GREENCASTLE – Luke Martin pitched his first ever varsity baseball game on a soggy Tuesday afternoon. It happened to be against the first-place team in the Mid-Penn Colonial Division – the Greencastle-Antrim Blue Devils – at Kaley Field.
All in all, Martin turned in a strong performance. He pitched four full innings and gave up five singles with a strikeout and two walks.
The problem for the Indians was that Greencastle started its ace, Andrew Kerns. The junior blue-chipper struck out 12 batters en route to a 6 2/3 innings effort in which he gave up just two hits.
“(He) was a pretty big part of (the win),” said Waynesboro coach Travis Hardman, whose team saw its three-game winning streak come to an end. “He had a pretty good curve ball today. He reached his max (100 pitches) and they brought in a reliever to get the last out. I wouldn’t be surprised to see (Kerns) on Saturday.”
Waynesboro hosts Greencastle-Antrim at 11 a.m. on Saturday. Before that, the Tribe (7-3, 6-2 MPC) plays James Buchanan in the friendly confines of Robinson Field on Thursday at 4:15 p.m.
“I was very proud of Luke,” Hardman said. “He exceeded expectations.”
Hardman has gone back and forth with Garrett Beaver and Mason Gochenour on the mound. Beaver pitched eight innings on Monday against Northern York in a game the Indians won 4-3 in nine innings.
Freshman Ethan Hotchkiss pitched the final two innings for Waynesboro. He struck out two, walked none and allowed one hit, a single.
Waynesboro scored its run in the top of the first inning. Kellan Smith and Maddox Brooks walked. Smith went on to score on a passed ball.
G-A evened the score when Jarek Szaflarski singled and scored on a Conner Rohm base hit.
The Blue Devils plated what proved to be the winning run in the bottom of the fourth after the Indians stranded runners on second and third. Ethan Ford walked and later scored on a two-out single off the bat of Austin Wyand.
“They had some clutch two-out hits,” Hardman said of G-A’s offense.
In softball, Waynesboro’s home game against G-A was postponed until Thursday, with the first pitch at 4:15 p.m. at Maiden Field.
The Maidens enter the game with an 8-3 record and have amassed run totals of 19, 14, 22 and 18 in four of their wins. The Blue Devils are 4-7.
