Norwell Advances to Semi-State

By Steve Krah
The Elkhart Truth

DECATUR - There it was on the wall of the first base dugout.
The sign read: Win and Advance. Below that were seven numbers. The first five were crossed off.
After Tuesday's back-and-forth 9-8, eight-inning win against NorthWood in the championship of the Class 3A Bellmont Regional, No. 3 Norwell (30-3) has done just that.

"It was a team win, but Josh VanMeter got this done for us," said Norwell coach Andy McClain of his highly coveted pitcher and shortstop. "He's dedicated. He works hard at it.

"He's been under so much pressure (with all the scouts attending Norwell games)."

VanMeter, who started the game at short and moved to the mound in the seventh, hit the go-ahead two-run home run in the top of the eighth inning and struck out five of the seven batters he faced to help the Knights move into the northern semistate at Kokomo's Highland Park at 1 p.m. on Saturday, June 8.

A win against defending 3A state champion Western (23-5) means a trip to the IHSAA State Finals at Victory Field in Indianapolis the weekend of June 14-15. The Knights beat the Panthers 12-3 in May.

Norwell powered for six home runs and NorthWood (17-8) belted two in the power-packed regional final. The Knights were appearing in regional play for the 14th time overall. The Panthers were in the regional for the second time in three years.

Senior left fielder Spencer Newell, Norwell's No. 9 hitter, smacked two home runs (a solo shot in the third inning and two-run blast in the fifth) to go with a fourth-inning run-scoring double.

"He's as strong as an ox," said McClain of Newell. "He's been working for this moment all year and, sure enough, he got it."

Senior first baseman Tailur Szarenski (solo in first inning), senior center fielder Austin Dettmer (solo in fourth) and senior second baseman Austin Dantzer (two-run in fifth) were also a part of the power surge for Norwell.
The Knights scored one run each in the first and third innings, two in the fourth, four in the fifth and one in the eighth.

Szarenski's first-inning homer came with two outs.

Newell's first blast led off the third.

Dettmer opened the Norwell fourth with a homer. Senior Luke Hunter, who started at third base and moved to the mound in the bottom of the fourth to relieve junior Jonah Patten, singled and scored on Newell's double.

The four-run uprising in the fifth started when Hunter reached on a fielder's choice. Dantzer followed with a two-run homer. Senior catcher Cale Schumm walked and trotted home on Newell's second homer.
VanMeter's homer to put the Knights ahead 9-8 came with one out in the eighth. The 12-1 right-hander who could be drafted this week gave up a lead-off single by junior Tanner Farmwald in the NorthWood eighth. After a sacrifice by junior catcher Tanner Cleveland - the fourth of the game for the Panthers - VanMeter closed out the win with two strikeouts.

"In order to win state, we need to be able to shut teams down," said VanMeter after the slugfest. "But a win's a win."

NorthWood's two dingers were popped by junior second baseman Blake Cleveland (two-run in first) and junior pitcher Kyle McCoy (two-run in seventh).

McCoy's round tripper tied the game at 8-8. It was made possible when freshman shorstop Hunter Lane reached base on a dropped third strike.

McCoy pitched the distance for the Panthers, delivering 125 pitches and striking out four while giving up 14 hits.

NorthWood, which counted first baseman Chad Ervin as the lone senior in the starting lineup, tallied two runs in the first on Blake Cleveland's homer. Lane, who had singled, scored on the swat.
A two-run third for the Panthers started with McCoy being hit by a pitch and scoring on a Blake Cleveland double. Cleveland scored when junior designated hitter Will Kirkwood got down a suicide squeeze bunt.
"We played our style of ball," said NorthWood coach Zach Benko, who also had sacrifices from McCoy and sophomore right fielder Dominic Miranda. "We can play station-to-station baseball and make sure they didn't get any momentum and turn a double play."

NorthWood did turn a double play of its own - second baseman Blake Cleveland to shortstop Lane to first baseman Ervin - to kill a Norwell rally in the sixth inning.

The Panthers scored a two-out run in the fourth. Tanner Cleveland walked and later scored on Lane's single.
Farmwald reached base on a dropped third strike in the bottom of the sixth and later scored on a Norwell error.

Benko, who is expecting wife Jessica to deliver the couple's first child (a girl) any day now (the due date was Tuesday), called the regional experience "another step for the program."