By Steve Krah
PBR Indiana Correspondent

Follow @PBRIndiana

KOKOMO — No. 1-ranked Zionsville came out with bats ablazing and held off No. 3 Penn for an 8-5 baseball victory Saturday, June 11 in the IHSAA Class 4A Kokomo Semistate at steamy Kokomo Municipal Stadium. 

Since 2015, the Eagles have donned shirts with #501, signifying the street address at Victory Field in Indianapolis (501 W. Maryland St.).  

“That’s been our goal in everything we do — #501,” Zionsville coach Jered Moore said after the program’s first semistate crown.  

With Saturday’s win, the Eagles (30-4-2) knocked out the defending 4A state champions and earned the right to play Roncalli (22-9) next weekend at Victory Field in the 2016 4A championship. The IHSAA will set the schedule for the four class title games (oneFriday and three Saturday). 

“This senior group is unbelievable,” Moore said of a class that even honored missing 12th grader Jimmy Sullivan (away on a Alaskan trip with his grandparents) by flashing his jersey during pregame introductions. “From early on, we knew we had a good team and we had the talent to get to State. It’s just a matter of making the plays. These kids have been awesome.” 

Zionsville advanced by beating Penn senior right-hander Skylar Szynski, who was picked in the fourth round of the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft by the Oakland Athletics. 

“We were going to be the aggressors,” Moore said of his team’s offensive approach. “We’ve done quite a bit of scouting and watched a lot of his videos. We had a pretty good gameplan at the plate.

“We were on hime from first inning and that momentum kept on feeding itself.” 

After Eagles senior right-hander Nick Prather (win, 11-0; 7 innings, 5 runs, 8 hits, 6 strikeouts, 1 walk) set the Kingsmen down in order in the top of the first inning, designated home team Zionsville scored one run in the bottom of the frame and got five more in the second inning. 

“Nick battled,” Moore said. “There’s no question they hit him on a couple pitches, but he stuck with it and gave us everything he had.” 

Prather said he just did his best to mix his pitches and showed faith in his teammates. 

“I just go out there and do my thing, which is to throw strikes,” Prather said. “I go out there thinking that’s the best team I’m ever going to face and it’s my last game and I just throw. 

“I had confidence in (our hitters), I knew were going to put across some runs.” 

In the first, senior Nolan Elsbury belted a one-out triple to center field and scored on senior Drew Bertram’s groundout to shortstop. 

Penn stranded two runners in the top of the second inning. 

Junior Nolan Metcalf rolled a lead-off single up the middle (and was replaced on the bases by senior courtesy runner R.J. Green) and senior Brandon Stesiak drew a two-out walk. But the Kingsmen could get nothing more out of the threat. 

Then the Eagles really busted loose. 

Zionsville’s second-inning uprising started with a one-out single to center by junior Chad Garisek and walk to sophomore Sam Edgell.  

Senior Jack Pilcher followed by socking a 2-1 Szynski offering to right for a two-run double. 

A first-pitch single to right by Drew Bertram plated Pilcher. 

Senior Jacob Hurtubise then singled to left to score Bertram. 

A two-out single to left by Prather drove in Hurtubise for Zionsville’s sixth run. 

Penn tallied two runs with two outs in the third inning. 

With the bases loaded, senior Luke Schneider lashed a two-run single to center to drive in senior Connor Neal (courtesy-running for Szynski who reached on an infield single) and junior Trevor Waite (who was hit by a pitch). 

Zionsville got something cooking in the third inning when Edgell rapped a one-out single and stole second, but he was left there during the scoreless frame. 

Penn went scoreless in the fourth inning. 

Senior Brandon Stesiak led off with a single to center and one out later, Szynski hit into an inning-ending double play — sophomore shortstop Riley Bertram to senior first baseman Jordan Cox. 

Zionsville pushed across another two runs in the fourth inning to take an 8-2 lead. 

After yielding walks to the first two hitters — Hurtubise and Elsbury — Szynski (loss, 10-2; 3 innings, 8 runs, 7 hits, 1 strikeout, 3 walks) was relieved by right-hander Stesiak (3 innings, 0 runs, 1 hit, 3 strikeouts, 3 walks). 

“It just looked like (Szynski) was running on fumes,” Dikos said. “It’s not that he wasn’t ready, but he’s been on an emotional roller coaster (with the draft) and it showed today. 

“I will say that we’ve been riding him for three years and he’s not Superman, though we thought he was Superman a lot of times. He’s carried us a heck of a long ways. You’ve got to hand it to Zionsville, they hit him hard.” 

Szynski gave credit to the Eagles. 

“I was throwing the ball and they were hitting it,” Szynski said.  

Dikos noted that some members of the Penn senior class have participated in 75 varsity wins since their sophomore year. 

Two straight wild pitches by Stesiak in the Eagles fourth inning allowed Hurtubise to move to third and then score. 

A sacrifice fly to center by Prather plated Elsbury. 

The rally was abbreviated by a Penn double play — senior third baseman Ryan Herman to junior second baseman Matt Kominkiewicz to junior first baseman Ryan Lau. 

Penn scored one run in the fifth inning to cut the gap to 8-3. 

Waite opened the frame by belting a ground-rule double to right, went to third on a groundout by Kominkiewicz and scored on a groundout by junior Niko Kavadas. 

The inning ended when Eagles right fielder Elsbury crashed into the fence while taking away a hit from Metcalf. 

Zionsville went down in order with two strikeouts against Stesiak in the fifth inning. 

Penn (29-5) got a two-out single to center from Stesiak in the sixth inning, but he was left at first. 

Zionsville left three runners in a scoreless sixth. The lone hit was a one-out single by Drew Bertram. 

Penn did not go quietly in the seventh inning. 

After two quick outs, Kominkiewicz worked for a two-out single to right and Kavadas then launched a 2-2 change-up over the right field wall and the berm for a two-run home run before the rally ended and with it the season for the Kingsmen.  

Kavadas harkened back to January and all the hard work put in by Penn players in getting ready for the season in reflecting on the diehard effort in the seventh inning. 

“We invested too much and put in way too much effort to give up then,” Kavadas said. 

Though he did not like the outcome, he enjoyed the experience.  

“It was an incredible experience,” Kavadas said of playing on the turf in a stadium that opened in May 2015 and sports field dimensions of 330 feet down the lines and 400 to center field. “It’s a lot of fun. There’s nothing better than playing baseball on a nice day in a nice ballpark like this.”