Jimtown High School

Zartman catch preserves no-hitter as Jimtown downs Knox By Red Williams Freelance Sportswriter ELKHART – A spectacular diving catch by Ty Zartman in the 7th inning would have made the highlight film anywhere in the good ol’ US of A. Zartman’s dramatic feat helped Jimtown High School to a 7-0 victory over Knox in the semi-final round in Class 2A baseball Sectional 34 Saturday afternoon (5.31.25). With the win, the Jimmies (21-7) will tangle with Bremen’s Lions (18-9), who are a rival in the Indiana Northern State Conference, and barely lost to the Jimmies, 13-12, a few weeks ago. A good crowd was on hand on a sunny afternoon at Booster Field at Jimtown, with a slight wind blowing in from right field and the temperature in the mid-60’s. Pitchers Mason Armstrong (the right-handed starter) and Ben McAllister combined to hurl a no-hitter against the Redskins, with Armstrong going four innings. “We wanted to reserve some innings for Mason,” Coach Brandon Squibb explained. “It’s kind of tough to take out a guy when he’s got a no-hitter going, but he understood and was willing to go along with it.” He faced two over the minimum, walking two. The first was thrown out at second by Jimmy catcher Jackson Arbogast, and the second was forced out at second on a grounder to short. Armstrong struck out three. McAllister, also a righty, K-ed four in his three innings and also yielded two walks. Zartman’s highlight play came against the Redskins’ Myles Mclaughlin. He hit a deep drive toward the gap in left-center, and Zartman ran it down, stretched face forward across the ground and made the diving catch. “I was thinking, ‘I gotta get it, I gotta get it.’” And to the wonder of it all, he did. “We had been playing Knox a little toward right,” “Z” said, “but moved to straight-away when McLaughlin came up.” McLaughlin, who ran roughshod over the Jimmies last fall on the football field, was leading off the inning. Squibb lauded Zartman’s play and extoled the pitching of Armstrong and McAllister. “We wanted them to keep the pitch-count down,” he said, “to reserve some for later, if needed. “I also thought we were aggressive on the base-running and made no errors,” he added. “That’s our goal every game.” Senior second-baseman Connor Christman, who leads the Boys of Baugo with a dynamic .480 average, went three-for-four at the plate and scored twice, and Broderick Kaler lifted a long fly over the left field fence for a homer to cap off the scoring. All but one player in the lineup had a base hit for Jimtown. Kaler leads the team with 31 RBI. Squibb said he plans to put right-hander Dalton Cook on the bump for Monday’s championship contest against Bremen. He has a glowing 1.46 ERA, and threw a three-hit shutout in his outing Wednesday (5.29.25) against LaVille in the Sectional’s opener. Score by innings: Knox 000 000 0 – 0 0 3 Jimtown 320 101 X – 7 9 0 Umpires: Ryan Eakins, Luke Karczewski, Phillip Colborn.