Columbus North High School

April 22, 2023 - Fourth-ranked Noblesville jumped out to a 6-0 lead over Mike Bodart’s Columbus North varsity baseball team. Bodart’s message to the team was simple. “We don’t need to get all the runs back at once. Just chip away and win one inning at a time and we’ll be fine. We have a lot of game left.” The team took Bodart’s message to heart and battled back to a 7-7 tie after seven innings, scoring runs in each inning from the second to the sixth. A four-run inning by the Millers in the top of the eighth, however, ended the Bull Dogs rally, and dropped them to 6-6 for the season. Connor Hensley started on the mound for the Bull Dogs, but lasted only two innings, giving up six runs on seven hits while striking out two. Ryan Rayburn came on in relief and pitched the next four innings, allowing just one unearned run on no hits, striking out four batters. Joey Fry pitched the seventh and beginning of the eighth and gave up the four runs in the eighth inning before handing the ball to freshman Jesse Clark who finished off the final two batters. Dillon James and Hensley each had a pair of hits for North, while Kyler Hashman knocked in three runs. The Dogs pounded out eleven hits as their bats have started to come alive the past couple of games after a slow start to the season. The JV team also played an extra-inning game, knocking off Roncalli 5-4 in eight innings to improve their season record to 7-1. Jayce Emmitt had two hits, Jackson Newman had two RBI, and Jesse Clark scored three runs, including the game winner in the eighth inning for the Bull Dogs. North will host Conference Indiana foe Southport for JV and varsity contests on Tuesday, April 25, beginning at 6:00 pm. Photo: Left-handed pitcher Ryan Rayburn threw four solid innings for the Bull Dogs as they fell to fourth-ranked Noblesville in eight innings on Saturday (April 22).