Central Catholic Knights beginning to roll!

Central Catholic senior pitcher Taylor Glaze took McCutcheon senior Trey Fankhauser's first-inning single in stride on Friday.

But annoyance built in the left-handed Glaze as Fankhauser, the only left-handed hitter in the Mavericks' lineup, singled in his next two at-bats and ripped a double in the seventh.

"What'd he go, 4-for-4," Glaze asked. "I was getting kind of frustrated over there."

The ultimate frustration belonged to the Mavericks. Glaze stranded Fankhauser in scoring position for the fourth time in the seventh while preserving Class A No. 3 Central Catholic's 3-1 victory over McCutcheon at Gordon Leming Field.

The rest of the Mavericks managed only three singles against Glaze (3-2).

"If he pitched in our conference, he'd be one of the top pitchers in our conference -- he's that good," said Fankhauser, who is 7-for-13 in three games over the past three days. "This is almost like their Super Bowl, and they want to beat McCutcheon. We need to match their intensity. It's great that we can see their ace so we don't have a game off."

While the wind blew out throughout Friday's game, Glaze and McCutcheon junior Shane Bryant quickly locked into a pitcher's duel. Bryant (1-2) allowed only four hits.

But the Mavericks (11-6) couldn't capitalize on their chances against Glaze and stranded 10 runners, including six in scoring position. Central Catholic's Cole Hruskovich singled home Jake Churchill in the third and scored on Scott Windler's double, giving the Knights a sufficient 3-0 lead.

"We couldn't get the big hit," McCutcheon coach Jake Burton said. "They got the big hits in the third inning. We gave them a run in the second, but other than that it was a pretty good ballgame."

Zach Tippy's RBI single with two out in the sixth spoiled Glaze's shutout bid. Fankhauser doubled with one out in the seventh, and Glaze hit Cody Strong with a pitch to bring the go-ahead run to the plate.

But Bryan Chenoweth and Gaven Schreckengast both flew out to right field, and CC secured its eighth straight victory. Glaze hoped to avoid a repeat of Thursday's night's slugfest, in which CC defeated Kokomo 17-7.

"If I hang anything, they're going to take it for a ride, like last night," Glaze said. "That was my game plan: keep it low, and hopefully they hit some ground balls."

Central Catholic is rolling!

Central Catholic, taking on one of the top teams in Class 4A, put on impressive offensive performances in a 17-7 victory over Kokomo on Thursday.

T.J. Weir hit the first of two home runs to help Class 4A No. 9 Kokomo (11-2) score four times in the top of the first. Central Catholic (11-3), ranked No. 3 in Class A, chipped away with two runs in the bottom half of the first and five runs in the second inning.

Central Catholic's Chas Bobillo picked the right time to hit his first career home run. The third-inning grand slam off of Kokomo reliever Phillip Kuhns all but put the game out of reach.

When the Wildkats threatened to come back with two runs in the fourth inning, Bobillo relived starter Austin Munn and shut hard-hitting Kokomo out over the final 2 2/3 innings.

Central Catholic coach Tim Bordenet said while he wasn't worried about Kokomo's early four-run lead, he knew that the Knights could not allow the advantage to linger.

"With the wind blowing the way it was, you knew you weren't out of the game," Bordenet said. "Kokomo is a very good team and we knew when they scored those runs we had to answer them. We didn't have to get them all back at the same time, but we had to respond."

Weir's two-run homer and Devin Schacht's two-run double provided the Wildkats their early edge.

Kokomo starter Nick Lorenc opened the first by walking Cole Hruskovich and Taylor Glaze. After Scott Windler singled, Lorenc walked Reed Drysdale to score the Knights first run. Reliever Pete Keyes came in and threw a wild pitch to score Glaze.

"This game was frustrating because we didn't pitch well," said Kokomo coach Steve Edwards. "We put a kid out there and hoped he'd pitch well and he didn't. Central Catholic's a great team but we're a good team, too, and we just didn't bring it today."

Weir hit his second home run of the game in the second inning, crushing an 0-1 pitch over the left field wall to increase Kokomo's lead to 5-2.

The Knights made it all back at the bottom of the inning by stringing together six singles. Windler's two-run single and run-scoring hits by Bobillo, Munn and Jason Aldridge gave the Knights a 7-5 edge.

"We have confidence against anyone we play, but playing a big team like this will certainly boost our confidence even more," said Bobillo, who finished the game with five RBIs. "That's a big win for a little Class A school like us."

Central Catholic tacked on four more runs in the fifth inning and two in the sixth inning to end the game on the 10-run rule. Windler finished the game with four hits while Hruskovich had three hits. Glaze drew walks in all five of his at-bats and scored four times.