'They just kept fighting.' South Bend Adams baseball picks up statement win over Penn

SOUTH BEND — If there was any doubt about the South Bend Adams baseball team’s hot start to the season, consider it erased.

In its biggest regular season win in years, the Eagles knocked off two-time defending Class 4A state champion Penn, 11-4, Monday in a battle of the last two unbeatens within Northern Indiana Conference play. It’s the first time Adams coach Michael Cass has picked up a conference win over the Kingsmen in his decade of coaching the program.

“It feels great,” Adams coach Michael Cass said. “I’m so proud of my boys. They didn’t quit. They just kept fighting.”

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It was an emotional win for the Eagles, who showed it with the postgame celebration. After going through the handshake line with Penn, a jubilant bunch of Adams players and coaches celebrated as Cass led a speech to the team in shallow left field.

“We don’t like these guys at all,” Adams senior Jayden Laurence said. “All summer, we talk trash to these guys. They beat us in every other sport, so we hate them.”

Offensive explosion in final two innings for Adams

Once the floodgates opened for the Eagles (11-1, 4-0 NIC), there was no stopping them. Penn carried a 1-0 lead into the bottom of the fifth off of strong pitching from senior Joe Trenerry and a solo home run from junior William Barnes in the third.

A Phil Northern walk, however, followed by back-to-back doubles from Laurence and junior Aidan Micinski, quickly turned the deficit into a 2-1 lead for the home team. A pair of sacrifice bunts brought home a third run, with the second one from senior KJ Johnston scoring Micinski.

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While Penn (11-6, 4-1 NIC) added a run in the sixth on an RBI groundout from River Pecina, there was no slowing down the Adams’ offense in the bottom half of the frame. Twelve total batters came up to the plate, seven of which recorded hits. RBI base knocks came from Laurence, senior Peyton Hoover, Johnston, senior Jacob Mulvehill and junior Brock Stultz.

Trenerry was pulled after 4 1/3rd innings, with three runs going against him. Cayden Stockbridge allowed five runs in one inning of work, with the final two runs charged to Kyler Kaczmarski in 2/3rds of an inning.

“That ball looked like a grapefruit,” Laurence said. “I’ve been in a slump lately, and I got out of it with a little help from my coach. I wasn’t scared. They say (Trenerry) throws hard, but I swing hard, so it’s cool.”

Pearson brilliant once again for Adams

In a game with two of the best pitchers in the state, Adams senior Aidan Pearson out-dueled Trenerry, who’s headed to Purdue University in West Lafayette.

Pearson, who’s committed to Purdue-Fort Wayne, was nearly flawless the entire game. Of the six hits he allowed, three came in the final inning with the game’s outcome no longer in doubt. He worked around a leadoff walk in the first, a single in the fourth and an error in the fifth to leave those innings unscathed.

“They’re back-to-back state champions, a really good ball club coached by (Greg) Dikos,” Pearson said. “If you allow a runner on before an out and they don’t score, that’s a really big thing because they tend to always push a run across.”

Pearson's defense helped him out as well, specifically Northern at shortstop. The senior recorded five putouts in the game, including the last two of the sixth inning and first two of the seventh. His one to open the final frame robbed Penn sophomore Bennett Hartford of a base hit.

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“Unreal,” said Cass of Northern. “The last three or four games, he’s actually been unconscious. It’s fun to watch him. He’s so athletic.”

What’s next for Penn and Adams

Penn will look to regroup Friday against No. 1 (Class 3A) Andrean at home. The Kingsmen have lost three in a row overall, dropping those games by a combined 23-4 margin.

“You just have to make sure you learn from your losses like this,” Dikos said. “Nobody’s going to feel sorry for us, especially Penn High School. We just have to pull up the ol’ bootstraps and go to work.”

Meanwhile, Adams faces another serious NIC test Wednesday in South Bend Saint Joseph, which improved its record to 9-3 (2-2 NIC) with a 14-8 victory over Bremen Monday. The Huskies were ranked No. 8 in the Class 3A coaches poll this week.

“You’re only as good as your next game, which is Saint Joe, and they’re really tough,” Cass said. “We’ve got to keep doing what we’re doing; keep practicing hard, keep listening to the coaches and listen to what we’re trying to show you. This is far from over; this is a tough conference this year.”

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: South Bend Adams baseball picks up statement win over Penn Monday