Prep Baseball Report

Top-10 Stories of 2019: No. 6 Alexandria Overcomes 3-run Deficit, Wins 2A Title


Phil Wade
Indiana Executive Director

The Tigers from Alexandria score two in the sixth and twice more in the seventh to win first title since 1998.

Wed June 19, 2019
Pete Cava
PBR Indiana Correspondent

INDIANAPOLIS  – The third time is said to be charm, and perhaps it will be for the   Southridge   High School   baseball squad some day.  But any luck the Raiders had this season ran dry in the final innings of Tuesday night’s IHSAA Class 2A Championship at Victory Field.  
   
The Alexandria Monroe Tigers overcame a three-run deficit with a two-run sixth inning and scored twice more with two out in the bottom of the seventh for a staggering 4-3 comeback triumph.  Alexandria Monroe managed to push across the tying and winning runs after Southridge starting pitcher Ethan Bell had struck out the first three Tiger batters in the seventh.      
   
 Bell , the side-arming sophomore who took the loss, gave Southridge a gritty performance with ten strikeouts while allowing seven hits and a walk.  His defense betrayed him, however, as Alexandria Monroe’s final two runs were unearned.   
   
“He threw a heck of a game.  Hats off to him,” said Alexandria Monroe starter Brennan Morehead, who tossed a three-hitter for the win.  
   
“He did good,” Tigers coach Jeff  Closser said of  Bell ’s effort.  “We knew he was going to hang in there and throw a lot of strikes.”  
   
A year ago, Southridge dropped a 5-4 decision to Boone Grove in the Class 2A title bout.  Closser had high praise for the hard-luck Raiders.  “That’s a good baseball team over there,” said Closser.  “A good baseball team!”     
   
Brennan Morehead, Alexandria Monroe’s junior right-hander, struck out six and walked three.  Only two of the runs against him were earned.  “He’s nails,” gushed Closser.  “He’s a stud.  And we get him back next year.”  
   
Southridge took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first without the benefit of a hit.  With one out, a wild throw on Camden Gasser's grounder to short put a runner on second for the Raiders.  After a walk to Colson Montgomery, Brennan Morehead nicked Southridge cleanup hitter Chase Taylor to fill the sacks.  Ethan Bell's grounder forced  Taylor at second as Gasser flew home with the game's first run. Morehead fanned the next batter to prevent further damage.  
   
Alexandria Monroe squandered an opportunity in the bottom of the third.  Bub Misner, the Tigers' designated hitter, led off and was drilled by a pitch.  One out later, Trey Stokes singled to right to put runners on first and second.  After Kole Stewart's long fly out to right advanced Misner to third, Stokes stole second.  But Ethan Bell retired Morehead on a pop-up to short to escape unscathed.
 
Bell ignited another Southridge rally in the fourth. With one out, the lanky second-year man laced a single up the middle.  He scored on a drive to center by Joe LaGrange that fell for a double.  After LaGrange moved up on a wild pitch, Connor Oxley smashed a two-base hit to right-center that gave the Raiders a 3-0 lead.
 
In the fourth, Bell worked his way out of a fix after issuing a one-out base on balls to Rylan Metz and hitting Brayton Gaines with a pitch.  Bell again thwarted Alexandria Monroe by fanning the next two batters.
 
The Tigers finally solved Bell in the sixth.  With one away, back-to-back singles by Nick Williams and Rylan Metz put runners on first and second.  Brayton Gaines followed with a base hit to left that scored Caleb Bott, who ran for Williams, as Metz took third on the throw home.  When Bell’s first delivery to Miller Abernathy bounced in the dirt, Metz scampered home to cut the Southridge lead to 3-2.  Eli Whitman, pinch-running for Gaines, took second on the errant pitch, but he died there when Bell regained his composure and retired the next two batters
 
In the wake of that shaky fourth inning, Brennan Morehead allowed just one more Southridge baserunner.  After a two-out walk to Colton Montgomery in the fifth, Morehead closed out his night by retiring seven consecutive Raider hitters.
 
Bell took the mound in the bottom of the seventh protecting a one-run lead.  For a moment, it looked like he’d done it.  The first Alexandria Monroe batter struck out swinging and the next man looked at a called third strike.  That brought up Kole Stewart, who fanned on a 1-2 delivery. 
 
Southridge players and their fans were on their feet and screaming, certain that the Raiders had just avenged last year’s disappointing conclusion.  But the ball bounced in the dirt for a wild pitch, and as Stewart steamed toward first base, the throw by the Southridge catcher sailed into right field. 
 
Stewart made it to second on the miscue, and moments later he came in on a single to center by Brennan Morehead.  As Stewart scored, the throw from center field sailed to the backstop and Morehead took second. 
 
With the score 3-all, Nick Williams strode up to the plate.  Alexandria Monroe’s 6-foot-7 first baseman lifted a high fly ball down the left field line.  As three Southridge players seemed to converge near foul territory, the ball fell between them untouched. 
 
“It looked like they were struggling, to me,” said Alexandria Monroe’s Closser.  “The left fielder was playing deep, no doubles.  The shortstop kept looking for him.  I’m thinking it was probably his ball.  And then it dropped.  I didn’t think it would, but it did.”    

After making contact, Nick Williams admitted he was following the ball’s trajectory.  “I was trying not to,” he said, “but I was like ‘Dang, this might be going to extras!’  But all of a sudden it dropped, and it was like the greatest moment ever.”  
 
Stewart raced home with the winning run, giving Alexandria Monroe its first state title since 1998.  “We had five or six of the ’98 team here cheerin’ us up,” said Closser. “and that’s a really big lift.”
 
Brennan Morehead said he wasn’t worried, even when the Tigers were down by three with two innings to go.  “I had trust in my teammates the whole way,” he said.  “We didn’t come out strong, like we usually do, but we battled the whole way and came out on top.  It wasn’t the prettiest, but we got it done.”
 
As Alexandria Monroe’s players, parents and fans celebrated, the Southridge delegation headed home to Huntingburg, their hopes dashed once again.      
 
TOUCHING ALL THE BASES:  The game began under mostly sunny conditions on a warm, muggy night and took exactly two hours to complete.  
 
The Class 2A Mental Attitude Award went to Joe LaGrange, Southridge’s senior right fielder.
 
Jeff Closser closed out his thirteenth year as Alexandria Monroe's coach.  When the Tigers won the 1998 IHSAA Class 2A title, Jeff's son JD was the Mental Attitude Award Winner.  JD caught for the Colorado Rockies from 2004 to 2006 and is currently a minor league catching coordinator for the New York Yankees.
 
Southridge skipper Gene Mattingly – no relation to legendary Yankee first baseman and current Miami Marlins manager Don Mattingly, an Evansville native – served as an assistant to three Raiders coaches before taking over the head post in 2017.  He told reporters he spent “twelve or thirteen years” as an assistant coach at Southridge.  In his two years in charge of the Raiders, they've made it to the 2A championship game both times.
 
Two future Big Ten players were on display Tuesday night.  Southridge center fielder Tucker Schank is an Indiana University recruit, while Camden Gasser, the Raiders' sophomore third sacker, has committed to Michigan.
 
Six players in the Southridge lineup started for the Raiders in last year's championship game at Victory Field:  catcher Chase Taylor, first baseman Camden Gasser, shortstop Colson Montgomery, center fielder Tucker Schank, and right fielder Joe LaGrange.  Ethan Bell, this year's starting pitcher, made a relief appearance in 2018 while Patrick Sander, tonight's starting second baseman, served as a pinch-runner a year ago. Cort Gerber, who was on the bench this time around, also pinch-ran in last season’s title game.