McCarty throws no-hitter, SJO baseball picks up two wins

Each time Keegan McCarty takes the mound, the St. Joseph-Ogden High School baseball team has to likes its chances of picking up a win.

Case in point: this past Saturday when McCarty was exceptional in throwing a no-hitter as the Spartans cruised to a 9-0 win against St. Teresa.
That was the first of two wins on Saturday by SJO on its home diamond, with the Spartans then defeating Tri-Valley 7-1.

The two wins on Saturday ended a two-game losing streak for SJO, which lost 9-5 this past Friday at Olympia in Illini Prairie Conference play.
SJO (19-8-2, 6-2 Illini Prairie) enters the final full week of the regular season with five scheduled games, starting at 4:30 p.m. on Monday at Danville in nonconference action.

McCarty stole the show on Saturday with his brilliance against St. Teresa. He struck out 17 in recording his no-hitter, with the Spartans playing flawless defense behind him and a fourth-inning walk the only baserunner he allowed all game. Of his 86 pitches, 64 went for strikes.

Brayden Weaver and Zach Martini led the offense against St. Teresa, with Weaver going 2 for 4 with two RBI and Martini going 2 for 3 with an RBI and three runs scored. Blake Primmer added a solo home run, while Sam Wesley added an RBI.

SJO took a 1-0 lead after the first inning thanks to a two-out RBI single by Wesley that scored Adam Frerichs, who reached on an error with one out. Primmer made it 2-0 in favor of SJO in the second with a two-out solo home run, and the score remained that way until the fourth inning when Weaver delivered an RBI single to bump SJO’s lead to 3-0.

The Spartans’ offense kept adding to their lead with three-run innings in both the fifth and sixth. An RBI double by Martini made it 4-0 and Martini came around to score after he stole third and then crossed home plate on a passed ball to increase SJO’s lead to 5-0.

Weaver then came through with another RBI single to make it 6-0. SJO then manufactured three runs in the sixth, with Joe Acton and Drew Coursey scoring after a passed ball to make it 8-0 before Martini came around to score on another passed ball to cap SJO’s scoring at 9-0.

SJO rode another strong pitching performance and a quick-strike offense to defeat Tri-Valley. Coursey picked up the win, throwing six commanding innings and only giving up two hits an an unearned run. He didn’t walk a batter and struck out five, with Wesley throwing an inning of relief and striking out two.

Coursey helped himself out at the plate by going 2 for 3, while Kaden Jacobs (2 for 3, RBI), Primmer (1 for 2, two runs scored) and Wesley (1 for 4, two RBI) also had timely hits. Adam Rose, Nick Boggs and Martini also drove in runs.

Frerichs helped spark a four-run first inning by SJO with a one-out single and Wesley’s double plate Frerichs to give the Spartans a 1-0 lead. Weaver and Jacobs then both reached on errors, allowing Wesley to score and make it 2-0. An RBI groundout by Boggs followed, scoring Weaver before Martini singled in Jacobs to increase SJO’s lead to 4-0.

SJO increased its lead to 6-0 with an RBI single by Rose and an RBI groundout by Wesley in the fourth inning, with the Spartans’ pitching keeping Tri-Valley off-balance for the rest of the game to post a nonconference win.

Prior to Saturday, SJO suffered a road conference defeat at Olympia despite collecting 12 hits. Rose suffered the loss, going four innings and giving up seven hits, nine runs (six earned), while striking out five and walking three. Acton threw two innings of relief, not allowing a hit and striking out two. Coursey and Wesley both had two hrs, while Rose, Weaver, Boggs and Primmer all drove in a run.

Olympia led 1-0 after three innings, but SJO plated three runs in the top of the fourth inning to go up 3-1. An RBI single by Boggs knotted the game at 1 before a sacrifice fly by Primmer gave SJO a 2-1 lead and Coursey increased it to 3-1 by scoring on a passed ball.

Olympia, however, answered with an eight-running inning in the bottom of the fourth to take a convincing 9-3 lead. An RBI single by Weaver in the fifth and an RBI groundout by Rose in the sixth trimmed Olympia’s deficit to 9-5, but the big inning was too much to overcome by SJO.

After Monday’s game against Danville, SJO is slated to host Monticello at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday in its last Illini Prairie game of the season before playing at Mattoon at 5 p.m. on Thursday and hosting Salt Fork at 11 a.m. this Saturday in a doubleheader. SJO’s regular-season finale is set for 4:30 p.m. on Monday, May 13 at home against Tri-Valley before the Spartans begin postseason play at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 15 against Villa Grove/Heritage in a Class 2A Unity Regional semifinal game.