Baseball: Putnam County’s Jackson McDonald outduels Henry’s Lance Kiesewetter

GRANVILLE – Putnam County coach Chris Newsome and Henry-Senachwine coach Max Kirbach expected a pitchers’ duel Tuesday.

Each team’s ace delivered.

Putnam County senior Jackson McDonald threw a three-hitter with a career-high 16 strikeouts to outduel Henry junior Lance Kiesewetter and lead the Panthers to a 2-0 victory in a Tri-County Conference game.

“My changeup looked real good today, my curveball worked all right, everything was working and finding the zone for me,” McDonald said. “It was good, especially against a good conference team. I mean, they beat a really good Marquette team a couple weeks ago.

“It was just a good overall team win. It puts us in a good spot for conference play.”

McDonald got a groundout to start the game and struck out the next batter before Colton Williams hit a single to center field. McDonald got his counterpart looking to end the frame.

After Mason Guarnieri led off the second with a double, McDonald really found his groove.

“It was good, especially against a good conference team. I mean, they beat a really good Marquette team a couple weeks ago. It was just a good overall team win. It puts us in a good spot for conference play.”

—  Jackson McDonald, Putnam County senior

McDonald struck out the next three batters, then fanned the side in the third and fourth innings to extend his streak to nine consecutive strikeouts.

“It’s nice defensively when you don’t have to make many outs when your pitcher is really throwing well and efficient with multiple pitches in the zone and keeping them off balance,” Newsome said. “Jackson obviously set the tone right out of the gate.

“We knew we were going to be in a pitchers’ duel, because [Kiesewetter] is a gamer. He’s really good. I appreciate what he does a lot. He’s got multiple pitches as well, and it showed. We had our fair share of strikeouts as well.”

McDonald got in a bit of a jam in the sixth when Carson Rowe led off with a single and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Mason Johnson and third on a groundout by Preston Rowe.

Newsome decided to intentionally walk Williams, which was the only walk McDonald issued. Courtesy runner Grey Thompson stole second. However, McDonald got a strikeout to end the inning.

“I just kept on trusting my stuff and trusting my defense, who had been playing good,” McDonald said. “I just believed in myself, and it all worked out for me.”

Kiesewetter was nearly as dominant as McDonald, allowing two runs on two hits while striking out 11 batters and walking three.

“Lance on the hill did very, very well,” Kirbach said. “We had a few hiccups in the field. Normally, we’re a little more solid than that, but the errors didn’t really hurt us. It was execution at that plate mainly. We had way too many strikeouts and not a good two-strike approach. They executed on the bunts, and we did not.”

Putnam County turned to small ball to break through.

Nicholas Currie drew a walk to start the fourth inning, then stole second and advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by McDonald.

Cleanup hitter Josh Jessen then executed a squeeze bunt.

“It doesn’t happen very often,” Newsome said about Jessen bunting. “But in practice, and we do it every day, he’s one of the better get-the-ball-down type of bunters. That might be my first ever career squeeze with a lefty. It’s not a thing I like to do. It’s hard to focus with somebody barreling down on you as a runner, but he did a heck of a job to get that run across.

“It felt like five runs with the way Jackson was throwing.”

The Panthers added an insurance run in the sixth when Austin Mattingly led off with a single and later scored on a sacrifice fly by Johnathon Stunkel.

“To have a freshman come up big for us and get a sac fly to push one across as insurance, that felt like a load too,” Newsome said.