With a loud, large, supportive home crowd packing the stands and lining the fence, the Putnam County baseball team set the tone early Wednesday.

In the top of the first inning, Johnathon Stunkel struck out all three batters he faced looking.

In the bottom half, Maddox Poole hit an RBI double and Peyton Barto ripped an RBI triple to give the Panthers an early two-run lead.

“It was huge coming out and doing thtat,” Stunkel said. “We kind of stepped on their throats early and got it done.”

The Panthers continued to hit the ball hard up and down the lineup on the way to an 11-1, five-inning victory over Newark in a Class 1A Putnam County Sectional semifinal in Granville.

“I thought the kids executed the game plan and had a good approach at the plate against a good pitcher,” Putnam County coach Chris Newsome said. “We anticipated a tight game, and luckily we had some barrels that got around or over or squeaked through.

“I feel like we can do something and hopefully can continue to be dangerous at the plate 1-9. It’s a good time to peak. You want to have those guys hit and put the ball on the barrel in situations like this when it’s the postseason and you have an electric crowd. Hopefully, we’ll be able to do good things Saturday.”

The Panthers (23-11) advance to play Fulton (18-8) at 11 a.m. Saturday in the title game.

“(The crowd) is probably going to be huge,” Stunkel said. “Today was definitely the biggest crowd I’ve played (in front of) before. The energy was great. It was awesome. Saturday is going to be more exciting.”

The Steamers, who won a sectional title last spring, advanced with a 12-1, five-inning win over Parkview Christian in Wednesday’s first semifinal.

“Fulton is very good and they’re hot, so it’s going to be a knockdown, drag out fight,” Newsome said. “Whatever team plays clean and doesn’t give the freebies, that’s who’s going to win because both are really good ball clubs.”

Stunkel will be available Saturday after throwing three perfect innings on just 35 pitches, striking out six. Reliever Rudy Villagomez also can pitch again Saturday after throwing 36 pitches Wednesday.

“He threw strikes and he’s good, there’s no secret about that,” Newsome said about Stunkel. “He’s a special ballplayer. He always wants the ball. He always wants the stick in a big moment. He’s one of those guys you wish you had nine of or more. It’s nice to have him for Saturday in our back pocket or if we want to start him. He’ll ask for it.

“We have the full arsenal (of pitchers) because everybody stayed under 60 pitches. That was the magic number today.”

The Panthers continued to hit in support of Stunkel.

He helped his own cause has he launched a two-run home run as part of a four-run third inning. Wyatt Zellers delivered a two-run triple in the inning.

Putnam County scored four more in the fourth on a hit, two walks, three errors and a wild pitch and the Panthers ended the game in the fifth with an RBI single by Kade Zimmerlein.

“Putnam County hit the hide off the ball,” Newark coach Joshua Cooper said. “They did a really good job offensively. Their first pitcher (Stunkel) is the real deal.

“Our guys put up a heck of a fight. It didn’t turn out the way we wanted it to. We had our best pitcher out there, so we can’t go away with any regrets. Defensively, we had a couple mishaps with a bad hop at shortstop and some unfortunate things that didn’t go our way, but ultimately, they hit the ball and did their jobs on the bases. Sometimes you just run into that.”

The Norsemen scored their lone run in the fourth as Jimmy Kath led off with a triple and scored on a sacrifice fly by David Ulrich.

Eastin McBroom was the losing pitcher for the Norsemen, who finish 12-19.

“This is the third regional in school history, so these guys have something to be extremely proud of,” Cooper said. “There’s not a lot of history there, but hopefully something to build upon.

“We had a heck of a run. We’re unfortunately losing two very big seniors (Jacob Seyller and Toby Steffen), but our pitchers who threw today were sophomores and juniors, our middle infielders were sophomores, so we’re young and we’ll be hungry. There’s a lot of good experience for these guys.”

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Putnam County's Traxton Mattingly and Jacob Furar react after teammates score a run during the Class 1A Sectional semifinal game on Wednesday, June 3, 2026 at Putnam County High School. (Scott Anderson)