Eight in a row: Athenians trounce Tigers

• Game Photos by Joe Boswell
• Game Highlights (Video)

It appears the tough early season schedule is beginning to pay dividends for a Crawfordsville ballclub that is heading in the right direction. After a 3-5 start, the Athenians have reeled off eight W’s in a row.

The latest in that string of victories was last night’s 10-0 six-inning thrashing of a solid Lebanon team. Chase Justus (3-2) set the tone early by commanding the strike zone and racked up 11 strikeouts in six innings of work.

The home team, meanwhile, chalked up 13 hits on the night.  With the series sweep, Crawfordsville also took a commanding lead in the Sagamore Conference race with a 7-0 record.  The next closest competitors now have three losses in conference play.

Caleb Rasmussen reached on a walk to leadoff the game, then scored on a play that would characterize a rough night for the Lebanon defense. An errant pickoff throw to first base sent Rasmussen racing around to third; then all the way around to score as the throw across the diamond bounded past the third baseman. 

The Athenians led 2-0 going into the third inning, when they jumped out to a substantial lead with three more runs. Caleb Rasmussen sparked the rally with a double down the left field line. Joel Hobson then reached on an error (one of eight by the Tigers). Jordan Jackson kept things going with a rocket shot to the gap in left-center to score Hobson. Jackson then stole third and scored on an ill-advised throw down by the catcher.

Seizing the momentum, Justus struck out the side in the top of the fourth.

In the bottom of the fifth, the Athenians played add-on with three runs on four hits. With one out, Jackson, Minks, and Brainard strung together consecutive singles.  With two away, Pursell beat out a grounder deep in the hole to shortstop to bring in another run.

The Athenians managed two more runs in the bottom of the sixth. Minks, Brainard, and Meadows all singled in the inning to cap an early exit via the ten-run rule for the Athenians.

Hobson, Jackson, Logan Meadows, Brainard, and Minks all had two hits in the game.

Crawfordsville plays tomorrow night when they travel to Benton Central for a 6 o’clock contest with the Bison before a rare Saturday off from game action.

Game Notes:

• Long a program predicated on pitching and defense, last night marked the first shutout of 2012 for CHS.
• After notching 19 runs batted in over 75 at-bats last season, senior Craig Brainard now has equaled that number in 55 at-bats in this spring.
• While waiting for his broken left hand to heal, junior Jake Zurawski has continued to participate in playing catch (with the hampered Chris Minks, who has experienced right shoulder issues, often serving as the receiving end of the tandem operation) and also takes daily top-hand cuts in the batting cage and pregame on-field hitting.
• C'ville has now knocked off Lebanon 17 times in a row.