Avon softball repeats as sectional champions: 'We knew this should be ours again.'

PLAINFIELD — Harley Sinders’ second season as softball coach at Avon is one she will remember for a lot of reasons.

Her son, Sawyer, was born Feb. 18. Her former mentor at Avon, Jennifer Jones, grabbed the reins in her absence and coached the team on the field while Sinders took care of the details for the Orioles behind the scenes while on maternity leave.

Wednesday night, Sinders watched near the dugout as Jones coached Avon to a 10-6 thriller over Terre Haute North in the Class 4A Sectional 12 championship.

“It’s been awesome I’ve been able to be here, but this week has been really hard,” Sinders said. “I kind of equated it to tearing my ACL my senior of high school (at Clay City). I had to sit and watch a whole season, which is kind of how I feel right now. But it’s also been awesome because I knew this group had expectations and we knew this should be ours again. It’s kind of funny because Jennifer had a baby my first year here (as an assistant) so I coached the sectional.”

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Avon (20-7) advances to the regional for the second consecutive year to play defending state champion Roncalli (28-0) Tuesday at Avon.

The Orioles, who defeated Terre Haute North in a doubleheader 18-8 and 13-0 in late April, were pushed by the upstart Patriots (13-16), who upset Brownsburg 2-1 in the semifinal. The back-and-forth championship was tied 5-5 in the in the bottom of the sixth with two outs until Avon sophomore Hannah Sutton drove in two runs with a two-out single that just got under the glove of the shortstop in the hole.

Lauryn Miller followed Sutton’s hit with a two-run single of her own to give the Orioles a 9-5 lead and, finally, a bit of breathing room.

“We were just trying to work for our pitchers,” Sutton said. “Getting that hit felt like it was for them.”

Terre Haute North’s bus broke down on the way to the game and the team arrived in vehicles driven by their parents. The game started about 45 minutes late, though that probably would have been the case regardless due to the rain. But after a light drizzle in the first inning, the skies cleared for an exciting sectional title game.

“We were really eager to play,” Sutton said. “We were sitting on the bus and we were like, ‘It’s not even raining, let’s get on the field and play.’”

The Patriots, helped by three Avon errors, took a 2-1 lead in the third inning. But the Orioles responded with a three-run bottom of the third that included tape-measure home runs from Sutton and junior third baseman Amanda Lauth to take a 4-2 lead.

“Good timing,” Lauth said.

But Avon could not put Terre Haute North away. The Patriots got two runs in the fourth on a home run to left field by Layla Fragiacomo to make it 4-4 and took a one-run lead in the fifth on an RBI single by No. 9 hitter Zoey Jukes.

The bottom of the fifth was a double whammy for Terre Haute North. With two runners on base and no outs, Miller hit a line drive off pitcher Cami Burk’s right pitching hand. A run scored on the groundout and Burk was knocked out of the game. Reliever Kinley Sparks entered the game and got out of trouble.

But the bottom of the sixth was a different story. Avon loaded the bases on back-to-back two-out walks and took the lead on the hits by Sutton and Miller.

“It says we can compete in any circumstances,” Miller said of the sectional title. “We can always rally. That’s what we did tonight, we just kept battling.”

Jones, who led Avon to a state championship in 2016 and a runner-up finish the following year, said it has been a “different” season than she can remember.

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“My roles and responsibilities are solely on coaching, which is extremely nice to come back and work with these girls,” she said. “The seniors were freshman the last year I had them when they played. It’s been nice to come back and give them closure and come full circle. To see them grow up and mature into different roles has been fun to see.”

Due to her maternity leave, Sinders has not been able to physically be at practice or work directly with the team. But it does not make the sectional championship mean any less.

“(Jones) mentored me and built me up as a coach,” Sinders said. “And she was been working with some of these girls since they were 6 years old. So there’s no one better to come back and do the job. These seniors have been remarkable.”

Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana softball: Avon tops Terre Haute North for IHSAA sectional title