drove in six runs to help propel Jennings County to an 18-1 rout of East Central on Saturday.
Matern, Kyndyl Olds, Kaylin Klosterman and Tesla Kopitzke each had three of the Panthers’ 18 hits.
