PLEASANT HILL – The Newton Indians, behind solid defense and a one-hit pitching performance from Austin Tippie, knocked off Franklin Monroe 5-0 to remain undefeated in the WOAC.
It was a big week in the WOAC with Tri-County North at 5-0 playing Franklin Monroe Tuesday and the Jets coming away with a 3-2 win, knocking the Panthers from unbeaten ranks and with a chance to do the same against Newton Thursday night.
The play of Franklin Monroe has impressed Newton coach Jordan Kopp.
“You know, they’re a lot better team than last year, they’re really good, in the top half of the conference, and I think they’ll finish in the top half as well,” Kopp said.
The Jets came into the Newton game at 6-1 in the WOAC with a chance to move into a tie with a win over the Indians.
The Indians are coming off a short road trip in Tennessee with wins and a couple of losses to really good competition.
“It was good weather, and we got to see great competition. We got four games in three days. Guys seen a lot of really good arms and swung the bats really well in Tennessee. And so, you know, that was huge for us, and then it’s like, the weather’s turning here, and so we’re excited, and we’re playing really good baseball,” Newton coach Jordan Kopp stated.
The Indians are playing good baseball as was recently recognized by the Baseball Coaches Association with a Number 1 ranking in Ohio DVII but with that comes bigger expectations.
They would live up to those expectations by putting pressure on Franklin Monroe by getting to Franklin Monroe ace Brandt Filbrun early in the game.
Filbrun walked the first two hitters to start the game … but got a long fly ball for out one and then followed with a strikeout.
A hard-hit ball from Newton senior Brady Wackler pushed across two runs scoring junior Rhett Koffer and sophomore Cole Alexander for a 2-0 Indians lead.
Franklin Monroe looking to get some back at the top half of the 2nd inning got a lead off hit from Matthew Hurley. It would be the only hit given up by Austin Tippie in the game.
The next batter grounded back to Tippie who threw to shortstop Alexander who threw on to 1st baseman Koffer for a double play. Another ground out to Tippie ended the inning and thwarted what looked like a possible good inning for the Jets.
Newton struck for three more runs in the bottom half of the 2nd inning.
Junior Carson Resides led off with a walk and advanced to second on a wild pitch.
After a strikeout by Filbrun, Newton’s Bronson Van Culin bunted moving Resides to 3rd base and Van Culin at first. Van Culin advanced to second on a pass ball.
Cole Alexander than reached 1st base on a ground ball error that would also score Resides with VanCulin going to 3rd base.
Alexander stole 2nd base that was followed by a sacrifice fly from Rhett Koffer to right field to score VanCulin and Alexander moved onto third base.
Austin Tippie then singled to left to score Alexander to up the Indians’ lead to 5-0, little did anyone know at the time it would be the final score in the game.
Starting pitcher Austin Tippie was really good on this night as he kept the Jets off balance drawing praise not only from his own coach … but also from Franklin Monroe coach Tyler Zimmerman.
“On the offensive, we had just one hit all day long, the Tippie kid threw great, he had good velocity, and defensively, they didn’t make mistakes. We put a few balls in play, they made a bunch of good defensive plays, so combined with his effort on the mound, they were able to shut us down,” Coach Zimmerman said.
Newton’s coach was also pleased with the team’s defense and throwing of his pitcher.
“I don’t know if I’ve been a part of the game where he (Austin Tippie) faced the minimum number of hitters. Two times they got runners on, and we were able to double them off, or pick a guy off, throw him out, and then get a double play. But hats off to Tippy, he’s a mid-80s fastball, and early on, we didn’t have to throw anything but a fastball. We threw two or three curveballs in the first four or five innings. Then, just based on him needing some work, we kind of threw more curveballs late, and that’s where he was getting his strikeouts. So, early in the game, we normally throw more curveballs, but he was so efficient, and our defense was playing great, so we rolled with it,” Coach Klopp stated.
Austin Tippie earned the win for Newton, giving up just one hit, zero runs over seven innings, striking out eight, walking one, and picking up his 3rd win on the year.
Brandt Filbrun took the loss for Franklin Monroe he went five innings, surrendering five runs (two earned) on two hits, striking out six and walking six and fell to 4-1 on the year.
Franklin Monroe’s coach felt Filbrun threw well and better as the game went along … he gave up just two hits, and Newton had just three total hits in the game.
“He threw Well, we were sloppy on defense early and I think we gave up two runs in the first and two in the second on some miscues by our defense. He (Filbrun) responded well that’s been his MO all year, being able to get himself out of situations but you won’t win any games when you score zero runs,” Zimmerman exclaimed.
The Jets fall to 7-6 and 6-2 in the WOAC, and they will travel to West Milton to take on the Bulldogs on Saturday.
Newton is not 11-2 overall and 5-0 in the WOAC and just a game up on Tri-County North and Arcanum all with just one loss and both still have yet to play the Indians.
Newton’s tough non-conference schedule and overall record have caught the attention of the coaches baseball association, who recently had them ranked #1 in state in D7.
“Our kids have played really well, and if other coaches think we’re deserving of being ranked first, second or top 10, we’ll take it. I’ve never been ranked state number one since I’ve been here. I don’t know if anybody in our school has been … but it’s good for the kids. It’s a credit to our kids, we don’t really talk about it, but you know they hear about it, they understand, and they’ve got pride … but we got a lot of baseball ahead of us, and so we’re proud of where we’re at, but we know we got some work to do,” Klopp concluded.
Newton will travel to Milton-Union on Friday to play their next game.
