BASEBALL: Kerr-Vance cruises past Wayne Christian

By Ben Coley
Published in Sports on March 10, 2017 10:01 AM

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bcoley@newsargus.com

Kerr-Vance pitcher Jabe Montgomery only needed three pitches to strike out Wayne Christian's Addison Johnson, the lead-off batter.

It took six pitches to strike out Luke Suggs, the second batter. Both Suggs and Johnson were caught looking, and wondering what just happened.

That look of disbelief occurred quite a few times Thursday night as Montgomery registered 15 strikeouts and personally handed Wayne Christian an 11-2 defeat.

"(Montgomery's) a good player," said Eagles' head coach Pete Norris. "He threw the ball hard, he kept the ball down, he moved the ball around and that's what you gotta do. He was an excellent pitcher."

Montgomery struck out the side on two different occasions. He didn't allow a hit until Suggs slammed a single in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Before that hit, the senior had allowed just three Eagles to reach base on two walks and a dropped third strike. Holden Foster and Jaxon Anderson were the only other batters to get hits.

Foster was the lone Eagle to tally an RBI.

"I'd like to see more aggression (from the batters)," Norris said. "I'd like to see more selectivity. They were swinging at a lot of bad pitches. You know, swinging at pitches out of the strike zone and just not swinging at good pitches."

Montgomery also wasted no time giving himself a lead.

In the top of the first inning, he notched a two-RBI double to give the Spartans an early cushion. In the fourth inning, the senior hit another RBI double to give Kerr-Vance an 8-0 advantage. He finished the day with four hits and four RBI -- both game highs.

WCS pitchers Ted Suggs and Will White combined to allow 14 hits. The Eagles' defense committed five errors.

"You have to make the fundamental plays," Norris said. "We had some double plays, and we had some hit right at people that were bad throws to first. You've got to make fundamental plays. The routine plays you've got to make at this level."

The Eagles managed only two runs after opening the season with a 13-3 victory over Jones Senior on Tuesday.

Norris said he wanted his team to take the right lessons from Thursday night's performance, and there's no reason to dwell on the defeat.

"Just learn what we need to learn from it," Norris said. "Move forward, and grow. Forget about it when we walk out of here and just be ready to work harder tomorrow."