By Steve Krah
PBR Indiana Correspondent

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INDIANAPOLIS — A junior near the bottom of the batting order helped lift Northview to the top of the IHSAA Class 3A baseball mountain. 

Hayden France, batting No. 8 for the Knights, knocked in the go-ahead run Saturday, Saturday, June 18 at Victory Field as Northview (25-6) edged Westview 2-1 for the Brazil-based school’s first state championship in any sport. 

Did he ever have a bigger hit in his life? 

“Never,” France said during the medal presentation ceremony. 

The Knights scored one run in the bottom of the sixth inning to take a 2-1 lead. 

The frame opened with senior Dalton Shaw rocketing a lead-off single to left off Western senior right-hander Dalton Leighty then being replaced on the bases by freshman Trey Shaw, who was thrown out trying to steal — junior catcher Tyler Burthay to sophomore shortstop Tyler Knepley. 

After two outs, junior Alex Reinoehl walked and junior Luke Lancaster cracked a single to center sending Reinoehl to third base. 

France, a right-handed batter, sent a 3-1 pitch to right field to drive in Reinoehl with the go-ahead run. 

“They threw me two balls real quick,” France said. “Coach (Craig Trout) gave me the take (sign) until a strike and I’ll be danged if it wasn’t the best-looking pitch I saw all night.  

“So my mentality is that I’m not expecting that same pitch again because it was right down the middle. I was expecting it on the outside corner. I just let it travel in the (strike) zone a second longer and I hit in the right field gap.” 

Trout said it was France’s ability to change that made it possible for him to be a diamond hero. 

“That’s a kid that hasn’t had the best season,” Trout said of a player who came in with a .195 batting average. “He’s made some swing adjustments that past couple of weeks and started centering the ball up. I had a lot of confidence in him. I put him out there and he did the job, not me.” 

The inning ended with shortstop Knepley making a tumbling catch to retire junior Matt Clawson. 

Northview scored a two-out unearned run in the bottom of the fifth inning to tie the game at 1-all. 

Lancaster led off the inning with a single to right (and was replaced by sophomore pinch runner Andy Young). Young moved to second base on a sacrifice bunt by France and third base on a wild pitch. 

With two outs, Young scored when the Panthers misplayed a ball off the bat of junior Jase Glassburn. 

Trout described the mentality of his players in the dugout during the tight contest. 

“Keep fighting — we’ve done it all year,” Trout said. “We’ve had to scratch and claw to get where we’re at.” 

Western went down in order in the bottom of the seventh inning — the final two outs on strikeouts by sophomore right-hander Braydon Tucker (win, 10-1; 7 innings, 1 run, 4 hits, 9 strikeouts, 3 walks). 

“My motivation kicked in and I really wanted to blow by these guys with my fastball,” Tucker said. “I threw a couple inside (to right-handed hitters) and they started turning out it so we decided we weren’t going to throw any more inside.” 

The coach sang the praises of his mound ace. 

“He’s a bulldog,” Trout said of Tucker. “He gets stronger and stronger and the game goes. That’s something that’s really special.” 

Tucker took 47 pitches to get through the fifth and sixth innings, but 13 to close out the game in the seventh. 

“He fed off our dugout’s energy,” Trout said of Tucker’s 110-pitch outing. “It’s that no-quit, that battle that we had and that’s important.” 

Northview, which won Sullivan Sectional, Crawfordsville Regional Jasper Semistate titles on the way to the state crown, ended the 2016 season with 14 straight wins. 

Western (18-14) left a runner at second base in the top of the first inning. 

Lead-off man Luke Florek, a senior, cracked a first-pitch single to center field. Junior Brayden DeWeese sacrificed Florek to second base. 

After a strikeout, first baseman Lancaster made a leaping snag of a line drive off the bat of junior Pat Mills. 

Northview went down in order in the bottom of the first and second innings. 

The Panthers, which had won a state title in 2012, tallied the game’s first first run in the top of the second inning. 

Western junior Brodee Lipinski lined a one-out single to center and Burthay drew a walk (and was replaced by junior courtesy runner Kolten Gifford). 

With two outs, senior Jacob Douglass spanked an RBI single to left field, plating Lipinski. The Panthers’ rally ended with runner interference on Gifford at third base. 

Western went down 1-2-3 in the top of the third and fourth innings with two strikeouts in each frame for Tucker. 

Northview got its first hit in the bottom of the third inning. Clawson roped an opposite-field two out double into the corner in left. But he was left stranded a second base as Leighty retired the next hitter. 

The Knights had two runners on base with one out in the bottom of the fourth inning and came up empty. 

Tucker’s one-out bunt single toward third base was followed by Dalton Shaw’s single to right. Tucker stole third and Trey Shaw (courtesy-running for Dalton Shaw) moved up on a groundout. 

But Leighty (loss, 9-3; 6 innings, 2 runs, 7 hits, 6 strikeouts, 2 walks) set down the next batter to end the threat. 

The Panthers put two runners on in a scoreless top of the fifth inning. 

Tucker pounced off the mound on a topper to the left of the mound by sophomore Cooper O’Neal and fired to first baseman Lancaster for the first out. 

Douglass then got on by two-base error and Florek drew a walk. 

After the second out, Western got the inning-ending force at third base — junior shortstop Mitchell Howald to third baseman Reinoehl. 

The Panthers stranded a runner at third base in the top of the sixth inning. 

Mills lashed a lead-off single to left. Knepley reached on by fielder’s choice as Mills was forced at second base. Linpinski was then issued a walk.

Knepley advanced to third base on Burthay’s deep fly to left field before Tucker got a strikeout to end the rally. 

“We puttered in those middle innings and that’s what we’ve been hanging out hats on during the entire state tournament — winning those middle innings,” Western coach Quentin Brown said. “(Tucker’s) rhythm kept us off-balance all game. We didn’t really make adjustments.” 

After earning Peru Sectional, Griffith Regional and Kokomo Semistate titles, the Panthers saw a five-game win streak end Saturday. Western had two five-game losing skids during the season and wound up the regular season at 13-13 before catching fire in the postseason. 

No L.V. Phillips Mental Attitude Award was presented in 3A. 

It was a record-setting attendance weekend for the IHSAA. Friday’s 4A game drew 6,799 (a Friday night record). Saturday saw 7,082 more fans watch the 1A, 2A and 3A title contests (a three-game mark). The combined 13,881 is a four-game standard.