ROAD WIN … Hayden Sharps waits on a pitch in Montpelier’s win at North Central. (PHOTO BY RICH HARDING, STAFF)
By: Daniel Cooley
PIONEER – Montpelier managed just five hits but took advantage of six walks and two North Central errors to claim a 10-5 win over the Eagles.
The big inning that really turned the game in Montpelier’s favor was when the Locomotives tallied five runs in the fourth inning, putting Montpelier in front, 9-3.
Leading by one run, 4-3, going into the fourth, Montpelier’s Landon Fackler’s RBI single gave the Locomotives a 5-3 lead.
Jaxon Richmond then followed with a two-run home run, his second homer of the season, to put Montpelier up 7-3.
“I was told to hit the ball as hard as I could on contact,” Richmond said. “The ball was right down the middle, and I hit it.”
Montpelier then added two more runs on a North Central error, to claim a 9-3 lead.
North Central got one run back in the bottom of the fifth, on Logan Clark’s RBI single.
Each team then scored a run in the sixth inning, bringing the Montpelier lead to 10-5.
Montpelier’s Jaxon Stahler scored on a wild pitch and North Central’s Cohen Meyers had an RBI single.
North Central threatened in the bottom of the seventh with two outs, loading the bases on a single, walk and a hit by pitch. But a strikeout ended the game.
“I’m proud of my team, they found a way to win and got a win against a good North Central team,” said Montpelier coach Toby Hutchison.
“And we may have found a good middle inning pitcher in Kam Smith. He came on in the second inning for us and in his first game pitching, had a really strong game.”
In four innings of work, Smith, who picked up the win, allowed just one run on two hits, while striking out six.
He also got out of two bases loaded jams with two outs, on a strikeout in the third inning and a ground out in the fifth inning.
Montpelier started out the game scoring two runs in the top of the first inning without the benefit of a hit, scoring on two bases loaded walks by Kenneth Smeltzer, who hit one runner with a pitch and walked four others in the first inning. Ben Pettit then came on and got the final out of the inning on a popout.
North Central rallied back in the bottom of the first inning to take a 3-2 lead, on RBI singles from Meyers, Pettit and Jake Turner.
Montpelier then took a 4-3 lead in the top of the second inning. Griffin Cooley started things off by hitting the game tying RBI double.
Then, on a double steal, when the throw to second base to try to throw out a Montpelier runner, Cooley then stole home, to give Montpelier a 4-3 lead.
Montpelier then broke the game open with its five-run fourth inning. Pettit took the loss for North Central, giving up seven runs (five earned) in three innings.
“With this being a non-conference game against a league opponent, we didn’t want to show our best pitcher and we were trying something different,” said North Central coach Josh Hicks.
“But it certainly didn’t help that the pitcher we were trying out couldn’t throw strikes. We made some errors today too, that we normally don’t make. So now, we’ll go out and see what we’re made of.”
MONTPELIER 220 501 0 – 10 5 4
NORTH CENTRAL 300 011 0 – 5 6 3
Records: Montpelier 3-0, North Central 2-1
WINNING PITCHER: Smith (4 innings, 1 run, 2 hits, 6 strikeouts, 5 walks) Other: Thorp, J. Richmond
LOSING PITCHER: Pettit (3.1 innings, 7 runs, 5 hits, 4 strikeouts, 2 walks) Other: Smeltzer, Gendron
LEADING HITTERS: (Montpelier) J. Richmond – home run, 2 RBIs; Fackler – single, RBI, 2 runs; (NC) Meyers – 2 singles, 2 RBIs
Dan can be reached at publisher@thevillagereporter.com
