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Patience Propels Andrean to Semistate Title

June 14, 2015



By Steve Krah
The Elkhart Truth
PBR Indiana Correspondent



PLYMOUTH — Patience helped Andrean move into the IHSAA Class 3A baseball championship game for the second straight year.

The 59ers (29-6) beat Heritage 10-1 Saturday, June 13, in the one-game northern semistate at Plymouth’s Bill Nixon Field.

Andrean, the defending 3A state champions, won its all-time sixth semistate and a berth in the 3A State Finals against Jasper at Victory Field in Indianapolis either Friday or Saturday, June 19 or 20, with the help of 11 walks, wild pitches and two hit batsmen by Heritage pitching.

“We knew (Patriots starter Andrew Saalfrank) was really good,” Andrean coach Dave Pishkur said. “We wanted to make him throw pitches and we didn’t want to swing at his curveballs. He had a little history of having control problems.

“He’s really talented. If he was throwing strikes, I don’t know how much success we would have had. Fortunately, he was not throwing a lot of strikes and we were able to capitalize on freebies.”

Saalfrank walked seven, fanned four and gave up five runs and just one hit in 2 1/3 innings before being relieved by senior right-hander Branson Dossen (who walked four and uncorked six wild pitches while yielding five runs).

Pishkur wanted to get some runs against Saalfrank early because the book on the junior left-hander is that he gets stronger as the game goes along. The goal was to keep the strikeout total to less than five against a hurler that has been whiffing double-digits in just about every outing.

“I don’t know how much we did except we were patient at the plate and stayed off the low curveball,” Pishkur said. “It was mostly about what they gave us.”

Andrean scored twice in the bottom of the first inning. Seniors John Albomonte and Nick Podkul drew walks and Albomonte later scored on a wild pitch and Podkul on a single from junior Noah Davis.

A five-run third inning for the 59ers featured just one hit — a two-run double by senior Alex Vode on the first pitch thrown by Dossen. 

Vode and winning pitcher Luke Jaksich drove in two runs each for Andrean. Davis and Vode scored two runs apiece.

Junior left-hander Jaksich (9-2) pitched six innings with six strikeouts and three walks with just three hits and one run allowed (on a Dossen RBI single in the third).

Senior center fielder Parker Huttel made diving catches to rob Heritage hits in both the third and fourth innings.

Coach Dean Lehrman’s Heritage Patriots finished 2015 at 25-5. The Pats were trying for the program’s second state semistate crown (Homestead won semistate in 2007).

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