North Putnam is 0-5 against Crawfordsville since May of 2016 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Friday. The North Putnam Cougars will be playing in front of their home fans against the Crawfordsville Athenians at 5:30 p.m. North Putnam is strutting in with some hitting muscle as they've averaged 7.2 runs per game this season.
North Putnam is hoping to deliver their fans another blowout on Friday, just like they did against Cloverdale (and have done all season long). North Putnam never let Cloverdale onto the board and left with an 8-0 win on Thursday. The victory made it back-to-back wins for North Putnam.
Not much got past Jaylen Windmiller, who gave up just four hits and racked up ten Ks to keep Cloverdale off the board. Windmiller has been nothing but reliable on the mound: he hasn't tossed less than five strikeouts in seven consecutive pitching appearances.
At the plate, Alec Mckenzie was incredible, scoring two runs while getting on base in all four of his plate appearances. Another player making a difference was Kaden Helderman, who scored two runs and stole a base while going 2-for-4.
Meanwhile, it was a hard-fought matchup, but Crawfordsville had to settle for a 7-6 defeat against Western Boone on Wednesday. That's two games in a row now that Crawfordsville has lost by just one run.
Wyatt Motz made the most of his time at bat despite the final result and went 2-for-3 with a triple, a stolen base, and a run.
North Putnam's victory bumped their record up to 9-4. As for Crawfordsville, their loss ended a five-game streak of away wins and brought them to 10-8.
The batters for both teams will have to hit smart on Friday as both have some strikeout artists on the roster. North Putnam has been retiring batters left and right this season, having averaged 8.9 strikeouts per game. However, it's not like Crawfordsville struggles in that department as they've been averaging 8.2. Considering how easily both teams rack up Ks, the hitters on both teams better bring their A-game into this one.
North Putnam suffered a grim 13-0 defeat to Crawfordsville in their previous meeting back in May of 2023. Can North Putnam avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
