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Putnam County sets tone early in sectional semifinal win over Newark · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: Putnam County sets tone early and sectional semifinal win over Newark.
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  Written by Kevin Schlum, This article is being read by
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  an automated voice brought to you by Everlett. With a loud,
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  large supportive home crowd packing the stands and lining the fence.
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  The Putnam County baseball team set the tone early Wednesday.
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  In the top of the first inning, Jonathan Stunkel struck
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  out all three batters he faced. Looking In the bottom half,
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  Maddox Pool hit an RBI double and Peyton Bartow ripped
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  an RBI triple to give the Panthers an early two
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  run lead. It was huge coming out and doing that,
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  Stunkle said, we kind of stepped on their throats early
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  and got it done. The Panthers continued to hit the
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  ball hard up and down the lineup on the way
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  to an eleven to one, five inning victory over Newark
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  in a Class one A Putnam County Sectional semifinal in Granville.
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  I thought, what the kids executed the game plan and
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  had a good approach at the plate against a good pitcher.
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  Putnam County coach Chris Newsom said, we anticipated a tight
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  game and luckily we had some barrels that got around
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  or over or squeak through. I feel like we can
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  do something and hopefully can continue to be dangerous at
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  the plate one nine. It's a good time to peek.
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  You want to have those guys hit and put the
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  ball on the barrel. In situations like this, when it's
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  the postseason and you have an electric crowd, hopefully we'll
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  be able to do good things Saturday. The Panthers twenty
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  three to eleven, advanced to play Fulton eighteen eight at
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  eleven am Saturday in the title game. The crowd is
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  probably going to be huge, Stunkle said, Today was definitely
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  the biggest crowd I've played in front of before. The
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  energy was great, It was awesome. Saturday is going to
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  be more exciting. The Steamers, who won a sectional title
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  last spring, advanced with a twelve to one to five
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  inning win over Park Fewres in Wednesday's first semi final.
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  Fulton is very good and they're hot, so it's going
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  to be a knockdown, drag out fight. Newsom said, whatever
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  team plays clean and doesn't give the freebies, that's who's
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  going to win. Because both are really good ball clubs.
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  Stunkel will be available Saturday after throwing three perfect innings
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  on just thirty five pitches, striking out six. Reliever Rudy
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  Villagomez also can pitch against Saturday after throwing thirty six
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  pitches Wednesday. He threw strikes and he's good. There's no
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  secret about that, Newsom said about Stunkel. He's a special
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  ball player. He always wants the ball, he always wants
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  the stick in a big moment. He's one of those
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  guys you wish you had nine of her more. It's
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  nice to have him for Saturday in our back pocket,
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  or if we want to start him, he'll ask for it.
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  We have the full arsenal of pitchers because everybody stayed
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  under sixty pitches. That was the magic number today. The
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  Panthers continued to hit in support of Stunkel. He helped
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  his own cause as he launched a two run home
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  run as part of a four run third inning. Wyat
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  Zellers delivered a two run triple in the inning. Putnam
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  County scored four more in the fourth on a hit,
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  two walks, three errors, and a wild pitch, and the
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  Panthers ended the game in the fifth with an RBI
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  single by Caide Zimmerline, Putnam County hit the hide off
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  the ball. Newark coach Joshua Cooper said, they did a
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  really good job offensively. Their first pitcher, Stunkle, is the
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  real deal. Our guys put up a heck of a fight.
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  It didn't turn out the way we wanted it to.
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  We had our best pitcher out there, so we can't
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  go away with any regrets. Defensively, we had a couple
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  mishaps with a bad hop at shortstop and some unfortunate
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  things that didn't go our way, but ultimately they hit
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  the ball and did their jobs on the bases. Sometimes
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  you just run into that. The Norsemen scored their lone
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  run in the fourth as Jimmy cath led off with
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  a triple and scored on a sacrifice lie by David Ulrich.
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  Easton McBroom was the losing pitcher for the Norseman, who
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  finished twelve nineteen. This is the third regional in school history,
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  so these guys have something to be extremely proud of.
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  Cooper said, There's not a lot of history there, but
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  hopefully something to build upon. We had a heck of
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  a run. We're unfortunately losing two very big seniors. Jacob
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  Sailor and Toby Stephen. But our pitchers who through today
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  were sophomores and juniors. Our middle infielders were sophomores. So
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  we're young and we'll be hungry. There's a lot of
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  good experience for these guys.