Western Boone Jr. - Sr. High School

Western Boone baseball coach Michael Nance has seen the growth on senior Bryce Kopriva on the pitching mound during his time at Western Boone. Other teams are starting to take notice too. Kopriva had a dominate performance against North Montgomery on Tuesday night in game one of their double header, allowing just one run on five hits in a complete game 2-1 win. He struck out four and walked one." "We want to be multi-sport athletes at Western Boone, but he made the decision to really focus on his pitching, and it's showing," Nance said. "He has been going to lessons, he's been throwing a lot, and he really looks to be in late April, early May form." Kopriva has pitched 11.2 innings this year, allowing just one earned run and striking out 14. It is a carry over from the end of last year, when he gave up two runs or less in his final six starts. "He's always located his fast ball well, but now he is locating his breaking ball too," Nance said. "We are comfortable with him throwing it any time in any count, and that makes him really tough to get to." As strong as Kopriva was, the Stars couldn't get much going against the North Montgomery pitchers either. Tied 1-1 in the bottom of the seventh, Brennan Kopriva started the rally with a single. Three batters later, Luke Jackson was intentionally walked and Gavin Hawkins walked to load the bases. Jackson Grimes came through with a single up the middle to win the game. "We spend a lot of time talking about a team-first approach at the plate, and you saw that from Jackson Grimes," Nance said. "He took a big swing with a 2-0 count and didn't get the pitch he wanted, but really choked up and made sure he got the ball up the middle and it went through." The Chargers took game two 2-1 to split the two-game series. It was the first split in the series since 2019. "Honestly, getting a split is OK, I'm just a little disappointed in how we lost the second game," Nance said. "Our attention to detail wasn't where it needed to be in the second game. But the way Bryce pitched and getting the win in game one, that was important." The Chargers jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning in game two. WeBo hung around, but couldn't claw back in the game. The Chargers added a run in the fourth and four runs without a hit in the fifth. Cole Wiley was 2-for-3 and Gavin Hawkins has the Stars' RBI. The Stars had 10 walks in the game. The Stars host Sheridan on Thursday and Pike on Saturday. "There is a bunch of offense stuff we need to work on tomorrow," Nance said. "Pitching and defense - I am extremely happy with what we are doing, but offensively we have to be better." Will Willems is the Sports Editor of the Lebanon Reporter. Follow him on Twitter @Will_Willems. The JV Stars fell to North Montgomery 3-2 last night. Webo collected 3 hits from Evan Kiplinger, Johnathan Rutherford, and Cale Scagnoli. The Stars lone run was scored on a Zach Sprong sacrifice fly that scored Kiplinger. The bright spot for the Stars came from the pitching mound. Luke Cummins, Owen Oakley, and Jackson Long pitched combined to only give up 2 hits and struck out 4. All 3 runs were unearned. The JV Stars are back in action on Tuesday as they host Lebanon.