Jim’s Journal, June 11th, 2024

After a night without baseball, the Reds are back on the diamond and the air tonight, with the intra-state battle against the Guardians from Cleveland.  The Guardians are well above .500 on the season, with 42 wins and only 22 losses so far, but the Reds have been moving toward at least the half & half mark, currently 32 & 34 after that 7-game win streak that ended Sunday in a loss to the Cubs.  Acquired just before the season, Brent Suter gets the pitching start for Cincinnati tonight.  He’s thrown 35 innings on the season, but hasn’t been credited with a win or tagged with a loss.  Suter will be up against Cleveland’s Triston McKenzie, who’s 2 & 3 so far.  You’ll hear whether the Reds get a new win streak going right here tonight, the broadcast beginning at 6:40, on the Sports Voice, 103.9 WRBI.

 

Southeastern Indiana high school athletes are getting college offers and making their intentions known.  As far as 4 recent East Central Trojans–  Kelsey Scholl, a 3.9 GPA National Honor Society member, goes to Bloomington to join IU’s Crimson Cheer Team.  Sure she’s peppy, but also an athlete.  Kelsey played Trojan tennis for 3 years, well enough to be MVP of the Eastern Indiana Athletic Conference 2 years ago.  Also making college plans known, self-taught all-conference golfer and regional competitor Ethan Moorman, heading for Mount St. Joseph.  Kendall Fox is also on the way to Mount St. Joe, but she’ll play soccer there, after winning 3 sectional titles in high school.  And left-handed pitcher Logan Ledbetter goes to play more baseball at UC Clermont in Batavia.  He was a key to the Trojans’ EIAC title this spring, throwing 13 wins and only taking a single loss.

 

Some more terrific athletes are grabbing post-season honors.  In softball, Classes 1A & 2A recognize Milan’s Kynadee Bode as a 1st-team all-state pitcher.  She struck out 275 batters over 175 innings, racking up 16 wins but only 6 losses.  She also hit for 47 RBI’s.  And in Classes 3 & 4A, it was Brooke Stang of Franklin County making the 2nd all-state team with 9 homers, 15 doubles, 29 RBI, and a .539 batting average.

 

Remember those North Decatur Junior High archers we told you about a few weeks ago?  They made their trip to Daytona Beach, Florida for a nationwide competition, and your young Chargers finished 14th in the country!  Their team score, 3 thousand 69, with 86 scores of 10, and 147 9’s.  Those big points come when the arrows are right in the target’s yellow bullseye.   Congratulations!