Zach Wager
Following Thursday’s 15-2 loss at Class 4A No. 3 Center Grove, Columbus North baseball coach Pat Antone held an hour-and-a-half team meeting in lieu of a practice on Friday.
The message resonated with the Bull Dogs for the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader against 3A No. 4 Silver Creek, but the second game, North fell back into its Thursday form. After a 4-0 win in the opener, the Bull Dogs committed nine errors in a 6-2 second-game defeat.
“They did everything we needed the first game, but this is our first doubleheader this year, and we were not mentally ready to play that second game,” Antone said. “We’re already in the sectional, so we’re going to use this as a learning opportunity. Regional is two games in one day, so this is good for us. We need to learn how to mentally prepare after winning one game to be ready after whatever amount of time for that second game.”
Zach Wager threw a three-hit shutout in the opener. North scored twice in the fourth and added two in the fifth on a two-run single by Tyler Blythe.
“(Wager) did a very good job,” Antone said. “One thing that he did and we did that was big was difference makers in the first. We didn’t give up freebies in the first inning, and we were able to get out of that first inning giving up a zero spot. He got ahead in the count today, he got the leadoff out today and that’s something we’ve been talking about — getting the leadoff out and getting ahead in the count and making it hard for the offense.”
That wasn’t always the case in the second game, although Luke Harmon, Blake Osbourne and Zach McLean combined to allow only one earned run.
After the Dragons scored a pair of unearned runs in the first, the Bull Dogs answered with two in the bottom of the inning on a two-run single by McLean. But then Silver Creek took advantage of four North errors to score once in the second, then added three runs on three errors in the sixth.
“Our pitchers did a good job on the mound,” Antone said. “We answered back in the first inning, which is one of our offensive game goals, but we chased a lot of pitches out of the (strike) zone in that second game, made it easy on their pitcher and once we got down four, then you can’t really be as aggressive on the bases. You have to go station to station, so that took away one of our offensive weapons.”
McLean went 2 for 3 to record half of the Bull Dogs’ four hits.
“We talked about mental toughness and resiliency because that’s what we need,” Antone said. “We can play. We have the talent and skill necessary to compete and win at a high level, but we need to continue to work on our mental toughness and our mindset when it comes to competing one pitch at a time, regardless of the situation that we’re in offensively, defensively, up, down, tied, whatever it is.
“Since the beginning of the year, we’ve talked about treating every game like it’s a championship game, like it’s the biggest game of the year,” he added. “But there’s a difference between saying it and actually being able to do it, to mentally have the focus and the drive to treat every game like it’s the biggest game.”
North returns to action Tuesday at Franklin Central.
“We have to be able to learn from this,” Antone said. “Monday, we have a list of things that we are going to work on and get ready for Tuesday.”
