Columbus North High School

May 5, 2024 - It took eleven innings and over three hours, but Columbus North was finally able to cross the plate and beat cross-town rival Columbus East 1-0 and improve to 14-3 for the season. Connor Hensley threw nine shutout innings, allowing only five hits and striking out twelve Olympians in a heroic outing. 85 of Hensley’s 112 pitches were for strikes as he improved his season ERA to just .618. Ryan Rayburn came on in relief in the tenth inning and allowed only one hit over the last two innings while earning the victory. Hensley also had two of the Bull Dogs’ five hits with Dillon James, Brock Kintner, and Joey Fry picking up the other three. The Bull Dogs were not without baserunners, however, as the Olympians’ pitchers allowed six walks and six hit-by-pitches (including two by Sam Perry). After a leadoff strikeout, Rayburn started the rally in the bottom of the eleventh inning with a walk. Perry and James followed with walks of their own to load the bases with one out. An infield fly left the bases loaded with two outs, but Kintner earned the game’s only RBI with a two-out walk to score Luke Hunter who was courtesy-running for Rayburn. North will continue a busy schedule with games on Monday at Southport, Tuesday at Westfield, and home against Bloomington South. Photo: Brock Kintner (8) and Jesse Clark (1) celebrate a bases-loaded walk that beat Columbus East 1-0 in an eleven-inning marathon Friday night. Also shown are Connor Hensley (22), who pitched the first nine innings, and Sam Perry (16) who was hit-by-pitch twice and was walked in the eleventh inning to help set up the winning score.