Local Sports

Monticello Outlasts Maroa-Forsyth in Extra Innings

Jared Lockmiller singled in the go-ahead run in the top of the tenth inning as Monticello outlasted Maroa-Forsyth 5-4 in a classic high school non-conference baseball game Friday afternoon in Forsyth.

 

Monticello led most of the game as the Trojans squandered several scoring chances early.

 

But trailing 4-1, the Trojans rallied in the bottom of the 7th inning. Kadin Mauer singled to center with one out. Evan Foster lined out to second base for the second out. ISU-commit Ethan Willoughby walked to put runners at first and second. Anthony Campbell split the right-centerfield gap and drove in Mauer and Willoughby to make the score 4-3. Jaxson Grubbs then singled in Campbell to tie the score.

 

Logan Chupp, who escaped a sixth-inning, bases loaded and zero outs jam, got Reid Fitzpatrick to ground out to third ending the threat, sending the game to extra innings. 

 

Neither team threatened in the extra frames until Monticello’s Joey Sprinkle singled with one out in the top of the tenth inning. With Andrew Rudolph batting, Sprinkle got a late jump on a pitch in the dirt and slid under a nice throw from Rhys Sams-Moore and a late tag from Willoughby at second base. 

 

Rudolph ground back to the pitcher but Lockmiller laced a single to center scoring Sprinkle. 

 

Jack Buckalew got around a lead-off single to close out the win for the Sages.

 

Sprinkle pitched five effective innings of one-run ball on the hill for Monticello. He allowed four hits and struck out six to zero walks. 

 

The Trojans missed chances on multiple occasions for six innings, but the biggest opportunity wasted was in the sixth inning when Rudolph uncharacteristically allowed a lead-off single to Willoughby, then walked Campbell on four pitches and walked Grubbs on five pitches to load the bases with no outs.

 

Chupp relieved Rudolph and got Fitzpatrick to bounce to Sprinkle at third who threw to catcher Thomas Swartz for the force at the plate. Then Grant Reid hit a slow roller to Sprinkle at third again, Sprinkle again threw home for the force and Chupp struck out Sams-Moore to end the threat.

 

Biniam Lienhart (bin-E-um Linn-heart) had a very efficient day at the play. In the third inning with runners at first and second, he perfectly sacrificed over the base runners and both came home to score on a Tristan Foran sac-fly and Jake Edmondson RBI single for an early 2-0 lead.

 

Buckalew brought home Lockmiller, who doubled with one out, in the fourth inning to make it 3-0. 

 

Leinhart singled with one out in the fifth, stole second base, and singled when Foran reached base on a fielding error at second base.

 

Mauer pitched six effective innings for the Trojans. He allowed four runs, three were earned, on five hits with a walk and five strikeouts. 

 

Campbell pitched the seventh, ninth, and tenth innings for the Trojans sandwiched by a scoreless inning from Willoughby in the eighth inning. 

 

Monticello improves to 8-5 on the season while the Trojans drop to 11-2. 

 

Maroa-Forsyth takes on Williamsville on Saturday. The Sages will travel to Tolono Unity next Tuesday.

 

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