By Ben Grossberg

Newburgh, IN – Thursday featured a matchup to two top ten teams with No. 8 Jasper traveling to take on No. 7 Castle. Castle put Senior right handed pitcher Mitch Powers on the mound to face off with Dayton commit Mark Giesler.

Castle got on the board first with a run in the second inning. Senior Kennan Barnett led off with a single and Senior Sam Haynes singled with one out to put runners on first and third. Junior Jeff Wetzler drove in Barnett with a groundout giving Castle a 1-0 lead after two innings.

Jasper answered back scoring runs in every inning after the second. In the third Senior Nick Gobert reached on a one out error and Giesler followed that with a no doubt homerun over the left center field fence. In the fourth Freshman Craig Shepherd drove in a run with a RBI single scoring Senior Andy Knust, who led off the inning with a single. With two outs and the bases loaded Spencer Otto was hit by a pitch to give Jasper a 4-1 lead. Sophomore Ben Moore singled in another run in the fifth giving Jasper a 5-1 advantage.

In the bottom of the fifth Castle looked like they were going to get a few runs back and close the deficit. A walk and two errors loaded the bases with two outs for Castle’s cleanup hitter, but Gielser struck him out looking on a curveball to end the inning.

In the top of the sixth Freshman Cal Krueger put the game out of hand. Castle got two outs to start the frame and it looked like they would hold the game at 5-1. With two outs Jasper sophomore Austin Alles walked, Junior Scott Stallwood singled and Knust drew another walk to load the bases with two outs. Krueger came up and turned on a pitch driving it over the left field wall giving Jasper a 9-1 lead.

Jasper added another run in the top of the seventh with a sac fly from Senior Nathan Leibering.

Giesler closed out the final inning finishing the day with a stat line of seven innings pitched, five hits, one walk, and five strikeouts. At the plate he was 2-4 with a homerun and two RBI. Cal Krueger was 3-3 with a homerun and five RBI and Ben Moore was 2-3 with a RBI.