Central Catholic Knights beginning to roll!

JCOnline:
Central Catholic senior pitcher Taylor Glaze took McCutcheon senior Trey Fankhauser's first-inning single in stride on Friday.

But annoyance built in the left-handed Glaze as Fankhauser, the only left-handed hitter in the Mavericks' lineup, singled in his next two at-bats and ripped a double in the seventh.

"What'd he go, 4-for-4," Glaze asked. "I was getting kind of frustrated over there."

The ultimate frustration belonged to the Mavericks. Glaze stranded Fankhauser in scoring position for the fourth time in the seventh while preserving Class A No. 3 Central Catholic's 3-1 victory over McCutcheon at Gordon Leming Field.

The rest of the Mavericks managed only three singles against Glaze (3-2).

"If he pitched in our conference, he'd be one of the top pitchers in our conference -- he's that good," said Fankhauser, who is 7-for-13 in three games over the past three days. "This is almost like their Super Bowl, and they want to beat McCutcheon. We need to match their intensity. It's great that we can see their ace so we don't have a game off."

While the wind blew out throughout Friday's game, Glaze and McCutcheon junior Shane Bryant quickly locked into a pitcher's duel. Bryant (1-2) allowed only four hits.

But the Mavericks (11-6) couldn't capitalize on their chances against Glaze and stranded 10 runners, including six in scoring position. Central Catholic's Cole Hruskovich singled home Jake Churchill in the third and scored on Scott Windler's double, giving the Knights a sufficient 3-0 lead.

"We couldn't get the big hit," McCutcheon coach Jake Burton said. "They got the big hits in the third inning. We gave them a run in the second, but other than that it was a pretty good ballgame."

Zach Tippy's RBI single with two out in the sixth spoiled Glaze's shutout bid. Fankhauser doubled with one out in the seventh, and Glaze hit Cody Strong with a pitch to bring the go-ahead run to the plate.

But Bryan Chenoweth and Gaven Schreckengast both flew out to right field, and CC secured its eighth straight victory. Glaze hoped to avoid a repeat of Thursday's night's slugfest, in which CC defeated Kokomo 17-7.

"If I hang anything, they're going to take it for a ride, like last night," Glaze said. "That was my game plan: keep it low, and hopefully they hit some ground balls."