Jim Mashek

SPARTANS’ FIVE-RUN FOURTH INNING DOOMS PURPLES

South Warren High School’s baseball team had one night and a good chunk of Tuesday to think about its KHSAA 14th District opening game against its crosstown rival Bowling Green High School.

The Spartans took the field at BGHS on Tuesday evening intent on settling a score.

The Purples’ Dillon Maners hurled a four-hitter on Monday, stopping South Warren 5-0 to gain the upper hand.

South Warren senior Dalton Sisson was poised to respond on Tuesday, and he certainly did.

Sisson worked six effective innings on the mound, while going three-for-three with three RBI at the plate, in leading the Spartans to a 9-6 victory over Bowling Green.

“It was a gutty performance,” South Warren coach Chris Gage said.

South Warren improved to 12-6 overall while evening its 14th District record at 1-1, while Bowling Green fell to 7-9 and 1-1 respectively.

“I’d definitely like a better record, a better outcome (Tuesday night),” BGHS coach Nate Isenberg said. “We’re getting better every day. That’s all we can do.

“They feast on fastballs, like a lot of people.”

The Spartans collected 10 hits against four Bowling Green pitchers, and they took control with five runs in the top of the fourth inning.

Sisson earned his second victory of the season in as many decisions, surviving the Purples’ two-run rally in the bottom of the fifth inning before yielding to South reliever Griffin Rardin after the sixth.

Sisson wasn’t overpowering by any means, but he kept the ball down and kept the Spartans in front after their five runs in the top of the fourth.

“We just couldn’t figure it out (Monday night),” Sisson said. “We came back today, with better intensity, we found a rhythm and kept rolling.

“Offensively, I was looking for the first-pitch fastball, and got it three times. I was seeing the ball real well.”

Sisson and the Spartans made it happen in the top of the fourth inning.

Jacob Gilbreath, the final batter in the South lineup, greeted BGHS starter J.P. Henderson with a single up the middle. Keegan Milby then put down a sacrifice bunt, but the Purples misplayed it and the error left two runners on base for the Spartans’ Griffin Rardin.

Rardin, a sophomore and the son of first-year WKU baseball coach Marc Rardin, lined a single to right-center field, scoring Gilbreath to trim Bowling Green’s lead to 4-3.

South’s Ethan Reynolds, who is batting over .500 this season, singled through the right side, and Spartans catcher Eli Capps followed suit, sending a bloop single into center field.

That was Dalton Sisson’s cue.

Sisson rocked BGHS reliever Drew Isenberg with a two-run single to right-center field, putting the Spartans in front 5-4. A wild pitch brought one run across the plate and South’s Tucker Bishop added an RBI grounder, and suddenly the Purples trailed 8-4.

“(Monday night) wasn’t South Warren baseball,” Spartans catcher Eli Capps said. “(Tuesday) we came out to do a job.”

Capps, Sisson and Gilbreath, three South seniors, made sure the job was done right.

“You’ve got to depend on your seniors in this kind of game,” South coach Chris Gage said.

Bowling Green scrapped for two runs in the bottom of the fifth, with Dillon Maners scoring on Evan Schallert’s RBI grounder before a South Warren error brought Ethan Madison across the plate, making it 8-6.

The Purples would get no closer.

“We just couldn’t throw (an effective) breaking ball,” Nathan Isenberg said. “We had trouble generating offense early in the game, and that stresses your defense and pitching.

“I still believe we can make someone’s life miserable, when it’s all said and done.”

Isenberg was smiling when he said that, cognizant that the Purples lost a legion of seniors, including outfielder Turner Nottmeier, catcher/third baseman Spencer Newman and Patrick Forbes, Kentucky’s “Mr. Baseball,” from last year’s 25-10 squad.

Griffin Rardin worked a 1-2-3 inning for the Spartans in the bottom of the seventh, earning his second save of the season.

The Purples will play host to Franklin-Simpson High School (5-15 overall) on Friday evening, while South Warren will be on the practice field until the Spartans square off with 15th District rival Greenwood (16-2 overall, 2-0 in league play) in a two-game series next week.

Game One is on Monday at South Warren.