GREENFIELD — One of two outcomes was destined to unfold at Molinder Field on Tuesday night, and Connor Sims made certain it favored the host Greenfield-Central Cougars.
The Cougars’ sophomore pitcher threw his first complete-game shutout of the season and silenced the Mt. Vernon Marauders’ potent lineup to even the Hoosier Heritage Conference standings with a crucial 8-0 victory.
The Marauders came into their two-game HHC series against the Cougars in control, holding a one-game lead over Greenfield-Central in the standings, but Sims’ four-hit gem has turned the month of May’s final stretch into a mad dash.
The two programs will conclude their series today, this time at Mt. Vernon, at 6 p.m. deadlocked at an identical 9-2 atop the HHC.
“Obviously, we want to win every game we play, but the message there at the end was now it’s even and we both have three games to go for a conference championship, and one of those games is against them,” Mt. Vernon head coach Brad King said. “They got to come to our place (today), and we need to be locked in and ready to go and play a little bit better baseball.”
Polished baseball is what the Cougars used to their advantage to halt the Marauders’ four-game winning streak and drop them to 15-6 on the season.
Greenfield-Central (12-6) manufactured a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third initiated by a one-out single from Sims, who was courtesy run for by Jaden McGee.
McGee advanced to second base on a passed ball during the next at-bat before stealing third base, which Grant Shepherd followed up by bringing him home with a two-out single to left field.
Sims’ single was the first hit off of Mt. Vernon ace Eli Clotfelter, who only allowed two through the first four innings, while his dueling counterpart scattered four across seven frames with six strikeouts.
“My job out there is to throw strikes, and I just let my defense work. I have seven guys behind me and I trust them all,” Sims said.
His faith was rewarded as Sims retired nine straight from the top of the second through the fifth. The right-hander struck out five of six over the second and third innings to quiet an offense that averaged nearly nine runs per game.
“You hear about it, and you know it’s one of the best lineups in our conference, but you just have to do your job, throw strikes and let those guys behind you work,” Sims said.
The Cougars won the HHC in 2019 en route to a sectional title and are in search of the program’s third conference championship since 2013. Mt. Vernon hasn’t won an outright title in the HHC’s history, sharing the crown in 2009.
“We talked about it. It’s like a (state) tournament mentality. We won tonight, but now we have to win tomorrow night. This is one step. We have to take another step,” Greenfield-Central head coach Mark Vail said. “But it’s fun.”
A five-run bottom of the fifth lightened the Cougars’ mood as Clotfelter walked Andrew Zellers to open the inning and Greenfield-Central strung together back-to-back singles to load the bases with one out.
A ground ball back to the mound by Shepherd setup a force out at home plate, but a throwing error plated a pair of runs, giving the opportunistic Cougars a 3-0 lead.
Carson Gibson singled in a third run in the next at-bat and a single by Gavin Atwood scored another run while an obstruction call at third base gifted a fifth. A collision at third base as Gibson advanced on Atwood’s single sent him home and padded the Cougars’ lead 6-0.
“When you’re playing a good team you have to be fundamentally sound everywhere, and we had the right defense on in that situation, we just got into a little bit of a rush and we didn’t make a play and they capitalized on it,” King said. “It kind of snowballed from there.”
Greenfield-Central chased Clotfelter in the inning despite the Marauders’ senior striking out seven, walking just one and surrendering six hits over 4.1 innings.
In the bottom of the sixth, the Cougars plated two more runs behind three straight walks to open the inning. With the bases loaded, Lance McKee drove in one with a fielder’s choice and an RBI groundout by Shepherd made it 8-0.
“Eli threw a great game for the first four innings, and that’s when it kind of fell apart. He threw a really nice game last week against New Castle and then comes back and goes strong, but the thing is we didn’t score a run for him,” King said. “It doesn’t matter how many runs they score. If we don’t score a run to give him some support, then we’re going to lose.”
The Marauders are hitting .318 on the season and have only been shut out once this year, against Brebeuf Jesuit, 6-0, on April 16.
The Cougars haven’t won a game by shutout this season, until now.
“Sims threw a great game. He was locked in from pitch one, and I was really impressed with the way he came out and competed,” King said. “It’s pretty special to come out and shut us out. I know that sounds arrogant on my end, but we have a pretty good offensive team and that kid shut us down today.”
The only hits allowed by Sims went to Hunter Dobbins in the top of the sixth, a single to Eli Bridenthal in the second and a pair to Payton Bovard in the fifth and seventh. The Marauders had one runner in scoring position when Landon Clark drew a first-inning walk and reached second before being left stranded.
“I thought we were in for a night where it was going to be 0-0 after six. I thought this could be a real tight one at the end. It’s funny how things work out sometimes,” Vail said. “That’s hard to do at the high school level, what Conner did. You have to play clean in the field, and you have to throw plenty of strikes. It’s tough to do.”
Shepherd led the Cougars with two RBI, going 1-for-3. Sims went 2-for-2 with a walk and McKee was 1-for-3.
The two programs have a pair of HHC games remaining on their schedules after they wrap up their respective two-game series. Greenfield-Central will play Shelbyville next week, while the Marauders have Yorktown.
“They’re not only a conference opponent but a sectional opponent, so there are no givens, and every day in baseball is a different day, so we can see a totally different outcome (today),” King said.
“There is no chess match because our No. 1 goal right now is to win the conference. If we have to throw everything at them, I’m sure they’re going to throw everything at us because it’s important to win this conference. We’re going to do whatever we can (today), even it means we throw four or five guys or go 18 deep. Whatever it takes, we’ll do it.”
