By Pete Cava
PBR Indiana Correspondent

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On a cold, cloudy, wind-swept Saturday more suited for football than baseball, Class 4A No. 5 Andrean boarded a team bus at 6:30 a.m. (Central) in Merrillville and headed to Fishers for an 11:00 a.m. (Eastern) contest with Scott Henson's 4A No. 19 Hamilton Southeastern Royals.  

That afternoon, Dave Pishkur's 59ers headed to Indianapolis for a game with North Central.  

Heading into the final frame, it looked like Andrean’s ride back to the Region would be a long, somber trip.  

HAMILTON SOUTHEASTERN 8, ANDREAN 2:  Backed by Matt Gorski’s bases-loaded triple, senior left-hander Mike Pachmayer pitched a complete-game, three-hit victory for the host Royals (13-8).   

Andrean jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first.  Pachmayer clipped leadoff hitter Evan Hylek with a pitch on a 1-2 count.  Hylek went to second on Pat Reardon's sac bunt and Kevin McCune followed with a run-scoring double to the center field fence. 

In the bottom of the second, HSE loaded the bases with none out against Andrean starter Jake Sweeney.  The 59ers sophomore right-hander hit Brock Burns to start the frame.  Pachmayer and Cole Jacobs followed with infield singles.  

That brought Gorski to the plate, and the senior second baseman drilled a 3-1 pitch to center that cleared the sacks.  Gorski rounded third and headed home, and when the relay throw went awry, the IU commit scored for a 4-1 HSE lead. 

Andrean made it 4-2 in the third when Hylek walked, moved to second on an infield out, and came in on a two-base hit by McCune that sailed over the head of the HSE left-fielder.      

When HSE’s Owen Callaghan opened the bottom of the fifth with a single, Dave Pishkur went to his bullpen and brought in Justin Ruthrauff.  The junior left-hander walked Burns, and Pachmayer, the next Royals batter, laid down a bunt.  Both runners advanced, and when the throw to first was wild, Pachmayer was safe, Callaghan scored, and Burns went to third.  

Jacobs then lashed an 0-2 delivery for a triple that made it 7-2.  When Spencer Irick grounded to short, Jacobs flew home to close out the scoring. 

Pachmayer threw 103 pitches, 76 of them for strikes.  He relied on a fastball and slider to rack up nine strikeouts against one walk.  Pachmayer claimed Saturday’s miserable weather didn't phase him.  “I love pitching in the cold,” said the lanky BallState commit.  “It's like my natural habitat out here.  Batters are scared of it (the chilly temperatures).  I like throwing hard, and they seem not to hit it.”  

ANDREAN 6, NORTH CENTRAL 5 (8 INNINGS):  After Saturday morning’s somnambulant performance against Hamilton Southeastern, the 59ers sleep-walked through the first six innings of the afternoon contest with the Panthers. 

“We didn’t play well in the first game,” said Dave Pishkur, Andrean’s Indiana Baseball Hall of Fame coach.  “We didn’t play well in this game.  The way they were playing, it didn’t look like we were very well-prepared.  The coaches got together, and we said, ‘This doesn’t look like we have all our starters here.’  And we had everybody out there.” 

Down 5-1 with two out in the seventh, Andrean designated hitter Joe Rycerz’s homer ignited a four-run rally that tied the score.  In the eighth, Rycerz came through with what proved to be the game-winning hit.  

Less than twenty-four hours earlier, Phil McIntyre had led North Central past Brebeuf Jesuit for the Marion County title at Victory Field.  Like Andrean, the Panthers played a double-header Saturday, dropping their first game 6-5 to South BendWashington (South Bend Washington then headed to HSE for its second game of the day).    

Sophomore Sam Behrmann, another tall, lean left-hander, took the hill for North Central (11-12-1) and kept the 59ers at bay for most of the game.  

Andrean (21-3) reached Behrmann for a run in the top of the second.  Adam Bednarek led off with a walk, moved to second on a wild pitch and reached third on an infield out.  With two away, Tommy Benson lifted a fly ball that the 59er right fielder dropped as Bednarek raced home.  

The Panthers scored twice in the bottom of the inning.  Michael Doolin, Andrean’s freshman right-hander, walked Sammy Lee to open the frame and Travis Finchum beat out a bunt for a base hit.  When Tommy Cagnassola bunted, the throw to first was wild. Lee scored, and Finchum went to second.  After Cagnassola stole second, Berhmann helped his own cause with a long fly to right field foul territory that brought in Finchum for a 2-1 North Central lead.    

North Central had three men on in the bottom of the third after a double by Roy Thurman III, a hit batsman and a two-out walk.  Doolin got out of the dilemma by getting Cagnassola on a grounder to third. 

Doolin's luck ran out in North Central's half of the fourth.  Berhmann bunted for a base hit to start things, and Jacob Snider followed with a single to left.  The runners moved up on a wild pitch, and Behrmann scored when A.J. Shuder beat out an infield hit.  

That ended Doolin's day, and Justin Ruthrauff, the side-arming junior lefty, moved from right field to the mound.  

Ruthrauff retired the first man he faced, but after an intentional walk to Thurman, he nicked North Central cleanup hitter Allbry Major to force in a run.  When Lee's sacrifice fly plated Shuder, the Panthers were up 5-1.    

Behrmann took that lead into the top of the seventh and retired the first two batters he faced.  That brought up Rycerz, who whacked a 3-1 fastball over the right field fence.  The home run narrowed Andrean’s deficit to 5-2, and brought the 59ers to life like a rush of adrenaline.  

Benson singled, Eric Mularski walked and Hylek was hit by a pitch to load the bases.  Sophomore Nick Elmendorf replaced Berhmann for the Panthers, and Ruthrauff greeted him with a single that scored Benson and Mularski to cut Andrean’s deficit to 5-4. 

When Elmendorf worked the count on Kevin McCune to one ball and two strikes, North Central appeared to be one pitch away from victory.   

McCune squibbed Elmendorf’s next pitch in front of the plate.  Lee, North Central’s catcher, pounced on the ball and threw to first.  But the North Central first baseman couldn’t hold on to it, and Hylek came in to tie the game at 5-all. 

Adam Bednarek, who started the game at second base for Andrean, became the fourth Andrean pitcher of the day.  The junior right-hander pitched a scoreless seventh, and then led off the top of the eighth with a base hit up the middle.  A wild pitch sent Bednarek to second, and he took third on Clay Thompson’s bunt sacrifice.  

That brought Rycerz to the plate, and with an 0-2 count, the rangy sophomore lined a single to center that brought in Bednarek with the deciding run.   “We have a saying:  ‘Andrean kids find a way,’” said Rycerz.  “I was just trying to protect with two strikes and put my team in position to win.”  

“The last inning – I don’t know!  I don’t know what happened,” said Coach Pishkur.  “We just brought in guy after guy after guy, and for some reason, we found a couple of base hits.  A little bloop here, a nubber in front of the plate … I don’t know if we deserved to win, but we got a win out of it.”  

Junior Billy Johnson came on to pitch for Andrean in the bottom of the eighth, and the right-hander retired the side in order to close out the two-hour, 16-minute game.  

Rycerz’s heroics Saturday apparently earned him a regular spot in the Andrean lineup.  “This is the first game we let him DH for us,” said Pishkur.  “He’s a sophomore, and we brought him up.  He’s a third baseman, he’s a pitcher, he’s a catcher, he’s a tight end (on Andrean’s football squad).  He’s a good athlete.  We’ve been hurting at first base.  We’re going to move him to first next week, and he’s going to play first base probably the rest of the year.”    

CAUGHT ON THE FLY:  Josh Wooten, North Central's senior catcher, sat out the Andrean game after taking a foul ball off the facemask in the game with South Bend Washington.  … HSE senior right-hander Andrew Bohm underwent Tommy John surgery last month.  The Purdue commit is out for rest of the season after throwing just three innings for the Royals. 

Pete Cava is the author of Indiana-Born Major League Baseball Players:  A Biographical Dictionary, 1871-2014, now available from McFarland Publishers.