For The Tribune
The Seymour baseball team has seen enough of Caleb Eder this spring.
The Jennings County pitcher faced the Owls for the second time Monday in the opening round of the Hoosier Hills Conference Tournament at American Legion Field. And, for the second time, he shut out the Owls, holding them to three hits in a 6-0 win.
Eder also had a solid performance at bat with two doubles and a single and three RBIs.
Justin Pettit hit a two-run homer in the top of the seventh to put the game out of reach.
Eder struck out nine, walked one and limited the Owls to two hits at North Vernon on April 24.
Monday, it was five strike outs and no walks.
“He’s a player,” Seymour coach Jeremy Richey said of Eder. “We’ve known that for a long time. He’s a four-year starter for them. He’s thrown a lot of big innings for them on the mound throughout his four years.
“We knew it was going to be a battle. It wasn’t a surprise that they threw him, it wasn’t a surprise that he threw the way he did.”
Eder had a perfect game through four innings until Jorge Vega reached first base safely on a strikeout wild pitch leading off the fifth.
Alan Perry broke up Eder’s no-hitter with a double to right-center with one out in the sixth.
Luis Munoz singled with two outs, but the next batter struck out to end the inning.
With one out in the seventh, Keenan Bohall doubled to left-center, but the next two batters struck out the end the game.
“You look at it and we’re disappointed with the zero, obviously,” Richey said. “We hit the ball hard quite a few times. They’re very good defensively, and they don’t make mistakes, and that’s what I told our guys.
“Things that win games for teams is not walking people, and no errors, and in the two games Eder walked us once. They had situational hits. I think they had six or seven two-strike hits. That’s a mature team that makes you beat them and today we didn’t beat them.”
Seymour’s Mitchell Moore matched Eder with zeros through the first two innings. He walked the first two batters in the top of the third before Avery Johnson hit a sacrifice fly, and the Panthers followed with three hits to take a 3-0 lead.
“It seems like here lately, in the games we have struggled, the runs we give up are always runs where we walked the guy,” Richey said. “It seems like every time we walk a guy he finds a way to score.
Moore went six innings and Ryan Wieneke pitched the seventh an allowed three hits.
“We’ve got to have guys step up out of the bullpen at put zeros on the board,” Richey said.
The Owls (11-7) play at Scottsburg today and will travel to play the loser of the Floyd Central-New Albany game in the HHC Tournament on Wednesday.
New Albany and Floyd Central were rained out Monday and will play today.