Jake Miller pitches Henry-Senachwine to regional title with upset of Putnam County

GRANVILLE – Sometimes when you get two familiar teams that are battle tested coming from a tough conference such as the Tri-County, you get a pitching battle with great defense and you can throw the records out the window.

That was the case Saturday as No. 7-seeded Henry-Senachwine came away with the 1-0 upset over the host and No. 2-seeded Putnam County in the 1A Putnam County Regional championship behind great pitching and solid defense as well.

“We talked about which performance we were going to get from Jake Miller,” Henry coach Teddy Rowe said. “I think this was by far his best performance of the season. Big pitches when he needed them. They had some loud outs, but a pitcher is supposed to trust the defense behind them and today they made the plays. Big difference from the start of the year for a young team.”

Putnam County’s Johnathon Stunkel was equally as impressive as he threw eight pitches in the first inning and all were strikes to quickly set down the Mallards.

In the bottom half of the first, the Panthers threatened as Traxton Mattingly and Kade Zimmerlein both walked, but Miller was able to induce a groundout to end the threat.

In the bottom half of the inning, the Mallards led off with a single to center from Austin Keith.

After several foul balls, Miller singled past Maddox Poole at shortstop.

Two batters later, Jayden Deweerth grounded to Poole who fired to second to get the out, but AJ Furar turned and fired to first to attempt the double play but the throw got away.

The error proved to be huge as Keith with heads up base running continued around third and headed home to give the Mallards a 1-0 lead.

“Any time I’m rounding third base and there’s a throw to first I have my head up to see the throw,” Keith said. “And this time I saw the ball go down the line and I raced toward home plate and was able to get the run in.”

Putnam County threatened again in the bottom of the third when Stunkel fouled off several pitches and then connected for a double just off Ben Meachum’s glove in left field.

Mattingly then picked up a walk, but back-to-back hard hit lineouts ended the Panthers’ threat.

The defense continued to play well as the Mallards had two hard hit balls, but the defense of Drew Carlson in center field made sure Henry did not score again.

The defensive theme continued in the bottom half of the fourth as well when Mallards catcher Caleb Wiesbrock made a great diving play behind the plate and then Miller struck out the other two Panthers batters.

Henry looked like it was going to extend the lead in the fifth when Deweerth singled to left and then advanced to second on an error to go along with Meachum reaching via hit by pitch.

However, Stunkel and the Panthers recovered and ended the inning still trailing 1-0 heading into the bottom half, but were sat down in order with two more Miller strikeouts.

In the bottom of the sixth, Zimmerlein drew a two-out walk, but was thrown out at second on the steal attempt.

The Mallards again threatened in the top of the seventh, but once again Stunkel was up to the task to keep it a 1-0 affair.

“Johnathon pitched his butt off today,” Putnam County coach Chris Newsome said. “We had a couple of errors and then one obviously hurt us in the end, but I couldn’t be prouder of this group. Last year we had eight wins. This year 19 against the teams we faced, especially in conference, is impressive. We just came up a little short. We hit the ball hard and made some loud outs, but just couldn’t get the ball down to get a rally going.”

With the season on the line in the bottom of the seventh, Furar reached on a Mallards error and then pinch runner Carter Hochstatter stole second, but could not advance Miller recorded a strikeout to end the game.

“We knew coming into this game that we had to play well,” Miller said. “Fastball was great the whole game, but had trouble with the curve at first, but the defense behind me was great and to win regional is just a great feeling.”

Henry was led by singles from Keith, Miller and Deweerth, while Miller took the win going seven innings and striking out five.

For the Panthers, Stunkel picked up the lone hit while also taking the loss, striking out nine and giving up one unearned run.

Henry (11-17) advances to the St. Bede Sectional to play Lexington (16-11) at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Schwerickert Stadium in Peru.