North-South tiebreaker needs extra innings before Patiorts win

May 23—If anything was proven late Wednesday night at the Class 4A Decatur Central Sectional, it was that Terre Haute North and Terre Haute South are pretty even in high school baseball.

The teams split their annual two-game series, each winning at home, and on Wednesday they played nine gripping innings of suspenseful, if not always perfect, baseball before North advanced with a four-run ninth inning and an 8-4 win.

The Patriots play host Decatur Central, a 9-8 winner earlier Wednesday over Brownsburg, at 10 a.m. Monday in the first semifinal game. Avon and Plainfield are the teams that drew byes.

North got off the bus swinging and got two quick runs from their first three batters. Nate Millington got an infield single, took second on a wild pitch and scored on a single by Brayden Dean, and Dean was driven in by a Briar Goda double. South's Ty Stultz had had enough and struck out the next three batters, but the fact that he'd taken 25 pitches to get through the inning would show up later.

South had two runners on base with two outs in the bottom of the second when a strange trend began. Cam Hoke doubled to drive in both runs, the first of four consecutive scores created by two-out doubles. Two of the players who hit the doubles were also thrown out attempting to stretch them to triples, Hoke being the first of those.

The 2-2 tie lasted four batters, until North's Austin Black also had an RBI double — and ended the inning by being thrown out at third. South made it 3-3 in the bottom of the fifth (Hayden McCord the doubler) and North took the lead the next inning (Colten Moore).

South tied the score quickly in the bottom of the seventh, Hoke leading off with his second hit of the game, moving up on a pickoff error and scoring on a single by Matthew Ewing. The Braves had two runners aboard with nobody out, but couldn't break the tie and North wasted a leadoff single by Millington in the eighth.

That hit moved Stultz's pitch count to unofficially 119, however, and the Braves had to shift their lineup around. That worked for the last three batters in the eighth, but in the ninth the Patriots were helped by a hit batter that started the inning and three walks. Hits by Millington (his fourth) and Dean capped the rally.

The Braves got their first two batters on base in the bottom of the inning but had two line-drive outs, including a game-ending diving catch in left field by Dean. Both teams had several outstanding defensive plays, although North second baseman Parker Higham may have had the most.

"This was the third team we've seen [the Braves]: three close ballgames," North coach Scott Lawson said after the game. "A lot of respect goes to Ty Stultz. He's a tough competitor."

"Pitch count got Ty," coach Jason Fields of the Braves said. "Hats off to Terre Haute North. They executed at the end of the game. They have younger kids [the Patriots had no senior starters; six of their nine were sophomores] but they're battle-tested, and they hit in good spots."

Unlike the Patriots, the Braves had a heavy Senior Night.

"Eight total [seniors]," the coach said, with Stultz, Nathan Wright and twins Brady and Levi Weidenbenner all multi-year starters. "A tough group to replace . . . all good kids, fun to be around. But we have some young guns behind them ready to go."

"It was exciting, back and forth," Lawson said of the game. "From our standpoint, too many strikeouts, although we did get a bunt down finally."

TERRE HAUTE NORTH (AB-R-H-RBI) — N.Millington ss-p 5-1-4-2, Dean lf 4-1-2-1, Goda cf 4-1-1-1, Black c 4-0-1-1, Gregg p-1b 2-2-0-0, Moore rf 4-0-1-1, Lawson dh/1b 3-1-0-0, Burk ss 0-0-0-0, Fennell 3b 3-1-1-0, Higham 2b 2-1-0-0. Totals 31-8-10-6.

TERRE HAUTE SOUTH (AB-R-H-RBI) — L.Weidenbenner 3b 3-0-2-0, B.Weidenbenner 2b-rf 5-0-0-0, Stultz p-ss 5-0-0-0, Wright 1b 4-1-1-0, Fields c 4-1-0-0, Wilson ss-2b 3-1-1-0, McCord dh 4-0-2-1, Knopp rf 0-0-0-0, Napier p 0-0-0-0, Hoke lf 4-0-2-1, Ewing cf 3-0-1-1. Totals 35-4-9-4.

Terre Haute North 201 001 004 — 8

Terre Haute South 020 100 100 — 4

E — Gregg, Black, Stultz 2. LOB — THN 4, THS 9. 2B — Goda, Hoke, Black, McCord, Moore. SB — Wilson, L.Weidenbenner 2, B.Weidenbenner. CS — N.Millington. SH — Higham, L.Weidenbenner, Dean.

Terre Haute North IP H R ER BB SO

Gregg 6 7 4 3 3 4

N.Millington (W) 3 2 0 0 0 1

Terre Haute South IP H R ER BB SO

Stultz 7 8 4 4 2 10

Napier (L) 2 2 4 3 3 1

HBP — by Napier (Gregg), by N.Millington (Ewing). WP —Stultz, Gregg, Napier. PB — Black. T — 2:19.

Next — Terre Haute North (13-4) plays Decatur Central at 10 a.m. Monday. Terre Haute South finished 14-11-1.