Henryville coach Jeff Schroeder said junior right-hander Cole Pirrmann came into the season vying for a rotation spot for the Hornets.

Monday night, in a 14-2 Southern Athletic Conference title clinching win, Pirrmann came up big once again. Holding the Rebels to five hits and two runs, Pirrmann issued only one walk and let his defense do a bulk of the work behind him.

“Pirrmann has done a great job, and, to be honest, it wasn’t expected before the season,” said Schroeder. “We thought he’d maybe be our No. 3 but he’s now clearly our guy. He comes out, throws strikes and changes speeds. He lets us make plays.”

Senior Kade Badger not only took the lead at the plate (3 for 5 with five RBIs) but also in the field. The shortstop made play after play on every ball hit in his vicinity.

“Kade did a super job at shortstop today,” said Schroeder. “He made some plays that I think took some hits away from their guys. Our outfielders played well too. Overall, it was a good effort.”

South Central’s bats only stuck out three times versus Pirrmann’s complete game effort.

“Pirrmann threw a good game and we never made adjustments,” said South Central co-coach Alex Wiseman. “He has a pretty decent curve ball and a fastball we see every day. We didn’t adjust to him. We’ve been scoring six to eight runs in our last several games but today we were hitting weak fly ball after weak fly ball.”

Henryville’s offense scored the first runs of the game in the second when Parker Rappe reached on an infield hit. After Alec Drollinger sacrificed him to second, Drew Lindley hit a single, kept in the infield by a diving play from South Central shortstop Wesley Wilson. Two batters later, Tyler Orberson reached on an error. Badger made it 3-0 with a double to right that got past a diving Frank Goodman in center. Badger, however, was thrown out trying to stretch the play into a triple.

“(Badger) is a competitor,” Schroeder said of the multi-sport standout who had committed to play basketball at Mount St. Joseph. “He comes to battle. After the first inning, I wasn’t sure we came ready to play, but I knew he was. The rest of them kicked it in gear. His toughness carried over to the other guys.”

A pair of South Central errors allowed Rappe to bring in a Henryville run in the third off South Central starter Zach Needler. Miscues in the field piled up for the Rebels at times, committing five errors.

“We made mistakes in the field the first two innings and we let it get to us,” said South Central co-coach Brad Wiseman. “It translated to our sticks. We let our fielding mistakes carry over to our hitting.”

Pirrmann faced the minimum in the second through fourth innings as Henryville added to its cushion in the top of the fifth. Five consecutive singles hit by Pirrmann, Elijah Marcum, Ian Stumpf, Rappe and Drollinger prompted a three run inning. The Hornets did have a double steal attempt sniffed out by the Rebels, but pressed the lead to 7-0.

Run scoring at bats from Badger and Pirrmann in the sixth expanded the margin to nine.

South Central had its best offensive tries in the fifth and sixth innings. In the fifth, a two-out hit by Will Weber saw him reach. Dawson O’Connor followed by reaching on an error. Pirrmann worked out of trouble by inducing a Needler fly out.

Moving to the sixth, Wilson used his speed to reach on an infield single for South Central. Wyatt Crosier followed with a single on the infield as well. To bring in two runs, Austin Tyree lifted a sac fly to right and Chase Schoen delivered a single to left.

“They put the ball in play and we didn’t make plays,” said Alex Wiseman. “We put the ball soft in play and they didn’t make many mistakes. In the sixth inning we were able to put some pressure on them.”

The two runs would be all the Rebels scored as Henryville poured on four more in the seventh.

The win wrapped up the SAC conference title for Henryville. South Central, who entered with one league loss, was vying for a chance to share the honor.

“It’s a humbling experience,” said Alex Wiseman. “It brings us back down to earth. In the end, the game doesn’t mean much for our end of the season goals. We are going to approach the rest of May the same way whether we won the (SAC) or not. We have to learn from it, get better mentally and prepare for sectional.”

Henryville had Rappe and Drollinger have two hit days to go with Badger’s three hits which included two doubles.

“He’s an unorthodox kid with his approach at the plate but has great hand-eye coordination,” Schroeder said of Rappe, who reached in all four plate appearances. “He puts the ball in play and gets things done in clutch situations. He’s done that a lot for us this year as a sophomore who didn’t play a lot last year.”

Schroeder said he wants his team to continue to put the ball in play and put pressure on the opposing team.

“As a team, we are very young for the most part,” he said. “I knew we had some growing to do but what I like now is our approach at the plate. We’ve gone from trying to pull everything to now using the entire field. We had numerous hits to center and right center today. When we attempt to do that, we can be a pretty good bunch.”

Henryville        031  032  5 – 14 11  1

South Central  000  002  0 –  2   5   5

W – Cole Pirrmann, L – Zach Needler.

2B – Kade Badger 2 (H), Alec Drollinger (H).

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