Semifinal 1

Evansville, IN – The southern 4A regional opened up with Jeffersonville and Bloomington North facing off. Jeffersonville sent ace LHP Trent Astle to the mound and North sent Junior RHP Colby Stratten.

North jumped on the board in the top of the first. After Astle got the first batter out he gave up three singles in a row to load the bases. He would strike the next batter out, but Stratten worked a full count walk to bring in the first run of the game.

Jeff would answer right back with two outs and a runner on second Astle singled with a line drive over the second baseman to bring in a run and tie up the game. Neither team could get another run over the next three innings as Astle and Stratten both looked good on the mound.

In the fifth Jeff took the lead. Stratten got the first two batters of the inning out, but gave up a single and a walk. Michael Oliphant was brought in to face Jeff’s best hitter Junior Isaac Crafton (Liberty). Crafton took the first pitch he saw a drove it into the left center field gap for a double that scored both runners and put Jeff up 3-1.

In the sixth North got one run back on a bomb from Senior Brice Stratton (Franklin). The homerun cleared both fences at Bosse field and cut the deficit to 3-2.

Astle came out on the mound in the 7^th to get the complete game win. He hit Senior Tyler Hurt to lead off the inning and Hurt advance to second on a sacrifice bunt. Adam Cornwell came up and drove a ball about 10 feet short of the fence for the second out and Hurt advanced to third. Blake Richardson was North’s last hope he hit a ball pretty well up the middle, but Dallas Bott (2013) made a nice backhanded play and threw on to first to end the game.

Astle went all seven innings allowing five hits (just one in the last five innings), striking out 10, and walking two. Stratten worked 4.2 innings allowing five hits, two walks, and striking out four.

 

 

Semifinal 2

Evansville, IN – In the second semifinal Castle and New Palestine faced off. Castle went to Junior Kennan Barnett and New Pal used Senior Brian Page. Castle would jumped out to an early lead scoring three runs in the first two innings.

Page struggled to find the strike zone in the top of the first and gave up walking the first batter and hitting the next batter. Bryson Jenkins (2013) came up next and lined a ball into right field. The runners held up worried the ball would be caught and Jenkins did not notice heading toward second. Jenkins would get caught in a rundown allowing Joe Redburn (2013) to score from third. Page would get a double play to get out of the inning without allowing any more damage.

In the second Alex Martin (2012) led off the inning with a double and Kyle Pitlick (2012) singled to center to score another run. With two outs and Pitlick on second Redburn came through with a single to left to score another run and put Caslte up 3-0.

New Pal got on the board in the bottom of the third. Alex Rejer (2013) doubled to left scoring two runs to bring New Pal within one run. One batter later with Rejer on third New Pal tied the game up with a sacrifice fly from Jacob Barnes (2012).

In the fourth New Pal opened the game up a little bit. Cameron Clark (2014) got the scoring going with a RBI single to left. Nick Ulrey (2013) laid down a perfect bunt to load the bases. After an out Alec Shull (2012) worked a walk to bring in another run and put New Pal up 5-3. Then an error by the second baseman on a ball hit by Rejer led to another run and Brian Page capped off the inning with a sac fly to put New Pal up 7-3 after four inning.

Castle would threaten in the fifth and the sixth. In the fifth they got their first two batter on bases, but a fielder’s choice got the first out of the inning. After Page hit the next batter he was able to get a double play ball to end the threat. In the sixth New Pal had runners on first and second with one out, but again Page was able to get a double play ball to end the inning.

In the 7^th Page struck out the first batter, gave up a one out single, and then set down the next to batter to send New Pal into the regional championship.

 

Regional Final

Evansville, IN – The regional championship between Jeffersonville and New Pal was one of the most exciting games of the season, with both teams looking like they were going to walk away with the crown.

Jeff got on the board early with a homerun to left from Drew Ellis (2014) and then three batters later Nick Gallagher came through with a two out RBI single to center field to give Jeff a 2-0 lead after the top of the first.

New Pal would not score in the first two innings, but finally broke through with a big third inning. New Pal’s first three batters reached to start the innings and they got on the board from an error by Jeff’s third baseman. Starting pitcher Reid Clark then hit a sac fly to tie the game at two. With one out Cameron Clark (2014) singled to center to put New Pal ahead and a 1^st and 3^rd double steal brought in another run putting New Pal up 4-2 after three innings.

Jeff would respond though putting up four runs of their own in the top of the fourth. Isaac Crafton (2013) singled to right to bring in the first run of the inning and Ellis doubled on a ball that just stayed inside the third base line to bring around another run. An error on the shortstop allowed Crafton to score from second and Josh Burke (2014) had an infield single that brought in Ellis to give Jeff a lead of 6-4.

New Pal would then respond themselves bringing three runs in during the bottom of the fourth. They got their first run of the frame with Jeff’s left fielder lost the ball in the light and picked it up at the last second, but couldn’t haul in the baseball. With two outs and runners on second and third Reid Clark came through with a big two run single to right center to give New Pal the lead back at 7-6.

New Pal would add two more runs in the sixth thanks to RBI singled from Brian Page (2012) and Reid Clark giving New Pal a 9-6 advantage.

Going into the 7^th with Jeff trailing 9-6, you could tell they were not going to go down without a fight. Chanse Oliver (2012) led off the inning with a walk and Dallas Conway singled to right. Isaac Crafton came up and quickly doubled to left center to cut Jeff’s deficit to two runs. Ellis would then hit a sac fly to center to bring in another run. After the next batter got out Jeff was down to their final wout with a runner on second. Josh Burke came up to the plate and lined a ball to right field bringing in the tying run.

With the game tied the teams looked destined to head into extra innings. Shull led off the bottom of the 7^th inning by getting hit by a pitch, but back to back fielder’s choices gave New Pal two outs with a runner on second. That’s when Jacob Barnes stepped to the plate. Barnes last week hit a three run homerun against Greenwood to give New Pal a 4-3 lead in the fifth inning. This time Barnes did what everyone dreams of as a kid. Barnes took a pitch and hit it deep over the left field wall to give New Pal a walk off two run victory and a Regional Championship.