By Justin Sokeland
WBIW.com
BEDFORD – Dial “0” for the operator. Bedford North Lawrence pitchers Cade Mungle and Cristos McCormick, operating at push-button speed, hit that number seven times. What does zero times seven equal? In baseball math, that’s a ‘W.’
Mungle, a fluid left-hander with snappy stuff, struck out 10 in five innings, and McCormick completed the task as the Stars shut down Linton 6-0. BNL (9-3) recorded its second shutout of the season (the first was the combined no-hitter against Scottsburg) and made the most of its limited offensive output.
BNL won this one with mound excellence. Mungle allowed only three hits and worked around couple of errors, McCormick fanned two more Miners. And don’t forget the work of Jonny Stone behind the plate. He’s the man in charge, the catcher who calls every pitch. When the catcher-pitcher system is synchronized, it’s a marvel.
Nobody has a better view of the action than the man in the mask. Stone knew quickly that Mungle was dialed in, that his fastball was sizzling, that his curveball was slippery.
“When he’s getting it over, when he’s getting the curveball over,” Stone said. “When he gets the changeup over is when he’s at his best. He was getting the fastball over, and I knew they couldn’t touch it. That was the best pitch to call.“
Mungle was in attack mode. He threw only 79 pitches, 58 were strikes. None were hit that hard.
“Attacking hitters, getting ahead, trusting Jonny,” Mungle said. “Playing my game out there. Fastball to get ahead, whatever is working to keep them off balance. I was feeling good out there. Everything was working.”
Stone is the latest in BNL’s recent line of quality catchers. Brody Tanksley, Evan Waggoner, now Stone. That’s a decade of field leadership. Most coaches prefer to call pitches from the dugout. BNL coach Jeff Callahan trusts his senior with the decision on what to throw, when to throw it.
“That’s a lot on a high school kid,” Callahan said. “A lot of schools, even colleges, don’t let their pitchers and catchers work together. We’ve done that for the last several years, and it’s worked out well. He’s a student of the game and really thinks it through. It’s not an easy job.“
“I’ve never really looked over for an opinion,” Stone said.
The Stars needed some runs to make all those zeroes add up. They got one in the second (Will Adams with a RBI single), one in the third (Cal Gates singled, stole second and scored on a Kline Woodward ground ball), one in the fourth (Ryker Hughes walked, took second on a wild pitch and later scored on another errant offering).
In the fifth, BNL added three insurance runs, with Hughes and Adams connecting for two-out RBIs.
Gates had two hits and scored twice. Adams had two hits and drove in two runs.
But the more impressive aspect was the pitching. Russell Goodman had two hits for Linton, everyone else was befuddled by the Mungle curve and late on the fastball.
“From a hitter’s point of view, they love that curve,” Stone said. “But it moves so much, they can’t touch it. When he’s trusting me, he’s definitely at his best.“
“Any time you hang up seven zeroes, you’re probably going to win,” Callahan said.
BNL will host Columbus East on Tuesday.
