Jim Mashek

PURPLES’ WHITT: “THE MARGIN FOR ERROR, FOR US, IS SMALL’

Bowling Green High School’s baseball team set the table for a successful run in its six-game journey in KHSAA 14th District regular-season play on Monday night, turning back homestanding Greenwood 4-2 at The Swamp.

The Gators made like the late, great John Belushi in “National Lampoon’s Animal House” in the rematch, solving the Purples pitching in the late innings while claiming a gritty 8-3 victory.

Food fight? Not quite. Just some hungry Gators, wielding the bats to square the two-game series.

“Once we got that first run on the board, the dugout came alive,” Greenwood pitcher/infielder James Russell said. “When we got the lead, we didn’t think they’d be able to respond.”

Russell saw to that, pitching out of a bases-loaded jam in the sixth inning before closing the door on the Purples in the seventh. Greenwood, which improved to 15-4 overall and 1-1 in the 14th District,

Bowling Green, ranked third statewide by MaxPreps, dropped to 18-2 overall and also 1-1 in district play. When the skies got dark in the late innings — there was a random raindrop here and there, too — things got pretty gloomy for the Purples.

“Our margin for error is small,” BGHS coach Adam Whitt said. “They beat us.”

Russell followed Greenwood teammates Easton Talley and Chaze Huff to the mound, inheriting a base runner with no outs in the bottom of the fifth inning. The Purples scratched out one run, on Reid Buser’s RBI single to left-center field, but that was it. They still trailed 4-3, with six outs with which to work.

Russell got the first three quickly, bringing the Gators to the plate in the top of the seventh. They loaded the bases with one out for cleanup hitter Andrew Jolly, a senior GHS first baseman/pitcher. Jolly handcuffed the Purples’ Drew Isenberg with a hard grounder that skipped through the infield for a two-run single that pretty much put the issue to rest.

Greenwood would add two more on Nathan Howard’s line-drive single to left field for good measure.

“All of their three runs came after leadoff walks,” Greenwood coach Jason Jaggers said. “Situational hitting has been a bit of an Achilles heel for us, but we put a lot of good swings on it. You have to take advantage of your opportunities.

“We had some guys come through.”

The Purples’ Hudson Nottmeier brought one of those runs home on a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the fourth, staking Bowling Green to a 2-0 lead. Max Buchanon, the Purples’ starting pitcher, ran into quick trouble in the fifth.

Nathan Howard was hit by a pitch before the Gators’ Canon Jaggers lined a single to left field. Cyler Talley put down a perfect bunt along the first-base line, and the Purples had no play, leaving the bases loaded with no outs.

Greenwood’s Reed McClard and Zach Davis lined back-to-back, run-scoring singles, bringing Jackson Idlett out of the BGHS bullpen. Idlett retired Rylan Graves on a fly ball to left field, but Drake Bowers walked to bring Talley across the plate, and Jolly brought another run home on a fielder’s choice.

It was a critical run, because the Purples nearly turned the double play to end the inning.

“We left the ball up (with some pitches), and that’s a good ballclub,” BGHS coach Adam Whitt said. “Give them all the credit. They hit their way to victory.

“Our offense hasn’t been able to bail our pitching out, not too many times, this season. It’s hard to beat two 4-spots.”

One in the fifth, one in the seventh.

Bowling Green will resume district play next week against South Warren (11-8, 2-0 in the KHSAA’s 14th District) while Greenwood will take on Warren Central (1-11, 0-2). The Spartans swept Warren Central in two games to take the early lead in the district race.