Jennings County’s Cole Skinner dives into third base ahead of a throw during Thursday’s game against Columbus East at Columbus East High School.
Tommy Walker | For The Republic
One night after rallying with six runs in the bottom of the seventh to pull out a win against Bedford North Lawrence, Columbus East came back from a six-run deficit against Jennings County.
This time, however, the comeback came in the third inning, and that gave the visiting Panthers plenty of time to respond. Jennings scored four times in the fifth and five in the sixth to recover for a 16-10 baseball victory.
The Panthers collected 11 hits and took advantage of 10 walks and five Olympian errors.
“We just gave them so many free bases today,” East coach Jon Gratz said. “You’re not going to win many games when you do that. We have to limit those, and that’s what we’ve been working on. We gave up a lot of free ones tonight, and we couldn’t overcome it.”
After both teams scored single runs in the second inning, Jennings (3-11) put up six off East starter Jackson Watkins in the top of the third to take a 7-1 lead. But the Olympians (5-12) came back with seven in the bottom of the third off Panther starter Owen Kipper and reliever Cooper Lane, then added another in the fourth to take a 9-7 lead.
After that, Jennings went back to work. Junior Cole Skinner, who had a two-run single in the third, broke a 9-9 tie with a two-run single to cap the four-run fifth.
“I thought we played a lot better than we have been,” said Skinner, who went 3 for 4 with four RBIs. “We had a lot of situational stuff that we did really good. Everyone on the team did really good. We just have to keep the same energy and keep it going.”
Sam Burkman came on in the fourth inning for the Panthers and allowed only two runs and two hits over the final four frames to pick up the win.
“Sam is our primary catcher, and he doesn’t do a lot of pitching for us, but when we get into a week when we have four or five games, he does come in,” Jennings coach BJ Sigler said. “I thought Sam did an incredible job tonight coming in and throwing strikes. That was the difference in the game. He wanted the ball and did a great job.”
Jennings committed five errors, but also got a highlight-reel catch from Skinner in center and two acrobatic catches from Logan Napier in left field that saved multiple runs.
Bige Asher went 3 for 4 to lead East’s 10-hit attack. Jace Jones went 2 for 4.
“We’re swinging the bat pretty well right now,” Gratz said. “I like what we’re doing at the plate. We just have to put it all together.”
Landon Pike went 2 for 3 with two RBIs, Toby Sturgeon went 2 for 3, and Ryan Schuck went 2 for 4 for the Panthers, who were shut out in Tuesday’s eight-inning loss to Bloomington South.
“I think the main thing was, we put the ball in play tonight,” Sigler said. “We forced action. We got a little bit of help. We gave them a little bit of help, as well, but the main difference was just putting the ball in play and forcing action. (Wednesday) night, we swung and missed a lot.”
Jennings’ victory snapped a five-game losing streak.
“Most the time, your record says what you are,” Sigler said. “But with this team, you have a lot of young guys who are getting a lot of experience, and hopefully, we’ll get this thing going in the right direction offensively.”
