On a night when they honored former coach Bob Mantooth by retiring his No. 15, the Apollo baseball team followed up the ceremony Friday with a 9-4 win over Daviess County for their first 9th District victory.
The Eagles recognized decades of leadership that earned Mantooth a spot in the KHSBCA Hall of Fame prior to the game (watch the full ceremony video here) and first-year Apollo head coach Mason Head said it was an honor to cap off the evening with a win.
“He just means so much to us, so much to our program,” Head said of Mantooth. “You just can’t help but smile when you think about him. He’s a great guy, mentor, coach, servant. To get to honor him that way and then back it up with a win was pretty special.”
The Eagles (10-11, 1-2 9th District) never trailed, and they rode a solid outing on the mound from Daylin Crabtree while Noah Stewart stayed hot at the plate.
After slowly building a 4-0 lead, the Eagles used five runs in the sixth inning to open up an even more comfortable lead heading into the final frame. It proved necessary, as the Panthers (8-12, 0-3) rallied to put up four runs before finally running out of gas.
Crabtree went 6.1 innings and gave up two runs on four hits with six strikeouts. His command on the mound helped negate a pair of errors that put runners on base. Landon Hamilton gave up two runs on four hits to finish the game.
“Daylin pitched a great game,” Head said. “He looked comfortable and had two or three of his pitches working. We executed on the most part on defense. We had a few errors and have to clean that up.”
The difference for the Eagles was the offensive approach. After they had fallen into a bit of a rut in recent weeks, a few tweaks have started turning into success.
“I was really pleased with how we swung the bats today,” Head said. “We fortunately got a few days off the last couple days. We’ve been able to get in the cage and try a few new things and try to change their mindset. We saw that starting to come alive today.”
Stewart led the way, going 3-for-4 with a double, triple and four RBIs. Trevor Lawrence added a pair of hits and Trevor Payne had one. Tanner Klee was the only runner to score twice.
Apollo first got on the board in the second inning with back-to-back RBI singles by Jakob Helms and Payne that scored Lawrence and Tommy Clark. A double by Stewart in the third plated Klee, and Helms scored in the fourth when he tagged up on a line out to center by Max Holder.
Apollo used three walks and a hit by pitch to set up the scoring frenzy in the sixth inning, and Stewart tripled with the bases loaded to push the lead to 9-0.
In the top of the seventh, the Panthers got a pair of singles to put runners on first and second before recording their second out. Four straight singles by Ryan Beckwith, Cole Troutman, Nolan Boswell and Chandler Froelich led to four quick runs. Troutman’s line drive to center drove in courtesy runner Decker Renfrow and Jack Gibson for the first two scores.
“They just strung four hits together,” Head said. “You just tip your cap to them and try not to make it be a fifth one. Props to them, they did a good job swinging in the seventh.”
Boswell took the loss for the Panthers, giving up six runs on six hits with three strikeouts and four walks in 5.0 innings. Froelich finished the game and gave up three runs on one hit.
It’s the first 9th District victory of the season for Apollo, while Daviess County is still looking for their first win against a district foe.
DCHS 000-000-4—8-4
AHS 021-105-x—9-7-3
WP: Crabtree. LP: Boswell. 2B: Stewart (A). 3B: Stewart (A).
