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Washington Evening Journal
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Panthers fall in slugfest
Mt. Pleasant baseball team knocked out of Substate tournament at No. 5 Marion
MARION — Mt. Pleasant came out swinging in Monday night’s district semifinal game in Marion. The fifth-ranked Wolves, however, swung right back, again and again and again.
No. 5 Marion’s bats could not be cooled off in the Class 3A District 5 semifinal bout, and the Wolves scored an 18-8 victory in just five innings.
“We kept throwing punches at them, but they kept coming back with haymakers.,” said Mt. Pleasant head coach Brent Broeker. “I was proud of our kids. We just kept battling.”
Mt. Pleasant showed it was ready for the fight in the first inning. Three Panthers stepped up and drew walks against Marion starter Coda Johnson, and that set up Carter Amos for a bases-loaded double off the wall, which scored two runs and forced the Wolves to pull Johnson just 24 pitches into his start.
“That means we're a little bit relaxed,” Broeker said. “We really only had one hit that inning, but the guys did a great job getting on base for Carter to hit that double.”
Marion went to freshman Andrew Ahmann to relieve Johnson, and Ahmann did settle things down, except for one balk which sent J.C. Sitar to the plate, giving Mt. Pleasant an early 3-0 lead.
Mt. Pleasant starter Jake Ensminger got two outs before Marion could score in the 1st, but the Wolves scored five runs with two outs on four separate RBI hits.
Mt. Pleasant bounced back with two runs in the second inning, as Zerek Venghaus knocked in Payson Coleman on a two-out RBI double, and Enminsger followed with an RBI single of his own.
The bottom of the second spelled disaster for Mt. Pleasant. Marion’s Myles Davis led off with a solo home run, which sparked a Marion run that saw the Wolves bat around in the lineup. Later in the inning, Davis scored three more runs with a bases-clearing triple.
By the end of the second inning, Marion held a 12-5 lead, Ensminger was chased from the bump, and Venghaus had taken over in relief.
“They put pressure on our pitchers all night long,” Broeker said. “They were always in scoring position, it seemed like.”
Mt. Pleasant did put together a rush in the top of the fourth. After Venghaus stranded the bases loaded in the bottom of the third, the Panthers capitalized with three in the fourth frame when Payton Walker used a big bounce in center field to turn an up-the-middle line drive into a two-run single. Walker scored on a wild pitch, and the Panthers were back within four, at 12-8.
Unfortunately for Mt. Pleasant, Marion’s offense picked back up and never gave way. The Wolves scored three runs in the fourth and three more in the fifth to win the game via the 10-run mercy rule.
The loss came on the heels of a wild two-day, eight-inning win for the Panthers against rival Fairfield over the weekend. Mt. Pleasant ended the season at 13-12.
“It's going to be hard when these seniors leave,” said Broeker. “They've worked hard. When they started as sophomores, they were 5 and 19 or whatever.”
The loss ends the high school careers of seniors Amos, Elliot Cook, Garrett Cook, Venghaus and Ensminger.
“Hopefully these juniors and sophomores saw what that took, and we can build for the future,” Broeker said.
Marion (28-6) moved on to play Xavier (18-19) in Wednesday night’s Substate title game.
