CROTHERSVILLE
Trinity Lutheran scored six runs in the second inning and single runs in three other innings to post a 9-3 win over Crothersville on the Tigers’ diamond Friday afternoon.
The game was stopped for an hour and 45 minutes at the end of the first inning because of lightning, and the game was called after five innings because of darkness.
The Cougars took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first when Tyler Goecker doubled and scored on an infield out by Lawson Woods.
With two out and nobody on base in the bottom of the first, Darren Maxie doubled and scored on a single by Ian Tatlock.
Crothersville coach Eric Hilton was pleased with the first inning and the overall improvement from Thursday’s 28-1 loss to Henryville.
“This was much better,” Hilton said. “You could tell the freshmen and sophomores really stepped up. I think that first game was kind of intimidation of varsity baseball that they were playing. They settled down and had a real good fight against Trinity, so it’s exciting to see the growth that we had in just two days. We have a bright future.
“We had some great hits. Darren Maxie had a nice double to get us started. Lucas Hilton got on and scored for our third run, so it was exciting to see the freshmen get some hits.”
The Cougars sent 10 batters to the plate in the second inning as Jake Mau, Sage Broughton, Andrew Bell and Peyton Pollert all had hits.
Bell was safe in the third inning on an error and scored on a hit by Goecker, and Mau tripled in the fourth and scored on a hit by Kowan Gross.
Tatlock walked in the third inning for the Tigers and scored on a bases loaded walk to Kate Frazier, and Lucas Hilton was safe on an error in the fourth inning and scored on a passed ball.
Trinity coach Ben Kleber said, “We’re young on the bench, so I wanted to see some of the guys play. I got to see three guys that had never pitched varsity before pitch varsity. They threw strikes (striking out six). Crothersville had some nice hits.
“We cleared the bench there in the third inning so everybody got some varsity experience, and that’s what we were looking for. We had some good hits. We still need to do a better job of attacking fastballs. We let way too many fastballs go by, and that has been our problem through five games so far. We need to do a better job of hitting the ball.”
Goecker and Mau each had two hits with Mau and Woods both getting two RBI. Goecker and Bell each scored tworuns.
The Cougars (4-1) were scheduled to play Hauser today, but that game has been rescheduled for Monday. Crothersville (0-2) will travel to Borden on Tuesday.