NOBLESVILLE – The Class 4A Hamilton Southeastern Royals had a choice to make during the Sectional 8 quarterfinals on Wednesday night. Either get mad or get focused.

They chose the latter, and it propelled them to a 15-10 victory over Carmel in an eight-inning thriller at Donald J. Dunker Field in Noblesville.

Locked in a tug-of-war with the rival Greyhounds (12-14), the Royals (13-15) watched a pair of early leads dissipate and faced two of three ties before brushing off a brief skirmish in the bottom of the fifth to advance into Memorial Day’s sectional semifinal round against No. 14 Noblesville (20-10).

The dueling programs traded leads three times, had a combined six hit batters and seven errors, and after a three-run bottom of the fifth by Carmel to take a 9-6 lead, emotions escalated as Greyhounds’ John David Rogers and Royals’ first baseman Greyson Droste clashed during a third-out rundown.

Caught on the base paths after dropping a single into left field, David Rogers, a freshman, attempted to retreat back to first base in the fifth, but as Droste cut him off, both players collided on the tag and shoved each other back, sparking a brief verbal confrontation.

Players shouted and stared down one another as the teams headed for their respective dugouts, and both head coaches met at home plate for a heated exchange before umpires and security diffused the situation quickly.

“It’s tournament baseball. This is the time when everyone’s emotions run high, and they’re battling trying to win just like we are, but that wasn’t the story of the game,” Hamilton Southeastern head coach Scott Henson remarked on the incident. “The story was the back-and-forth. Every time they threw a punch, we counter punched.”

Droste delivered one of the biggest blows with a three-run double to tie the game 9-9 in the Royals’ next at-bats during the top of the sixth.

The junior’s bases-loaded hit invigorated the Royals, who put the game away in the top of the eighth with a six-run, four-hit frame. Hamilton Southeastern sent 12 batters to the plate in the inning and loaded the bases three times to take the lead for good.

“It’s always going to be a little chippie because everyone wants to win, and it’s the last high school game of the year for some seniors and the last baseball game for a lot of people, so it’s going to get like that,” Droste said.

The Royals’ bullpen made sure their season continued despite the game’s running time reaching 3 hours and 16 minutes.

Hamilton Southeastern starter Carter Lohman went 3 2/3 innings with seven strikeouts, two walks and five hits allowed. Rutger Poiry tossed 1 1/3 innings in relief with two strikeouts and a walk.

Both teams deployed a combined seven pitchers and logged 20 hits overall, but when the dust settled, Royals’ senior right-hander Sam Bachman nailed it down.

Bachman pitched the final three innings, striking out seven, walking one and surrendering three hits en route to his second win in eight appearances. He retired the first three and the last three batters he faced, capping the game with three straight strikeouts with runners on the corners.

“I think one of the big things was we had a lot of faith in the three guys that threw today,” Henson said. “Going into sectional, it’s going to be tight ball games. I’m shocked that there are 25 runs up on the board, but it was a good win and we get a chance to survive and advance. That’s what you got to do.”

Droste played his part at the plate, finishing 2-for-4 with two runs, three RBI and two intentional walks. Anthony Eggers went 1-for-4 with three runs and two RBI, while Cole DeWael was 2-for-4, and Jacob Daftari was 1-for-3 with two RBI.

Matthew Buckingham had one hit and three RBI, including a two-run single in the decisive top of the eighth with two outs to increase HSE’s lead to 14-9. Junior Caden Ruhnow went 2-for-4 with a bases-loaded RBI hit-by-pitch in the eighth.

“We had to back (our pitchers) up because we hadn’t put up runs all year to get them wins,” Droste said. “It was huge to get them that many runs to win this game.”

The Royals scored runs on a wild pitch and one of the Greyhounds’ three errors and were called for a runner interference in a game that also featured a balk by Carmel.

“Get rid of the errors, and that’s something people would actually pay money to see,” Henson joked. “We completely screwed up all the timing of everything didn’t we? It’s all part of our plan.”

The game’s lengthy duration pushed back the evening’s second quarterfinal game between Noblesville and Westfield by nearly three hours as neither team backed down.

Carmel tied the game 2-2 in the bottom of the second and turned a 4-2 deficit into a 6-4 lead with a three-hit, four-run bottom of the fourth.

Tanner Simmons went 2-for-2 for the Greyhounds. The senior had an RBI-double and an RBI-triple. Will Richter was 3-for-5, and Ethan Pryor, a senior, was 1-for-1 with a two-run single to supply Carmel with an 8-6 lead in the bottom of the fifth.

Prior scored on David Rogers’ hit prior to the momentary upheaval. Carmel added another run in the bottom of the eighth, posting two of its 10 hits.

“When you’re in it, and I can only speak for myself, but you try to stay level headed and even keel and you try to stay in the moment. That’s what we talked about all year,” Carmel head coach Matt Buczkowski said. “We spend a lot of time not letting our emotions take over, and I think that’s why we were able to come back and keep punching back and keep scoring runs. I felt like a lot of our younger guys did a really good job of keeping their emotions in check.”

Hamilton Southeastern plays Noblesville in the first sectional semifinal Monday at 10 a.m. Top-ranked Fishers (23-7) will play North Central (13-8) in the second semifinal at 12:30 p.m. The championship is set for 7 p.m.

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