Jake Petrusky recalled not being able to send seniors out with victories on previous senior days, and he didn’t want the same thing to happen to his senior class.
So after Class 4A No. 9 Columbus North dropped the first game of a doubleheader to Terre Haute South on Saturday, Petrusky made sure he and the other three Bull Dog seniors salvaged at least one win on senior day. He knocked in North’s first run and pitched a complete game in a 9-2 victory.
“It’s really nice because I remember we’ve not had a good history of winning on senior day,” Petrusky said. “It’s nice being able to leave the home field with a win.”
Petrusky allowed 10 hits, but only the two runs. He struck out two and walked three.
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“They hit Casper (Clark) hard in Game 1, and Jake came out and did what he always does,” North coach Ben McDaniel said. “He lived in the (strike) zone, threw strikes and relied on his defense. That’s a typical Jake Petrusky game right there. To get a win on senior day, I’m proud of him.”
All four Bull Dog seniors started in the field in Game 1, which counted as the Conference Indiana contest. The Braves (14-6, 5-1) won that game 11-5 to clinch at least a tie for the conference title.
North (15-8, 3-4) trailed 5-1 in the opener before scoring three times in the fifth to cut the lead to one. But then Terre Haute South scored three unearned runs off Reese Harmon in the sixth and three off Homare Takauchi in the seventh to pull away.
“We kind of hurt ourselves on those three runs (given up in the sixth),” McDaniel said. “We had some errors that we weren’t accustomed to, and that’s not who we are. I was glad to see some of that cleaned up in the second game.”
The second game was tied 1-1 before the Bull Dogs scored three times in the second, capped by an RBI-double from Grant Trinkle. After the Braves scored a run in the fifth to cut the lead to 4-2, North put up four runs in the fifth to give Petrusky some breathing room.
Kyler McIntosh had two RBIs in the first game for the Bull Dogs. Takauchi went 2 for 3, and Trinkle went 2 for 4 in the second game.
“We’d have liked to have the first one since it was the conference game, but I’m proud of the way they responded,” McDaniel said. “We talked about having the approach, no matter what game it is. It’s baseball. The game doesn’t change, so why would we change our approach, and that’s something we’re trying to work on with this group.”
