A high-scoring game went in favor of visiting South Warren Monday as the Spartans outscored the Logan County Cougars 15-11 in a game that featured 32 hits and 10 errors but only 5 walks.
It was played at Bowling Green Ballpark, the home of the Bowling Green Hot Rods professional baseball team.
For the Spartans, who won the region and made it to the state quarterfinals last year in only their second year of existence, this was a sixth straight win and brought their record to 16-14 after a slow start to the season.
South jumped out to an 8-1 lead and knocked Logan starter Caleb Bruner out of the game after five outs, nine hits and eight runs. Joe Holliday replaced him on the mound and worked an out shy of four innings. Lucas Dean and Blake Gettings also pitched.
Coach Ethan Meguiar’s team took the lead in the bottom of the second by scoring eight runs. Cody Hunt and Holliday singled, and Thomas Miller doubled in Hunt and courtesy runner Luke Woodall. Gage Hales singled in Miller, Bruner singled, and Dustin Cartas powered a three-run homer. Matt Harper singled, and Ian Woodall tripled him in. Woodall scored the eighth run on Hunt’s grounder to short.
Sportswriter Michael Compton of the Bowling Green Daily News wrote that Cartas’ home run is believed to be only the second ever by a high school player at the minor league field. Cartas has signed to play collegiate baseball for Murray State University.
The Cougars were rolling. Then the runs stopped coming. The Spartans tied the score in the fourth and then scored four runs in the sixth and two in the seventh.
Travis Hardcastle got the win on the mound in relief of Cameron Shyrock. Jacob Smiley picked up the save.
Miller doubled twice in his three hits. He scored two runs and drove two in. Holliday also had three hits and scored a run. Harper was the third Cougar with three hits and he had an RBI. Hales doubled, scored twice, had two RBIs and stole two bases. Bruner added two hits and scored a run with an RBI.
Ty Pitts had four hits for Coach Chris Gage’s Spartans and Everett Taylor three. Justin Vaughan had four RBIs.
On April 20, the Cougars ran their record to 16-5, but they have gone 4-5 since with only a few days left in the regular season.