Highlights: Germantown's J.P. Robertson strikes out nine in 9-3 win over Madison Central

GLUCKSTADT — It may be one game in March, but Germantown’s 9-3 win over in-county rival Madison Central served notice that the Mavericks intend to compete in Region 4.

Germantown got a solid start out of right-hander J.P. Robertson and took advantage of six Jaguar errors in route to a blowout win on a cold, damp night.

“We’ll always take the help,” Germantown coach Brian Hardy said. “They gave us those first couple of runs, then we gave them a few back a couple innings later. It was sort of a sloppy game, but I thought our guys took advantage of situations a little better tonight.”

Everything that could go wrong for the defending state champions did exactly that in the first inning.

MC starter Chase Russell appeared to have escaped a bases-loaded jam, but a dropped fly ball in right field off the bat of Hampton Ross cleared the bases for Germantown (9-4). Two batters later, Conner Ware drove in a run with an RBI single to center field to run the Maverick lead to 4-0.

Another throwing error gave Germantown a 5-0 lead before Russell struck out the ninth batter of the inning for the third out.

Russell lasted just two innings, but struck out four and walked two batters, allowing just two hits. In fact, only one of Germantown’s nine runs Thursday was earned. The Jags’ five pitchers combined for a respectable eights strikeouts, six walks and gave up seven hits.

On the other side, Robertson spun a gem. He threw 115 pitches in six innings, striking out nine batters with four walks and four hits allowed. He got dinged for one of Madison Central’s three runs — Thomas’ Nichols RBI single that brought Reed McCrillis home in the sixth.

“The coaches did a good job of getting me ready,” Robertson said. “My curveball was on point, my fastball was on point, and my change up was really good today. Plus, I felt like I had a defense behind me that could handle whatever.”

The Mavericks added two more runs on another error in the third inning, and capped things off with an RBI fielder’s choice off the bat of Andrew Dinkelacker in the sixth.

The win was big for Germantown, which opened region play with a win. The Jaguars (9-6) had won nine of 10 coming in, and defeated the Mavericks 16-0 in their only meeting a year ago.

“I told the guys after the game, the only thing harder than beating Madison Central once, is beating them twice in a row,” Hardy said. “We know we didn’t get their best shot tonight, and we know they are going to be ready to play down at their place (Friday).”

The two teams are scheduled to play two mores games in the series — with the final two games set for 7 p.m. Friday and Noon Saturday, respectively.