Jimtown Trips Up Triton

BOURBON - For the Triton baseball team, it was all about opportunities missed.

There was the opportunity for the Trojans to sit all alone in second place in the Northern State Conference with a game against front-runner New Prairie facing them Monday.

There was the opportunity for Triton, which received votes in the most recent Class A poll for the first time this year, to keep opening eyes around the state.

Then there were the opportunities that Triton had to score runs. Those missed opportunities were the ones that hurt the most and cost Triton a 4-3 loss to Jimtown Wednesday in 10 innings.

"We had plenty of chances," Triton head coach Jim Shively said. "We had chances with a guy on third base and didn't get the job done."

Without the offense clicking on all cylinders, the Trojans needed to do the little things to get runners home. Triton didn't hit the ball out of the infield until the fifth inning and had only five hits in the game. However, the Trojans had their opportunities to win the game.

In the bottom of the first inning, with the game still scoreless, Schuyler Stutzman some two-out thunder. Eric Miller reached first base on an error, and Matt Savill singled to move Miller to second. But Stutzman struck out to end another threat.

In the eighth inning, the Trojans had their best chance of the game. Grubbs singled to start the inning and stole second base. Ganshorn bunted him to third, and Gould was intentionally walked to set up the double play chance. But when Gould took second base, Jimtown was forced to intentionally walk Jeff Salisbury to load the bases with just the one out.

Nate Setser then hit a grounder to Jimtown second baseman Landon Gilbert, who got the force out at home. Then Shively called for Gould to try to steal home. He was gunned down.

"Time wise, it was close," Shively said. "I thought it was a good time to go for it."

That opened the door for the Jimmies in the 10th inning as Gilbert walked. He stole second base and moved to third on a sacrifice by Keith Kinder. Josh Rider then singled to drive home a run, and he scored on a single by Josh Smith to make the score 4-2.

Triton got one run in the bottom half of the inning as Stutzman walked and moved to third on a wild pitch and a passed ball. Gould singled to drive him home, but the Trojans could never get the big hit to tie the game.

Salisbury pitched nine innings, allowing just two runs and striking out nine batters. Savill came on in the 10th and took the loss, while Jimtown pitcher Josh Rider pitched all 10 innings, throwing 141 pitches.

Stutzman had two hits to lead Triton. Grubbs, Gould and SaVill had the only other hits for the Trojans.

Triton (7-3, 3-2) will be at Culver Friday at 4:30 p.m. before a clash at home with New Prairie Monday at 4:30 p.m.