“It’s a good start, and we were ready to play,” Madison coach Bob Evick said. “But Carlisle’s far from done. This is usually a 3-2 type game. This might end up being an 11-10 type game.”
Play is scheduled to resume at Sam Franks Field on Thursday at 5 p.m. The rivals are slated to play on the Mohawks’ diamond Friday.
Madison totaled four hits in the first inning against Jake Glover. Reid Davis had an RBI double, Ethan Limon plated two runs on a single and Cameron Svarda launched a two-run homer to left.
The Indians loaded the bases against Davis with two walks and an error. Adam Goodpaster was then nailed trying to steal home, Caleb Boy struck out, and there was a 1-2 count on Reece Human when lightning stopped play.
“We fought back to be in a position to score,” Carlisle coach Chris Hawkins said. “We’ll be OK. It still might be a one-run game. It always is.”
Hawkins said Goodpaster went on his own on the steal attempt, but added, “We always give him a lot of freedom on the basepaths because he has such a knack for the game and does such a good job reading pitchers. He’s gotten us a lot of runs and a lot of bases being aggressive like that. But he knows as well as anybody in the park that wasn’t the time to do it.”
Both squads began the season in Florida, the Mohawks in Vero Beach and the Indians in Fort Walton Beach.
Madison was 2-2-1 down south and blanked Preble Shawnee 11-0 in SWBL action Tuesday. Carlisle went 3-2 in Florida and dropped a 4-3 nonconference decision to Lebanon on Tuesday.
The Mohawks started Wednesday’s contest with five players hitting .400 or better — designated hitter Jordan Smith (.800), shortstop Limon (.636), third baseman Brett Neal (.476), right fielder Jesse Jones (.421) and center fielder Bailey Durnil (.400).
“I came back from Florida pretty excited,” Evick said. “The games we lost, we still made a lot of good plays and competed real well against schools that are a lot bigger than us. Sometimes we were a little short on pitching, but we had good quality at-bats down there and played good defense every game.
“The kids like each other and seem to want to play for each other. The stuff I hear them talking about is they feel like they have a chance to be a very good baseball team. They’ve got their goals set, and we’re going to do everything we can to put them in the right spots to get there.”
Third baseman Boy and shortstop Goodpaster were both hitting .400 for Carlisle before Wednesday.
“We played some really, really good competition against some big schools in Florida,” Hawkins said. “We’re still kind of figuring each other out. But we’ve got some experience back in the lineup and on the mound. These kids take a lot of pride in their play and a lot of pride in Carlisle.”
Waynesville is the four-time defending SWBL Buckeye champion and stands 3-0 in league play. Milton-Union is also 3-0.
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