4A East Central: Bloomington South, Columbus East Advace

After a 40 minute rain delay cross town rivals met up for the second time this season in a highly anticipated set sure to show some offense. Senior right handed pitchers Chris Cole and Dylan Steele, an Indiana University commit, made sure to disrupt that story line.

Steele, an experienced standout at Bloomington North, took the mound first shoving an 89 MPH fastball on the hands to hitters forcing uncomfortable swings. The future Hoosier struck out five allowing just two hits and a total of five base runners in five innings of work.

It was that hit, however, that ended up deciding the game for the Panthers as Senior Wil Stockman drove a two-strike hanging curveball over the left field fence leading off the second inning. 

Stockman's homerun aside, the real story of the game was South's starter Senior Chris Cole who seemed to pull a rabbit out of his hat every inning. A complete game, three hit, four strikeout tour de force must have earned Cole the player of the game nod as he boarded the bus for home. 

In the second, fourth and sixth innings Cole stranded runners at third all of which would have evened the score and given North some much needed momentum. A strikeout and a pair of fly outs kept those runners from crossing the plate and extended the Bloomington South season. 

Another game, another impressive performance on the mound for Junior RHP Cole Gilley. And while the first game had rain and a wet track to deal with, the Columbus East Olympians and the Golden Bears of Shelbyville got to deal with a rolling fog in the outfield. 

Gilley, nevertheless, just found a way to deal. Utilizing a fastball with flashy sink action and a curveball with some increased velocity and firmness, Gilley sat down thirteen hitters and allowed just one hit before tiring later in the game. Working out of a few jams including a one-out bases loaded issue the uncommitted righty just simply looked in control. 

Olympian hitters likewise did just enough to pick up the victory. Senior Jonah Wichman had two of the East's five hits and came around to score on a Julian Greenwell double. 

From then on it was pitching and defense. Shelbyville did their part on the mound using two pitchers for three frames a piece. Starter Grant Martin allowed the run but gave up just three hits a walk and struck out three. Reliever Connor Beagle also tossed three innings striking out three and allowing just two hitters to reach base. 

Columbus East and Bloomington South will face off in Friday night's first game with a chance to reach the Sectional 14 Championship where they will face the winner of Friday's evening game between host East Central and No. 9 Columbus North. 

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