Bloomington North Claims Sectional 14 Title

By Ben Grossberg

Shelbyville – Bloomington North and East Central squared off for the Sectional 14 crown on Monday afternoon. Bloomington North had a big first inning and never looked back on their way to their 20^th straight win and a sectional title.

Adam Cornwell led off the game with a single and Blake Richardson followed that with a single of his own. North three hitter, Baron Ryan, came up next and drove a full count pitch over the left field fence to give North a 3-0 lead. North wasn’t done though. After the next two batters got out, Max Williams singled and Zach Cleaver was hit by a pitch. After a double steal put both of them in scoring position, Matt Tiller hit a sinking line drive to center that the centerfielder dove for, but could not catch allowing two more runs to score.

The scored stayed at 5-0 until the fourth when East Central got their only run of the game off Cornwell, North’s starter. A double by AJ Schomber and a single by Austin Holloway put runners on the corners with no outs. Cornwell was able to strikeout the next two batters, but a two out single from Mitchell Schuman got East Central on the board.

North immediately responded scoring two runs in the top of the fifth. Bryce Aldridge legged out a one out double, just beating the throw to second and was singled in by Colby Stratten. After another out, Cleaver doubled down the line and Stratten hustled all the way around the bases sliding safely into home, just in front of the throw.

In the top of the seventh North’s offense gave Cornwell three more runs to work with. A passed ball led to the first run of the inning and a bloop single to right from Jack Smith brought in two more runs pushing the lead to 10-1.

Ten runs were more than enough for Cornwell, who threw a complete game to get the win. The fourth inning was the only inning he struggled, never facing more than four batters in any other inning. He retired the final eight batters of the game and struck out nine during his seven innings of work while allowing just four hits. With the win North advances to the Regional next weekend in Evansville, they will take on Sectional 16 winner Evansville North.