Sauer’s no-hitter paces Jackson in rout of Cape Central

A masterful outing from John Paul Sauer led the way for the Jackson Indians as they blew by the Cape Central Tigers 16-0 on Tuesday at Cape Central High School.

Sauer tossed a no-hitter going 7 innings, allowing 2 walks while also picking up 8 strikeouts in the winning effort.

“John Paul is a special pitcher,” Indians coach Josh Roach said. “He’s got phenomenal stuff and what I love about him is he’s very competitive and he goes right at hitters.”

Coming into 2023 Sauer said he really worked on accepting the fact that it’s ok to fail and that has paid dividends already for the right-hander.

“If I go out there with the ‘I’m ok with failing mindset’, my stuff usually is a little bit better,” Sauer said. “I also trust in our defense. They are unbelievable and that was shown today.”

Catcher Baden Hackworth had high praise for Sauer saying he has grown to expect this kind of dominance from him.

“There’s not really a day where he’s off,” Hackworth said. “It’s just really fun to see that.”

The no-hitter was Sauer’s third of the year already in just his fourth start.

Hackworth got the scoring started in the top of the 2nd when he deposited a pitch from Cape Central’s Jathan Spain over the left field wall to make it 1-0 Indians.

“I was just looking for a strike,” Hackworth said. “We’ve been working on a two-strike approach all week because we struggled last weekend and I was just looking for something to hit and I put a barrel on it.”

Jackson would tack on three more runs in the top of the 3rd courtesy of a Cooper Rhodes two-run home run and an RBI single from Jaiden Glency.

The Indians would expand their lead to 8-0 entering the top of the 7th before they doubled up their score as they took a 16-0 lead into the bottom of the 7th where Sauer completed the no-hitter.

Hackworth finished the game 3-for-3 with 2 RBIs in the win. Rhodes went 2-for-5 with 4 RBIs for the Indians.

Landon Watkins, Jaiden Glency and Grant Dotson all drove in 2 runs each in the win. Also contributing were Henley Parker, Jack Wyatt and Clayton Ernst with 1 RBI a piece.

Cape Central (4-8) will return to the diamond at 4:30 p.m. on Friday, April 14 when the Tigers host North County at Cape Central High School.

Jackson (11-5) continues its busy week at 4:30 p.m. tomorrow, April 12 when the Indians hit the road to take on the Seckman Jaguars.

“We just try to keep it as fun as possible,” Roach said. “That’s one of our big things this week because it is a little bit of a grind. But, we play this game because we love it and it’s fun. We just try to keep it light for these guys.”