The Central Junior High School Baseball squad took on both its Jackson County foes this week and the results were mixed, as the Jr. Redbirds topped Murphysboro 9-0 in their home opener Monday but dropped a 14-4 decision at Carbondale on Tuesday afternoon.
In Monday’s contest at the Frankfort Community Park, CJHS starting pitcher Hunter Hancock got the week started off right for his team as he tossed a complete-game no-hitter, striking out seven and walking only two Red Devil batsmen.
The Redbirds took the lead for good in the second inning when Hunter Johnson doubled and Jeremiah Teal drew a walk. After a double-steal, Hancock lifted a sacrifice fly to right field and both runners were able to score to give Central a 2-0 lead.
Frankfort picked up another run in the fifth frame when Braxston Koehl, who led the Redbirds with three hits, singled, stole second, and scored on an error, but the 3-0 Frankfort lead was still tentative until the ‘Birds broke the game open in their final at-bat.
Teal and Hancock walked and advanced on a wild pitch before Garrett Karoski lined a 2-RBI single to run the score to 5-0. Dalton O’Conner drew a walk and Ty Smith executed a nifty squeeze bunt to plate Karoski.
After Lucas Wilson reached on a fielder’s choice, Koehl blasted a bases-clearing triple and scored on Johnson’s second hit of the contest to complete the 9-0 final score.
Redbird coach Dustin Hopkins realized his starting pitcher was giving his team a great effort but didn’t recognize the no-hit status of the game until much later in the evening.
“It was obvious that Hunter (Hancock) was a dominating pitcher today, and he helped himself by fielding his position well and picking off a base runner, but in the heat of the battle, which was a close game until the last inning, we just didn’t notice that he had thrown a no-hitter,” Hopkins stated. “That’s the first no-hitter one of our pitchers has thrown since I’ve been coaching at Central, so it’s a pretty big deal and we congratulate Hunter Hancock for that great effort.”
Twenty-four hours later, however, the Junior Redbirds found themselves in a game completely opposite of their home opener success, as Carbondale Middle School pounded out 14 hits, scoring runs in five of six innings enroute to a 14-4 victory over CJHS. Frankfort actually took a short-lived lead in the top of the first inning when Karoski and Koehl both singled and scored on Johnson’s ringing double to the gap, making it 2-0 Redbirds.
After Carbondale plated seven runs in their first two at-bats, Central tried to get back in the game in the third inning. Karoski walked and scored on Koehl’s triple, and Johnson picked up another RBI on a ground out, but CMS would tack on seven more tallies to win the game 14-4.
“Carbondale is a very good hitting team, and they displayed that today,” the coach mentioned after the game.
“We didn’t have an answer to how to slow down their hitting attack, and we just couldn’t muster up a counter attack either, so it was a long afternoon.”
CJHS takes on perennial powerhouse Harrisburg on Thursday at 4:30 p.m. at Frankfort Community Park.
