Two In A Row

Coming off of a tremendous victory against Mill Springs last week the Purple Pumas were back in action this week against the same foe looking for their first win streak since 2020! The Mustangs, on the other hand, were looking to avenge their defeat that they experienced and thwart the Cougar momentum heading into spring break next week.  Coaches chose to use this opportunity to test the future of the program and sat majority of the seniors in order to allow the younger stars to shine.

Short, Sweet, & To The Point

On a beautiful day for baseball, the Cougar baseball team traveled to Milton to take on the Mustangs of Mill Springs for the second game of the season’s home-and-home series.  After an overwhelming victory the first time around TCS sought to follow up with another victory.  Stepping into the batter’s box first, Cougar batters Sam Bayer, Bryce Dickerson, and Caden Henderson all found their way on base through three straight walks before all moving around the bases on passed balls.  With the accuracy issues of the Mustang pitching staff being on the minds of the batters that did not stop the offense from digging in and taking their cuts.  Following the first three batters, the next three put solid bats on the balls as Ronnie Graver, Weston Kershner, and Braden Kramer knocked single, double, and single with the last recording an RBI and a stolen base.  All of the sudden TCS found themselves up 5-0 without an out being recorded.  Now that the bottom of the lineup was coming to the plate the goal was to keep the pressure on.  With no outs and a runner on second Jack Kane dug into the batter’s box and ripped a hard hit right back to the pitcher who bobbled it before tossing to first to record the first out of the inning.  Although it was the first out of the inning, Kane did record an RBI in his at bat as his hit scored Braden from second.  Following Jack Kane was the other Jack in the lineup and Jack McGrew stepped up for his first at bat of the season and unfortunately swung through strike 3 for the second out.  Suddenly all of the momentum seemed to have come to a screeching halt as now there was nobody on and two outs with seventh grader Hayden Crosbie making his baseball debut.  Hayden swung through two consecutive balls in the dirt and just when it looked like the inning would come to an end lightning struck off of the youngster’s bat as he hammered the ball all the way to the fence in right-center field.  While all eyes thought inside the park homerun Hayden would be robbed by defensive interference and have to settle for a standing triple.  As disappointed as he was with this, he would not have to wait long to cross the plate since the next pitch was a passed ball that led to him scoring.  Heading back to the top of the lineup, Sam found his way back on the base path through a four pitch walk before the inning finally came to a close as Bryce watched a called third strike end the rally for our offense.  Going into the bottom of the first saw Cougars 7, Mustangs 0 and coming up.

In his first game of the season, Ronnie took the bump for the Purple People Eaters and established himself with authority as only 13 pitches were required to sit down the Mustang bats 1-2-3.  Throwing dimes, as well as some serious heat, Ronnie was quickly showing himself as the future ace of the team.  Mill Springs could not seem to touch Ronnie as the only Mustang contact made was that of a foul ball.  As the first came to a close, the score remained 7-0 and the Cougars back to the plate.

Stepping in to lead off the second Caden wasted no time getting the offense rolling as he sought to follow Hayden’s lead and crushed a line drive to the fence that he was able to stretch into an inside the park home run.  This is when the barrage of hits began as the Cougar offense strung together a series of 4 straight hits going single-single-triple-single before a walk slowed down the pace some.  The hit parade by Ronnie, Weston, Braden and Kane was quite the show to watch! In the blink of an eye the Cougars had an 11-0 lead with two on and no one out.  Jumping back up to the top of the order after a line out to short by Hayden that scored Kane the hitting picked right back up where it left off.  That is when a double, a single, a dropped third strike, some MSA defensive miscues and a 2-run inside-the-park homerun from Ronnie blew the came wide open.  At this point it was TCS 17, MSA 0 and still only one out in the inning.

Unfortunately, this is where the game came to a close as the MSA coaches met with their players and chose to raise the white flag in surrender.  Needless to say, the future looks bright for the Cougar baseball team.  With only one senior in the lineup this time around it proves that our squad has what it takes to compete for quite a few years to come.  We will be looking forward to seeing more out of this group for some time now.

Game Stats Below!

Box Score

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
TCS Cougars	7	10	X	X	X	X	X
MSA Mustangs	0	X	X	X	X	X	X

Batting

Player	AB	Runs	Hits	Walks	RBI	SB
6- Sam Bayer	1	2	1	2	1	0
9- Bryce Dickerson	2	2	1	1	0	1
5- Caden Henderson	2	3	1	0	1	1
10- Ronnie Graver	3	3	3	0	2	2
3- Weston Kershner	2	2	2	0	0	0
8- Braden Kramer	2	2	2	0	2	1
14- Jack Kane	2	1	1	0	2	1
0- Jack McGrew	1	1	0	1	0	0
7- Hayden Crosbie	2	1	1	0	1	0

 

Pitching

Player	IP	H	ER	BB	SO
10- Ronnie Graver	1.0	0	0	0	3