Columbus East was without senior Josh Major in Thursday’s baseball game against Jennings County, but that didn’t stop the Olympians from getting the 8-0 win.
Major has been sidelined for about a week-and-a-half because of a shoulder injury, and Olympians coach Jon Gratz expects him to be back before the postseason.
Julian Greenwell helped keep East from missing a beat by pitching a two-hitter game with three walks and nine strikeouts in five innings. Freshman Kaden Wise closed the game by pitching the last two innings, ending with four strikeouts.
“Julian, when he goes out there, we expect him to throw well,” Gratz said. “Kaden Wise, a freshman, has done a really nice job coming in as a relief for us the last two outings. I’ve been very pleased with how he’s done. His poise in the mound is excellent.”
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While Greenwell and Wise took care of the pitching, Drew Hasson helped lead the offense by going 3 for 4 with a double in the sixth inning. Hasson managed to turn two of those base hits into runs.
Catcher Dalton Back got the Olympians (7-5) on board with an RBI-single before Hasson scored his first run on a Nash Murphy groundout. Back went 2 for 4 and scored the third run by reaching home plate on a wild pitch to give East an early 3-0 lead after the first inning.
Jonah Wichman gave the Olympians an even bigger cushion with his RBI in the second inning before Alec Burnett’s RBI in the third pushed the lead to 5-0. The Panthers (2-9) slowed East down by retiring three of four batters in the third and fourth innings to prevent the Olympians from scoring any more runs.
East’s solid pitching kept Jennings from taking advantage by getting any runs of it’s own.
“We were a little down. I think we can compete better,” Jennings coach Trent Hardisty said. “I think we have more in us than what we showed today. There were some really good pitchers on the mound for East today, so hats off to them for doing what they did.”
The Olympians closed the game by scoring three more runs in the sixth. Greenwell’s sacrifice fly allowed Ben Major to reach home plate. Hasson scored the second run by racing home after Back took off for second on a passed ball, and the ball was thrown to second. Murphy got the last RBI to put East up 8-0.
Josh Pettit and Chase Reason had hits for Jennings.
