Columbus East started the baseball season with a shutout Tuesday against Charlestown.
Julian Greenwell got the Olympians off to a solid start, pitching three straight strikeouts to begin the game on the way to a 10-0 five-inning victory. Pitchers Jon Crawford, Drew Hasson and Jonathan Foster also contributed to the shutout.
East jumped out to an early two-run lead on a two-RBI double by Crawford and extended it to 4-0 after two more RBIs by Murphy and Burton. Greenwell hit a two-run double to give the Olympians their fifth and sixth runs, and Luke Hostetler pushed it to 7-0 with an RBI single.
East went on to score three more runs in the fourth on a Hostetler RBI and a two-run single by Eric McMullen. Olympians coach Jon Gratz said he was happy with the way his team started the game.
“Greenwell is a talented young man, Gratz said. “I think he’s going to probably fill a lot of innings for us this year, and I think he got off to a good start this year … you always want to come out and play well in your first game. I’m very pleased with our performance.”
Charlestown held the Olympians to a scoreless third inning and had a chance to score at least one run when it had the bases loaded with one out in the top of the third. But the Olympians turned a double play.
Greenwell, who had a double, said the Olympians hit the ball well.
“We know we’re going to see a lot better pitchers later in the season, so we still have to work, Greenwell said. “I think (this win) jumpstarts everybody. It gives us a lot of confidence going into our next game.”
Jonathan Foster went 3 for 4 for East. Jonah Wichman went 2 for 2, and Nash Murphy went 2 for 3.
Luke Hostetler, Jon Crawford and Eric McMullen all had two RBIs.
