Jackson baseball team rallies past Central

Jackson senior Logan Bartels kept an eye on the weather during classes Tuesday.

The forecast called for rain, but that was the last thing Bartels wanted.

Indians baseball coach Tatum Kitchen told Bartels in practice a few days ago that Bartels would start against rival Central on Tuesday, as long as they played. Bartels wanted a chance to face the Tigers, but he needed the rain to hold off.

"At school, I was a little bit nervous," Bartels said. "I wanted to play really bad and I just hoped it wouldn't rain. Finally got the game in."

The rain never became unmanageable and Bartels didn't waste his opportunity. The right-hander struck out eight over 5 1/3 innings to lead Jackson past host Central 13-6.

Jackson's Dylan Koehler tags out Central's Christian Cavaness at second base during the second inning Tuesday at Central High School. Cavaness was trying to stretch a single into a double. (Kristin Eberts)

"He works quick, he throws strikes and he just does a good job of getting ahead of hitters and working," Kitchen said about Bartels.

Central (2-2) touched up Bartels for four runs in the second inning to grab a 4-1 lead. Christian Cavaness delivered the big hit for Central, a two-run single to left field. Bartels said he struggled to get comfortable early in the contest.

"Early on I couldn't locate anything," he said. "I kept missing high. I settled down and trusted my defense and have them get outs for me."

Part of the relaxation came after his second at-bat of the game. Zach McDowell led off the third with a double then Bartels blasted a two-run homer to left field to pull his team within a run at 4-3.

"It felt good because it was right after the inning I let up four runs," Bartels said. "It actually made me feel pretty good and gave me some confidence to go out on the mound and pitch."

Jackson (2-1) evened the score later in the third on a single to center by Mason Sander that plated Bobby Clark.

Central coach Steve Williams said Bartels' velocity gave his team some trouble.

"He probably had a little more velocity than we've seen so far," Williams said. "Not that he was throwing it by everybody, but he was getting it up there pretty good. He has a decent breaking ball. And it was a tough day to hit. He made enough quality pitches to keep himself in the game."

Bartels got into trouble in the sixth when Trey Gardner and Thomas Crocetti recorded back-to-back singles for the Tigers. Bartels got J.T. Kratochvil to pop out to third, but Ryan Siebert's grounder to first with two outs took a weird hop and rolled into right field, allowing two runs to score to cut Jackson's lead to 8-6. That's when Kitchen went to Clay Baker, who earned the save with 1 1/3 scoreless innings.

Jackson only led 8-6 entering the seventh inning, but the Indians worked some two-out magic. Bartels started the two-out rally with a double to left field, and two walks and four hits later, Jackson had padded its lead to 13-6.

Clark delivered a double to left field to score a pair, which was his third hit in the game, during the seventh.

"I think I worked deeper in the counts than I have been recently," Clark said. "I saw some better pitches, and I think that helped."

Nine of Jackson's 13 runs came with two outs.

"I'd like to say we're that good, but we're not," Kitchen said. "We just had this focused approach and they put the ball in play. We did swing the bats well, though."

Jackson recorded 12 of its 18 hits with two outs Tuesday.

"We had that situation a couple times throughout the day where we got a couple outs and then we didn't get ahead and all of a sudden a guy got on base or we made a bad pitch or bad location," Williams said. "Part of that is early season, part of that is good hitters on their side. We're the type of pitchers we've got to get ahead in the count."

Jackson 103 121 5 -- 13 18 3

Central 040 002 0 -- 6 7 4

WP -- Logan Bartels. LP -- Andrew Williams. HR -- Clay Baker (J), Bartels (J). 2B -- Zach McDowell (J), Bobby Clark 2 (J), Trevor Jaco (J), Austin Fowler (J), Bartels (J), J.P. Huston (C). Multiple hits -- Jackson: Baker 2-4, Clark 3-5, Jaco 4-5, Bartels 2-5, Mason Sander 3-5, Alex Bolen 2-5; Central: Trey Gardner 2-3. Records -- Jackson 2-1, Central 2-2.