MOUNT STERLING — St. Patrick baseball coach Ryan Swolsky wanted to make sure his team entered the 10th Region tournament with the right mindset.
Facing their toughest test of the season against Montgomery County, one of the top teams in the region, the Saints showed some flashes with the leather, but the Indians were too powerful in the end with a 13-0, five inning run-rule victory.
The Saints having come in with just two wins on the year were overmatched as the Indians racked up 15 hits and held the Saints to one in the lopsided win.
“I wanted us to go in with the right mentality. I thought this game was better than the district championship, we wanted to go in and play baseball like we know how,” Swolsky said. “It obviously didn’t turn out the way that we would have hoped, but at the end of the day we were playing baseball and having fun.”
Early on, a few highlight-reel plays kept Montgomery from getting the big inning. Diving snags by Caleb Poczatek and Arturo Lopez held the Indians to one run in the first. Tyler Jacobs led off with a triple and scored on Lopez’s diving catch in shallow center to make it 1-0.
St. Patrick had their chances early on to scratch a run across. The Saints would load the bases in the second after an Allen Briseno single was followed by a walk from Paul Muehlbauer and a hit by pitch from Paco Franco, but a baserunning error at third in which Briseno was picked off ended the threat.
The Indians added three in the second on what could have been much more, but a running catch from Muehlbauer in left turned into a double play on a relay throw to first, limiting the damage to three runs and an Indians 4-0 lead.
The Saints would get another runner on in the third, but reliever Peyton Carroll came in to get the final two outs of the frame and end the threat. Montgomery added two more in the third to make it 6-0.
After three straight groundouts to Indians shortstop Brandon Dyer in the top of the fourth, the big inning the Saints were able to avoid in the first three innings caught up to them.
Montgomery added seven runs on eight hits and four Saints errors to break this one open and effectively end the Saints season as all three batters struck out in the top of the fifth to end the contest with the Indians run-rule victory.
The loss signals the end to the Saints year, one that entered with doubt if they’d even fill enough players to field a team and ended with five seniors that got to experience playing at the newly renovated Wald Park.
“It was incredible playing there. It was a minor league field or a college field basically. We were very, very fortunate for getting to play on there and once again I want to thank Wald Park for letting us get to experience that. Having a grass infield, that’s huge. I never had that. It’s a beautiful field, we were very lucky to have that and it was close to home,” Swolsky said.
Jack Gallenstein, named the the 10th Region All-Tournament team, Paco Franco, Eli Frye, Logan Kalb and Paul Muehlbauer will all graduate on Saturday.
“For most of these guys, this is not their primary sport. It’s soccer, it’s tennis, so they came out for the few guys that it is their sport and I really appreciate those guys for that and sticking with it,” Swolsky said. “Even though our record didn’t really reflect success, I thought it was a success just coming out being able to play baseball and hopefully some guys learned some stuff along the way.”
Once next spring rolls around, a new season of fielding a full team will again be in question with the loss of the five seniors, but promising players in Lopez and Poczatek will be back.
“The first step is getting enough to play, but those two are players to watch,” Swolsky said. “They have talent and as they get stronger and bigger they are going to be a force to be reckoned with.”
As for Montgomery County, the Indians roll on to Sunday’s semifinals as they await the Scott-Nicholas County winner, who play Saturday at 7 p.m. The Indians were able to sit their top four pitchers on the season in the game, giving them an edge heading into the next contest.
“It just gives us options, I don’t know if it favors us. Advantage maybe that we have more options, don’t know if it makes us better than the other team,” Indians coach Chris Varney said. “I don’t really know much about either team we’ll be facing, I know they’ll play hard and hit the ball and we’ll have to play to advance.”
In a game where they were the heavy favorite, Varney thought they approached the contest the right way as they need two more wins to earn a berth into the sub-state round of the state tournament.
“We try to teach these guys not to disrespect any opponent. The speed of the ball hitting-wise was hard to adjust to at first because we’re seeing some faster pitching most of the time. We did what we were supposed to do,” Varney said.
Sunday’s contest between the Indians and Scott-Nicholas winner will be at 5 p.m.
INDIANS 13, SAINTS 0 (5 INNINGS)
SAINT PATRICK—000-00x-x—0-1-6
MONTGOMERY COUNTY—132-7xx-x—13-15-0
2B — (MC) T. Eads, Dyer, J. Eads,
3B — (MC) Jacobs, Dyer
RBI — (MC) Fuller 2, T. Eads, Huff, Jacobs 2, De. Johnson 2, Dyer, Adams, Da. Johnson 2
R — (MC) Jacobs 2, J. Eads 2, T. Eads 2, T. Carroll, Dyer 2, Fuller 2, Huff, Adams
LOB — (SP) 3 (MC) 4
WP — Carroll. LP — Gallenstein.
Records: St. Patrick 2-16, Montgomery County 26-6
