Covenant Christian baseball one win away from first state finals appearance
MOORESVILLE – The Covenant Christian high school baseball team is one win away from making its first state finals appearance, following a 12-8 win over Brownstown Central in the first of Saturday’s two semistate semifinals.
The Warriors move on to tonight’s 8 p.m. championship game to face Heritage Christian or No. 6 Mitchell. Those two teams play this afternoon’s late game. Covenant Christian beat Heritage Christian in their two regular-season meetings.
Covenant Christian (15-15) looked like it might cruise to an easy victory after jumping out to a 4-0 lead after the second inning behind some costly errors by Brownstown Central (24-9). The Braves responded in the bottom half of the inning, though, to take their only lead of the game. Junior Quentin Tiemeyer, batting in the ninth spot, drew a two-out bases loaded walk to cut the lead to 4-1. Ethan Garland launched a grand slam over the left field wall in the next at-bat for a 5-4 Braves lead.
Warriors starting pitcher Ethan Kimmerle regrouped and went the distance, going seven innings with six strikeouts. Kimmerle helped his own cause in the fourth with a two-run double to right, giving his team the lead back at 6-5. The Wabash commit finished 2-for-4 at the plate with 5 RBIs. He leads the team with 26.
“I’m very proud of him,” said Covenant Christian coach Chris Stevenson. “He didn’t have his best stuff today, but he battled all game long. It just shows you what kind of competitor he is. He’s been that type of competitor all season long.”
The Warriors put together a five-run fifth inning to blow the game open.
It started with Nolan Jones drawing a bases-loaded walk to score Ty Gillespie. That followed The Braves’ sixth error of the game when the pitcher and third baseman collided on an infield fly, resulting in a drop. Brad Nardi followed with a two-run double to left-center, scoring a pair for a 9-5 lead. Kimmerle added his fourth RBI on a deep fly to right, scoring pinch runner Connor Cruz for a 10-5 lead. Jack Anderson added an RBI single to score Nardi and make it 11-5.
Junior left fielder Nolan Moore added an insurance run in the sixth with his third double of the game, stealing third and scoring on a wild pitch for a 12-6 lead.
“Just confidence,” Moore said of his 3-for-5 hitting performance and four runs scored. “I went to bed last night and spent about 30 minutes visualizing in my head – seeing the barrel catching against their lefty.”
It’s been quite a remarkable postseason run for the Warriors, considering they entered the tournament with a losing record.
“We didn’t, obviously, have the regular season we were hoping for, but we know we’re playing a very tough schedule – I think the second toughest in 2A in the state,” Kimmerle said. “I think going out and playing good teams day in and day out gives us what it takes to know how to battle against teams like this.”
Moore led the game off with a double off the left field wall and scored on a Braves throwing error after reaching third on a Nardi infield single. Nardi, a Rose-Hulman commit, later scored on a Kimmerle groundout for a 2-0 lead.
Moore added another double to lead off the second and scored on a base hit by Jones for a 3-0 lead. Kimmerle’s blooper to left scored the pinch-running Cruz for a 4-0 Warriors lead.
“One through nine, we were hitting balls hard everywhere,” Kimmerle said. “It means the world now that we’re able to make a run like this.”
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Covenant Christian baseball 1 win away from 1st state finals appearance
