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Shakamak and Terre Haute North Win Semistates; Lakers, Patriots Reach State Title Games for Second Consecutive Year

June 14, 2015



By Pete Cava
PBR Indiana Correspondent



PLAINFIELD – The Shakamak Lakers, defending Indiana High School Athletic Association Class A champions, and the 2014 Class 4A runnerup Terre Haute North Vigo Patriots earned return trips to next weekend’s state title games at Victory Field with semistate victories Saturday at Plainfield High School. 

Shakamak (Jasonville, Ind.) got past the Orleans Bulldogs in the opener and in the nightcap, Terre Haute North outslugged the Bloomington South Panthers. 

A year ago, Shakamak bested the Rockville Rox 3-2 for the state single-A crown while Terre Haute North dropped a 2-1 decision to the Noblesville Millers in the 4A title game. 

The Lakers and Rockville – which triumphed in Saturday’s Class A semistate at Kokomo – will square off again this year.  Terre Haute North meets the Penn Kingsmen, winners of the Plymouth 4A semistate.  

Shakamak returns to Victory Field for the third time in four years.  The Lakers lost the 2012 Class A title game to Lafayette Central Catholic, 12-2. 

Class A Semistate – Shakamak 3, Orleans 2

Scoring twice in the bottom of the fifth, the Lakers erased a 2-1 deficit and went on to defeat the Bulldogs.  Shakamak senior right-hander Braxton Yeryar went the distance, shutting down Orleans over the final six innings while racking up 14 strikeouts.  

“We had to scratch and fight for everything,” said first-year Shakamak coach Todd Gambill.  “These kids are obviously resilient.  They were down two runs after that first inning.  Then the defense responded with Braxton throwing a lot of strikes, and we got just enough offense to get it done.”  

Gambill replaced 22-year coaching veteran Rick Sweet, who retired after last year’s state championship game.  

“These kids, they fight for everything they get,” Gambill added.  “It’s not a lot that I’ve done, it’s what they’ve done.  So I’m going to give them the credit for it.”  

Orleans (26-6) took a 2-0 lead after sending two men to the plate.  Junior Chase Hall led off with a four-pitch walk.  That brought up Cale Hall, Chase’s older brother.  Cale was behind in the count 1-2 when Yeryar left a breaking pitch over the plate, and the Bulldog senior drove it over the 345-foot marker in left field. 

The Lakers (28-8), ranked ninth in the Class 2A/1A poll, got a run back in the bottom of the inning when Dylan Collins opened the frame with a walk and scored on Mike Huddleston's two-out double. 

Orleans right fielder Matthew Holdcroft prevented Shakamak from tying the score in the bottom of the second.  With two gone, Logan Kinnett grounded to short but wound up at second on a two-base throwing error.  Tanner Yeryar, Braxton’s sophomore sibling, followed with a sinking looper to right that brought the Shakamak crowd to its feet as Kinnett rounded third and headed toward home plate.  The threat died when Holdcroft raced in to make a sliding catch. 

The Lakers were thwarted again in the fourth, this time by a controversial umpiring decision. Parker Green opened the frame with a double off the left field wall near the foul line.  Rylee Landry ran for Green and went to third on Zach Moorman's sac bunt.  With Jake Walters batting, Orleans pitcher Jason Mosson dropped the ball while on the mound.  

Gambill charged out of the Shalamak dugout calling for a balk, which would have sent Landry home with the tying run.  “He’s on the mound with the ball, and he drops the ball with the runner on third,” said Gambill, “and we’re looking for that run to cross the plate to tie the game.  But he didn’t get the call.”  

After a brief conference, the umpires stuck to their guns. “Nobody seemed to see the play,” said Gambill.  

Mosson fanned the next two men to preserve the Bulldogs’ slim lead. 

In the bottom of the fifth, Shakamak caught all the breaks.  Tanner Yeryar led off, was hit by a pitch, and took second on a bunt sacrifice by Dylan Collins.  With two strikes, Braxton Yeryar swung and missed, but Orleans catcher Cale Hall didn’t hold on to the ball.  While Braxton Yeryar took off for first, Hall fired to second in an attempt to pick off Tanner Yeryar. 

With Braxton Yeryar standing on first, the home plate ump signaled a strikeout.  That sparked another protest from Gambill, who claimed Braxton Yeryar should have been safe at first on a dropped third strike.  

“With first base open and the ball hits the dirt, (the catcher’s) got to throw to first,” said Gambill.  “He (the Orleans catcher) tried to pick him (Tanner Yeryer) off at second, and he (Braxton Yeryar) runs down to first.  In my mind, I would say there wasn’t any question the ball hit the dirt.  But there was a little confusion by the umpires.” 

The men in blue gathered once again, this time ruling in Shakamak’s favor. “They had that meeting and finally got it right,” Gambill said.   

That put runners at first and second for Shakamak, and the description-defying inning continued when Braden Scott flared a base hit to right.  Tanner Yeryar rounded third on the play, eyeing home plate.  When the throw got there first, Yeryar put on the brakes and reversed direction.  The ball eluded Hall, the Orleans catcher, but backing up the play was Jason Mosson, the Bulldogs pitcher.  Mosson corralled the ball and pegged it to third as Yeryar scampered back to the bag.  Mosson’s throw sailed into left field, however, and both Yeryars scored for a 3-2 Lakers lead. 

Braxton Yeryar, who retired the last ten batters he faced, closed out the one-hour, 34-minute contest by getting Orleans designated hitter Andrew Robinson to pop out after a 10-pitch at-bat. After the first-inning home run Yeryar allowed just one more hit, Burton Gerkins’s fourth-inning single. 

Yeryar employed an assortment of fastballs, curves and splitters against the Bulldogs.  “I don’t know how to explain it,” the Vincennes University recruit said about playing for another state championship.  “Going back to Victory Field for the third time in my high school career – it’s unreal.”  

Class 4A Semistate – Terre Haute North 8, Bloomington South 6

Chase Jones’s grand slam highlighted a six-run fourth inning and reliever Greg Hannum fanned seven of the 15 batters he faced as the Patriots outlasted the Panthers.  

“This is an exciting day for us, for sure,” said Terre Haute North skipper Fay Spetter.  Like Shakamak in Saturday’s Class A semistate game, Terre Haute North is under new management this season.  Spetter was an assistant coach last year, when Shawn Turner guided the Patriots to a berth in the state championships.  Turner resigned after the loss to Noblesville in the 4A title to take an assistant coaching post at McCutcheon High School. 

Terre Haute North (20-11) scored the game’s first run in the bottom of the second when Brandon Curley lashed a one-out single and Nick Rush drove a pitch over the head of center fielder JC Lukens for a stand-up RBI double. 

Bloomington South (17-12-1) went ahead in the third with three unearned runs.  Isaiah Shake led off with a hit.  When Eli Hughes bunted, the throw to first was off the mark and all hands were safe.  The runners moved up on Cole McNeely's sacrifice bunt, and Shake scored on Nick Wright’s fly to center.  Hughes came home on Henry Niswinder’s single off the short porch in left, and when Chase Daab followed with a two-base hit the Panthers were up 3-1. 

Terre Haute North made it 3-2 in the bottom of the third when Nick Barrett singled, moved up on a wild pitch, took third on a fly out to right, and scored on Chase Jones's single.   

Bloomington South chased Patriots starter Tristan Pate in the top of the fourth.  With one away, Tyler Van Pelt drew a base on balls and stole second.  One out later, Eli Hughes singled down the third base line for a 4-2 Panthers lead.  

Coach Spetter summoned Hannum at that point, and the senior right-hander recorded the final out.  Later, Spetter admitted that he’d agonized over whether to start Pate or Hannum in the semistate contest.  “Greg Hannum is a great pitcher, and we knew that,” Spetter said.  “It was a really tough decision, which one to go with today.  Tristan struggled a little bit and we brought Greg right in, and he shut ‘em down for us.”  

Nick Rush opened the bottom of the inning for the Patriots with a base hit to left.  Cody Maloon’s grounder to third forced Rush at second, and Bloomington South starter Cameron Prince got Tony Smodilla to fly to center for the second out.  Brett Herndon followed with a hit and Maloon stopped at second.  

Going to his bench, Spetter sent Logan Fenimore to the plate in place of Nick Barrett, Terre Haute North’s leadoff man.  The gamble paid off when Fenimore lined a single to center that scored Maloon.  “We knew that Logan could hit the curve ball very well, and we were going to use him in a situation just like that,” explained Spetter.  “He came through for us.” 

Aric Wisbey followed with a double to left that scored Herndon, knotting the score at 4-all.  That brought to the plate junior TJ Collett, Terre Haute North’s bruising three-hole hitter.  With first base open, Bloomington South issued a free pass to the University of Kentucky signee.  

That loaded the sacks for cleanup hitter Chase Jones, who swung at the first pitch he saw and sent it sailing toward the right field fence.  The ball carried over the wall to give Terre Haute North its first lead of the day. 

Jones didn’t expect the ball to leave the yard.  “I thought it was just a pretty deep fly ball that was going to get caught, but at least score one run,” said Jones, who drove in five of the Patriots’ run.  “But it just kept going.  The wind carried it.” 

Down by four but still alive and kicking, Bloomington South made it 8-6 when Hannum walked Niswander and Daab followed with a homer.  

Taking a two-run lead into the seventh, Hannum gave up a leadoff single to Nick Wright.  He fanned the next batter, but Chase Daab – who went 4-for-4 for the Panthers – singled to left.  That put the potential tying run aboard, but Hannum, with a steady diet of curves and heaters, struck out the next two batters to send the Patriots back to Victory Field.  

“He (Hannum) came on in a tough spot and really prevailed,” said Jones, who served notice that he and his Terre Haute North teammates are gunning for state championship rings this time around. 

“After losing last year, I’m really hungry,” said Jones, who’ll enroll this fall at Prairie State, a National Junior College Athletic Association school in Chicago Heights, Illinois.  “We have everything we had last year, the brotherhood and everything.  I think we fight harder than we did last year.”    

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

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