Jonathan Azar Dominate, Munster's Offense Explodes in Win
By Ben Grossberg

Terre Haute – In the second game of the Braves Bash No. 3 Munster and Mt. Vernon (Posey) squared off. Munster got a dominating performance from starting pitcher Jonathan Azar and the offense exploded for 15 runs.

Azar was sharp all night locating all three of his pitches with his fastball sitting 81-83. In his four innings of work he only faced 13 batters. He gave up his only hit in the first inning, but got the next batter to ground into an inning ending double play. He would only allow one more batter to reach, a two out walk in his final inning. He struck out at least one batter in every inning, racking up five strikeouts in the game to get the win.

In the second Munster’s offense opened the game up with a five run inning. John Pistas led off the inning with a single and David Hladek got hit by a pitch. A sac bunt brought Pistas around to score after the ball was thrown away. A strikeout and a walk loaded the bases for Tom DeCero. DeCero and leadoff hitter Conor Manous both drew walks to bring in two more runs. After a strikeout, Missouri commit Alex Del Rio came up and drove a ball into left center. The hit brought in two more runs, but Del Rio was thrown out trying to extend the single into a double.

The Munster offense had another big inning in the fifth, this time putting the game out of reach. The first big blow came from Hladek. With one out and runners on first and second the lefty Hladek drove a ball deep into right center for a three run homerun. At hit by pitch, walk, and a single from Patrick Burke loaded the bases for Munster, still with just one out. DeCero brought in a run on a fielder’s choice and Manous drew another walk to load the bases up again. Joe Jumonville then followed with a RBI single to extend the lead to 10-0. Del Rio drew a walk for the eleventh run of the game, keeping the bases loaded for Pistas. Pistas took a ball on the outer half of the plate and drove it over the fence in right center for a grand slam pushing the lead to 15-0.

Mt. Vernon’s offense showed some life in the bottom of the fifth scoring four runs. Craig Beeson doubled to start the inning and would come around to score on an Austin Montgomery sacrifice fly. An error would give Mt. Vernon their second run and Trevor Veeck singled with the bases loaded and two outs bringing home two more runs. The rally would stop after that, as Munster got a strikeout to end the game for a 15-4 victory.