Wes-Del, Winchester advance to semistate; Blue River, New Castle fall in regionals

CONVERSE, Ind. – Pitching highlighted all three IHSAA regional baseball games involving four East Central Indiana teams, propelling two local squads to semistate.

The victories made history within the respective programs. Here’s a breakdown of each Saturday contest:

Class 1A Oak Hill Regional: Wes-Del 9, Blue River 2

In what seemed like forever due to a weather delay, senior Travis Bunch told himself, “I need to stay calm, stay calm and keep moving in the dugout so my arm wouldn’t get cold.” That’s exactly what Bunch did in a pitching duel against Blue River senior Garrett Grim.

Bunch went the distance to pitch a complete game. “He’s been our ace on the mound all year long,” Wes-Del head coach Daniel Hanson said. “He’s a senior and the ball wasn’t coming out of his hand tonight.”

Bunch is the rock of this Wes-Del team, not only during the regular season, but most importantly in the postseason. After hitting a go-ahead homerun in the sectional championship to beat Daleville 2-1, Bunch turned around and pitched a complete game five days later.

More: New Castle, Wes-Del, Winchester and Blue River win IHSAA baseball sectional championships

The Warriors took the early advantage after sophomore Grayson Mealy ripped a ball to the outfield and scored two runs across in the top of the second inning.

That lead would fend off the Vikings for a couple of innings until Blue River battled back to gain momentum in the bottom of the fifth before the abrupt weather delay.

“I was just hoping we would have some (momentum), you have an hour and you’re just kind of pressing to get that run to tie up the ball game,” Blue River head coach Jake Isenbarger said. “You know, put the ball in play, and that’s basically what happened.”

Blue River's momentum carried throughout the fifth inning as the Vikings tied the game at two.

Bunch wasn’t the only star pitcher in the game, however. Grim put up some stats himself before being pulled late in the sixth inning, tallying 10 strikeouts in what would eventually be his last game.

But Grim also allowed three hits and seven walks in addition to the nine batters who were hit by pitches that he put on base.

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Still, each team’s bats were cold as the two teams tallied eight combined hits.

“We had a hard time hitting it and we continued to grind,” Hanson said.

Walks eventually put the “nail in the coffin” for Blue River as Wes-Del plated seven of its nine runs due to walks with the bases loaded.

It was a tough way for the Vikings to end their season, but Isenbarger was still proud.

“Oh, I can’t express what these (seniors) have meant,” Isenbarger said. “You know they lost their freshman year and have been waiting to get their chance to play, but this year has allowed them to mature.”

As for Wes-Del, the regional championship marks its first in 33 years (1990).

"That’s huge. It’s huge (for the community),” Hanson said. “The adversity, the delay, just everything about it.”

Wes-Del will face Lafayette Central Catholic in the first round of the Lafayette Jefferson semistate tournament at 2 p.m. Saturday, June 10. Wes-Del won its only other trip to semistate before losing 9-2 to Bedford North Lawrence in the state finals.

Class 3A Oak Hill Regional: Norwell 12, New Castle 2

New Castle found itself out early after costly errors and walks allowed Norwell to score four runs in the first inning.

“The last two or three weeks we’ve been good at minimizing errors, therefore we’ve minimized the damage,” New Castle head coach Jody Gray said. “Then after the first inning today, we let a couple walks and a couple errors blow that wide open and it was catchup baseball.”

In the middle of the fourth inning, Gray huddled his boys after finding themselves down 7-0.

“I brought them together to say that there was a baseball game going on, and even outside the bad first inning, we weren’t necessarily out of it,” Gray said.

Norwell scored another run to make it 8-0 before some life came into the Trojans dugout in the bottom of the fifth. Landon Semler got things going for the Trojans after hitting a single, and he later scored, along with Jacob Johnson, to cut the deficit to six.

The Trojans had a strong roster last season as they made it to semistate. However, nine seniors graduated from that team, eight being starters. “So this year, (the new) seniors and what they brought was much inexperience as the juniors and sophomores behind them,” Gray said. “I don’t say that as a coach being contrite, I say it as a coach of young men who took on a challenge and achieved.”

But that wouldn’t be enough to propel the Trojans as the Knights continued to score at will and beat the Trojans 12-2.

“I’m sad it’s over, but I’m going to remember these memories forever,” senior Haidyn Bulmer said. “It went by super fast, but I wouldn’t have wanted to do this with anyone else.”

Class 2A Regional: Winchester 3, Eastern 2

Winchester topped Eastern (Greentown) in Logansport to win its first regional in school history.

The Golden Falcons this spring won their second sectional title in school history, the first after 36 years.

Winchester (15-11) will play its first semistate game against Delphi Community (21-10) at 2 p.m. Saturday, June 10 at Kokomo.

This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: IHSAA regional baseball: Wes-Del, Winchester advance to semistate