LUCAS, Ohio — Mapleton’s first win of the season — and Corey Armstrong’s first career coaching victory — was a no-doubter.
The Mounties sent 11 batters to the plate during a six-run second inning and cruised to a 13-1 win at Lucas on Thursday.
Mapleton (1-4) banged out 16 base hits off three Lucas pitchers. Garrett Haines had three hits and knocked in four runs, while Sam Mullins collected three singles and drove in three.
“It’s nice to finally get the monkey off our backs,” Armstrong said. “It feels really good.
“We’ve hit the ball pretty well all year, but it was always right at somebody. Today everything fell in.”
Mapleton got to Lucas starter Logan Niswander for three unearned runs in the top of the first. Mullins drove in the first run on a single to right and Haines knocked in a pair with a two-out base hit to left.
Lucas (1-9) scored its lone run in the bottom of the first on Logan Knipp’s one-out RBI single, but Knipp was erased on an inning-ending double play. The Cubs also had a runner thrown out at the plate in the second, short-circuiting a potential rally.
“We couldn’t get anything going,” Lucas coach Hank Webb said. “We just didn’t play with a lot of energy or focus.”
Small Ball: All 16 of Mapleton’s hits were singles. The Mounties had six straight safeties in the second inning.
“They didn’t hit the ball very hard, but everything they hit seemed to find a hole,” Webb said. “There were a lot of seeing-eye singles.”
Kaleb Ambrose, Mullins and Haines all had two-run singles in the second.
“We had contributions from top to bottom,” Armstrong said. “It wasn’t just one or two guys. Everybody got involved.”
Brian Paramore had three his for the Mounties, while Ricky Itschner had two hits and scored twice. Game Espy had two singles, drove in a run and scored a run.
Carson Hauger had two of Lucas’ four hits, including a fourth-inning double — the game’s lone extra-base hit.
“That’s the only ball that really jumped off the batt all day,” Webb said. “Their pitchers weren’t overpowering, but we just couldn’t hit.
“Right now Carson is swinging one of the hottest bats on the team and he’s just a freshman.”
Youth Movement: The Cubs have just one senior and two juniors on the roster.
“We’re young and we need to work on being a little more consistent,” Webb said. “We went to extra innings against Danville (on Wednesday) and we were flat from the beginning tonight.”
