Softball: South Central miscues aid Morgan Twp. in regional semifinal
By Terry Turner Post-Tribune correspondent June 2, 2012 11:46PM
Updated: July 7, 2012 8:13AM
FULTON — If teams want to advance in the IHSAA baseball tourney, they have to minimize their errors. And in the Class A Caston Regional semifinal game Saturday, two early miscues by South Central helped Morgan Township to a five-run first inning. That was all the runs the Cherokees needed, in a 7-3 victory over the Satellites.
“Just a couple of fly balls we should have caught, it is an 0-0 game,” said South Central coach Ron King. “We’d be looking at a completely different game.”
Instead, the Cherokees got a run on a sacrifice fly by Austin Porter; Mark Ehrstein doubled in two more runs, and then sophomore Will Swisher slammed a two-run home run into left center field. Morgan Township was on its way to the win.
“We got beat by a good team, they hit the ball hard,” said King.
Swisher’s home run was a big key for the Cherokees, emphasized Morgan Township coach Jason Dorshorst.
“I told the guys we needed to focus on our at bats,” the Cherokees coach said, adding that Swisher and Ehrstein have given his team a push lately. “Swisher’s home run did that, not leaving runners on the bases. Swisher is coming off an injury, and Ehrstein has been coming on of late.”
Dorshorst noted that although junior pitcher Joe Dougherty allowed nine hits, he was able to scatter them where they didn’t do any damage.
The Satellites had nine hits but, Dorshorst pointed out, “Joe allowed four or five bleeders, but he had five strike outs, and he didn’t walk anyone. those bleeders didn’t hurt us.”
Morgan added two more runs, one each in the fourth and fifth. And that stretched their lead enough to hold off South Central.
Central’s Steven Shepherd singled in Austen Hanna in the fourth, three singles led to a Ben Rosebaum score in the fifth, and Rosebaum’s double and an error got the Satellites’ final score. It wasn’t enough.
Rosebaum pitched a good game for SC. But he had control issues early, yet was able to shake off the first inning problems and he made it through five.
