McCarty hurls shutout, SJO baseball cruises to win at STM

Excellent pitching has defined the St. Joseph-Ogden High School baseball team throughout much of its 2019 season.

The trend continued last Wednesday during an 8-0 win at St. Thomas More, the Spartans’ fifth victory in their last six games.

Keegan McCarty finished off SJO’s eighth shutout of the season by only allowing three hits and striking out 10. He didn’t allow a walk, and 68 of his 86 pitches went for strikes in a dominating display on the mound.

The Spartans (17-6-2, 6-1 Illini Praire) will look to continue their recent run of success at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday when they host Fisher, after two of their scheduled nonconference games last week — Charleston last Thursday and Maroa-Forsty last Friday — did not happen. The game against Charleston was postponed because of rain and Maroa-Forsyth had to make up a conference game.

SJO played flawless defense behind McCarty and used opportunistic offense to get by STM.

Adam Rose went 1 for 2 with two RBI and two runs scored, while Jaden Miller went 2 for 2 with two runs scored and Sam Wesley drove in two runs to spark the Spartans at the plate.

Wesley helped SJO score its first run at STM after he was hit by a pitch to lead off the top of the second inning. With one out, Nick Bogg hit a ground ball and STM committed two errors on the play, allowing Wesley to score, giving SJO an early 1-0 lead.

SJO increased its lead to 4-0 with a three-run third inning. Miller singled to lead off the inning and Rose was hit by a pitch to put runners at first and second. With one out, Crayton Burnett walked to load the bases, allowing Miller to score on a passed ball with Wesley in the batter’s box and give SJO a 2-0 lead.

Wesley made it 3-0 by hitting a sacrifice fly to score Rose before Kaden Jacobs delivered a two-out single to score Burnett and put SJO ahead 4-0.
SJO padded its lead with a three-run fourth inning to go up 7-0. With one out, Drew Coursey reached on an error and advanced to third on a single by Miller. Miller moved up to second base on a throw trying to nab Coursey at third.

That set the stage for a two-run single by Rose to score both Coursey and Miller, putting SJO ahead 6-0.

With two outs, Burnett singled in Rose from second base, pushing SJO’s advantage to 7-0. Zach Martini led off the sixth with a single for SJO and came around to score after Wesley walked with the bases loaded to cap the scoring for the Spartans and deliver an 8-0 win by SJO.

The Spartans are slated to host Fisher at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday before resuming league play with a 4:30 p.m. home game on Thursday against Monticello. SJO is slated to end the week by hosting its own triangular, starting at 9:30 a.m. this Saturday