In the opening game of a doubleheader against Bloomington South Saturday morning, Columbus East got a pitching gem from Kaden Wise.
In the second game, the Olympians broke out the bats.
Class 4A No. 2 East erupted for 20 hits in the afternoon contest. That allowed the Olympians to follow a 3-2 victory with a 14-6 rout.
“I think we’re a pretty good offensive team,” East coach Jon Gratz said. “We just have to stay within ourselves and not try to do too much at the plate. When we do that, we’re pretty good.”
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Dalton Back did much of the damage in the second game for the Olympians (12-2). The junior catcher went 5 for 5 with a triple, a home run and three RBIs.
“I think that today, I finally was relaxed in the box,” Back said. “I was focused on having an approach when I went up to bat.”
The Panthers (6-5) scored two runs in each of the first two innings, but East matched them with two in the bottom of those two innings. The Olympians added two more runs in the third and pulled away with a seven-run fifth after the first two batters in the inning were retired to take a 13-4 lead.
After Bloomington South scored a run in the sixth, East got it back with Back’s leadoff homer in the bottom of the inning. The Panthers then scored an unearned run off Jonah Wichman in the seventh before Wichman struck out three of the final four batters to close the game.
Clayton Taylor pitched the first three innings, and Daniel Murphy threw innings 4 through 6 for the Olympians. Taylor, Murphy and Wichman combined on a five-hitter.
East’s Parker Harrison went 3 for 4, and T.J. Barkhimer went 3 for 5 with three RBIs. Cole Gilley went 3 for 5 with a double, and Nash Murphy went 2 for 4.
“We’ve had a good lineup all year,” Back said. “Up and down the lineup, we can hit the ball. It’s just putting it all together as a team.”
In the opener, Wise hurled a complete-game three-hitter. He allowed single runs in the sixth and seventh after the Olympians had put up one in the second and two in the third to take a 3-0 lead.
Harrison went 2 for 3 with two doubles to lead the East offense.
The Olympians managed the sweep despite committing nine errors in the two games. They overcame four errors in the opener and five in the second contest.
“I’m happy with the way we hit the ball,” Gratz said. “But we have to be better defensively than we were today if we want to keep having success. Our bats kind of bailed us out. We have work to do.”
