Seymour’s baseball team backed strong pitching performances by Mitchell Moore and Janzen Bloom, with timely hitting and solid defense, to repeat as champions in the annual Seymour Invitational on Saturday.
Moore pitched a two-hitter and struck out 15 in helping the Owls top Trinity Lutheran 10-1 in the first round, and Janzen Bloom pitched three strong innings in helping Seymour to a 15-4 win over North Harrison in the championship game.
Coach Jeremy Richey felt pleased with Seymour’s performance for the day as the Owls had 14 hits and committed only one error.
“We had a lot of offense and that’s a big step forward for us, especially early in the season because you never know what your going to get offensively,” Richey said. “We scored (16 runs) Tuesday, which we were excited about.
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“We came out and got off to a sluggish start in the Trinity game, but finished that one well, and we made things happen tonight. That kid (Harrison’s Craig Waynescott) is committed to go to IUS (University of Southern Indiana) to pitch. We got to him a little bit and got him a little flustered and scored some runs.”
In the finals, the Owls sent nine batters to the plate in the first inning and scored five times, then had 11 batters in the second inning with seven of them scoring.
Luis Munoz and Seth Stuckwisch both had two-run singles in the first inning, and Jacob Ahlbrand drove in two runs in the second with a double and two runs in the third with a single.
Ahlbrand finished with two hits, four RBIs and scored two runs, while Munoz had a hit, a walk with the bases loaded, three RBIs and scored two runs.
In the first round, the Owls scored one run in the first then scored nine times in the third, fourth and fifth.
Moore doubled to drive in a run in the first and he walked with the bases loaded in the third, and Munoz had a two-run single in the third.
Moore allowed the Cougars two hits while striking out 15.
Trinity’s run came in the fourth inning when Jake Moore singled, he went to second on an infield out and scored on a single by Jacob Schult.
Richey said Moore pitched an outstanding game, and Bloom “pitched really well at times. He kind of lost it in the fourth inning, but he’s going to be a workhorse for us, and then you throw Sami (Hirose) in there for a really good fifth inning.
“We’re excited about our pitchers. We think all of them are throwing well, and we’ve got more pitching, we just haven’t had an opportunity to get them on the field. Our pitching needs to be a consistent for us.”
Trinity’s game against Clarksville was one of missed opportunities as the Cougars left the bases loaded in the fifth inning, and two runners on in three other innings, and stranded 11 for the game. Trinity struck out eight times against the Generals.
Ross Kruse led the Trinity offense with three hits, while Sam Crick had a double.
Cougars coach Bob Tabeling said his concern going in was whether his team would have enough offense.
“We (coaches) knew we had a couple kids that can put the ball in play,” he said. “They’ve been doing it consistently in BP (batting practice), and looking good, and looking confident. Today we had a couple nice plate appearances, but overall we weren’t aggressive at the plate. We were taking fastball strikes at the wrong time.
“We didn’t have good, confident plate appearances today and it shows with the run production. When you’re behind in the count you have to be able to put the ball in play. It’s the best thing for the team. We could have scored four or five runs just by ground outs advancing the runner.”
For the most part, Tabeling was pleased with the defense as the Cougars turned a double play in each game.
With the pair of victories, the Owls are now 3-0 on the season.
“I think we’re ahead of where we thought we’d be in some things, and there are some things that are lacking a little bit,” Richey said. “It was a pretty good first week for us and we just need to make sure we’re better the second week than we were the first week.”