Drake Smith, top of the lineup lead Putnam County past Henry

GRANVILLE – Drake Smith was solid on the mound and the top of the Putnam County baseball team’s lineup got the job done to lead the Panthers to a 4-0 victory over Henry-Senachwine in a Tri-County Conference game.

Putnam County got a quick 1-2-3 inning to start the game and then went to work in the bottom half of the first. Andrew Pyszka started things off with a walk and Smith helped himself out with an RBI single to center to score Pyszka while Smith ended up on second base as the ball was bobbled in center field.

Jackson McDonald followed with an RBI single to right field that brought Smith around to give the Panthers a 2-0 lead after the first inning.

“We had guys at the plate with the right approach and then with Drake (Smith) throwing strikes we got off to a nice start,” Putnam County coach Chris Newsome said. “Drake stepped up to the plate and got us on the board to start the day as well. Not to mention the defense behind him was solid.”

After another 1-2-3 inning in the second, the Panthers had another scoring opportunity in the bottom half of the inning as Smith reached on a Mallards error, but Mason Guarnieri in left field made a spectacular throw to Colton Williams at home to nail Pyszka to end the inning and keep it 2-0.

The Mallards got the first of their two hits from P.J. Ehrat in the top of the third, but Smith retired the next two batters end the frame.

“P.J. with two hits was nice,” Henry coach Matt Emmons said. “He figured out that you have to take them to right field and ended up with a couple nice at-bats.”

In the fourth, Eric Garrison reached on a Panthers error, but Putnam County turned a 4-6-3 double play to end Henry’s hopes of cracking the scoring column. In the bottom of the fifth, Putnam County added a pair of insurance runs with Pyszka leading off with a double to left. Mcdonald followed with a single that carried to right with the wind.

On a double steal attempt, Holdyn Carr threw home to try and get Pyszka, but the throw was over the head of Williams at home, allowing the Putnam County lead to grow to 3-0.

“What’s weird about the errors tonight is that defense is our calling card,” Emmons said. “Mason Johnson is our top pitcher and our defense behind him we were confident coming in, so I’m definitely not worried about that. It’s just one of those things that happens.” Nick Currie picked up his second hit of the game with an RBI single to left field that scored McDonald and finished off the scoring and Smith finished the game off strong on the mound. “The wind was blowing in today so I felt I could be efficient on the mound,” Smith said. “I was able to paint the corners and then the defense behind me was pretty good again, so it was definitely a nice team win for us today.” Smith went seven innings, giving up two hits and striking out seven.

McDonald, Currie and Ryan Hundley had two hits each for Putnam County, while Smith, McDonald and Currie added RBIs. For the Mallards, Johnson took the loss, going 5 2/3 innings and giving up four runs (three earned) and striking out five.