West Lafayette pitcher shuts out No. 1 Central Catholic

Tuesday, April 10 scores: wlfi.com

Written by
NATHAN BAIRD
Nick Moody was not on the field for West Lafayette football and boys basketball losses to Central Catholic earlier this school year.

Those heartbreakers still inspired the senior pitcher as he took the mound for the rivals' baseball meeting on Tuesday.

"I think it fueled the people that played more, but it definitely trickled down," Moody said. "The rivalry's always there. It's intense, and we're going to treat it the same no matter who wins in another sport."

Moody threw a six-hit shutout, and the Class 3A No. 6 Red Devils backed him with clutch two-out execution in a 4-0 victory over Class A No. 1 Central Catholic at Bob Friend Field.

West Lafayette (5-1) opened defense of its Hoosier Conference championship by handing the Knights (5-1) their first loss.

"It definitely makes the games even more intense than they were before," WL senior catcher Thomas Fisher said. "It's big. In future seasons, them being in the conference is going to make this rivalry a tradition for a long time."

The game set up as a pitchers duel between Moody and Austin Munn, CC's No. 1 pitcher and the reigning Journal & Courier Small School Player of the Year.

Munn struck out the first two batters he faced in the third inning before Fisher hit a line drive to center that was misplayed into a triple. Fisher scored on Parker Rhoads' infield single. Rhoads stole second and scored when Brian Bangs grounded a single through the left side.

In the fourth, Munn again struck out the first two Red Devils before Moody reached on an error. Brody Forbes' bloop single and Thomas Deranek's base hit to left pushed Moody across to make it 3-0.

"That's baseball," said CC sophomore shortstop Mitch Witteveen, who went 2-for-3. "You've got to play through. If you get a bad hop, that's all right, you've got to play through it."

Central Catholic could never find that clutch hit against Moody. The Knights' best chance came in the fourth inning, when Munn led off with a double and Andrew Hubertz reached on a bad-hop single off the lip of the grass in front of shortstop.

One out later, Ryan DeBoy's hard-hit ball to the right side struck Hubertz, who was called out. The dead ball situation meant Munn had to stay at second base. Moody struck Wiley Lodde out to end the inning.

"We had some early opportunities in a couple of innings to score and just didn't execute," CC coach Tim Bordenet said. "I thought we competed all right at the plate, hit a couple of balls right at them. Moody does a nice job. He mixed pitches well and their defense made the plays."

Moody (2-0) struck out seven and didn't walk a batter in an efficient 85-pitch outing. Fisher said Moody's fastball was not as effective as usual, so the battery instead relied on off-speed offerings and curveballs. CC advanced only one runner past second base and none after the second inning.

Munn (2-1) struck out eight and walked one. The teams play again today, this time at CC's Leming Field.

"I always enjoy playing them," Moody said. "It's always a good game; it's always very competitive. Whenever you can get another game on your schedule like that it's a good thing."