TERRE HAUTE — The decisive hit in Thursday night’s Terre Haute North-Terre Haute South high school baseball game was definitely not wind-aided.
With the host Braves one strike away from a win in the first of two Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference games between the two rivals, having taken an 8-6 lead on a pair of two-run homers boosted by the gale blowing out to left field, North’s Chad Wilguess scalded a bases-loaded triple over the head of South’s center fielder. Two pitches later, pinch-hitter Parker Fulkerson added a two-run homer that did have a little help, and the visitors won 11-8.
“It had to be a good game to watch,” coach Kyle Kraemer of the Braves said afterward.
“We try to teach the kids if they’ll be relaxed and stay focused, good things are going to happen,” said coach Shawn Turner of the Patriots, “and fortunately for our kids and our seniors, it happened this evening.”
South reliever Zach Duggins had struck out four of the six batters he’d faced and was in line for a victory going into the top of the seventh, but Joe Meggs — in his fourth straight productive at-bat — opened the inning with a single. Duggins got two more strikeouts, but Jared Eller — another Patriot with a productive day — had doubled between them.
And with two out, North’s Andrew Gauer drew the ninth walk of the game yielded by South pitchers.
Wilguess had a 2-and-2 count and “I was really nervous,” the senior shortstop said after the game. “I figured [Duggins] would come in with the curveball again, so I waited back and hit the ball.”
Thinking about getting the ball where it could be helped by the wind was the last thing on his mind, Wilguess added. “We had runners in scoring position, so all I was looking for was to hit the ball,” he said. “Put it anywhere and see what happens.”
The sudden outburst of runs made a winning pitcher out of North senior Brandon Dorsett, who punctuated the win by running to first base himself on a comebacker to the mound for the final out of the game. Dorsett’s earned run average took an undeserved beating from the two wind-blown homers, but he indicated after the game how little that meant to him.
“I’ll take the win,” Dorsett said. “I love that run support, and my teammates helped me a lot.
“I tried to keep the ball down,” he continued, “but some of [the balls hit by the Braves] got in the air … I didn’t want to come out; I wanted to go finish it.”
“[Dorsett’s] stuff is good enough to be dominating,” Turner said after the game. “We had four or five pitches we made mistakes on.”
Another productive hitter in the Patriot batting order Thursday was leadoff man Nick Pilipovich, who reached base his first four trips to the plate while seeing 24 pitches in those at-bats. He and Mark Merrill opened the game with walks and both scored on a passed ball, Meggs’ RBI grounder and Eller’s two-out bloop single.
“The fundamentally sound play of a Joe Meggs or a Nick Pilipovich can get lost in a game like this,” Turner said later, “but those guys are consistent, and they kept us in a position where some of our role players could step up.”
South got those runs back immediately on a single by Koby Kraemer, a hit-and-run single by Zach Odum, an overthrow at third base and a run-scoring infield hit by Evan Luken. Then the game settled down for awhile.
South got two unearned runs to take the lead in the bottom of the fourth. An error allowed Brock Lough to reach base, and with two out Koby Kraemer hit a homer that needed no help whatsoever. Probably one of the mistakes Turner referred to, it would have — as the cliche says — been out of any park including Yellowstone.
But the Braves’ lead didn’t last long. A leadoff single by Pilipovich, two more walks, a sacrifice fly by Meggs and a three-run homer by Eller — it too was quite legitimate — sent the Patriots on top 6-4.
South countered with its homers, however, Ethan Buske lofting the ball into the breeze after a hit batter in the fifth and A.J. Reed following an Odum single with a two-out, opposite-field fly ball in the sixth.
The Braves couldn’t close the deal, however, and coach Kraemer might have pointed to the batter immediately ahead of Wilguess and Fulkerson as the key.
“We gave up nine walks and they scored five runs off them,” he said afterward. “When you’re pitching like that, you’re not going to win many, and it came back to haunt us today.”
“Parker Fulkerson and Chad Wilguess … neither one of them will ever forget this night,” Turner predicted.
Game two of the MIC series is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. today at North.
North 11, South 8
TH North ab r h bi TH South ab r h bi
Pilipovich 3b-rf 2 2 1 0 Kraemer ss 3 2 2 2
Merrill 2b 2 2 0 0 Odum 2b 4 2 3 0
Meggs c 3 1 2 2 Luken 1b-p-rf 4 0 1 1
Dorsett p 2 1 0 0 Reed p-1b 4 1 1 2
Eller 1b 4 2 3 4 Ferrell cf 2 1 0 0
Collett dh 3 0 0 0 Buske dh 3 1 2 2
Walker ph 1 0 0 0 Toney pr 0 0 0 0
Bledsoe lf 0 0 0 0 Hayes 3b 0 0 0 0
Gauer cf 2 1 0 0 Lough lf 3 1 0 0
Wilguess ss 3 1 1 3 Hunt ph 1 0 0 0
Bailey rf 3 0 0 0 Duggins rf-p 2 0 1 0
Flkrsn ph-3b 1 1 1 2 Freeman c 3 0 0 0
Manning ph 1 0 0 0
Totals 26 11 8 11 Totals 30 8 10 7
Terre Haute North 200 040 5 — 11
Terre Haute South 200 222 0 — 8
E — Gauer, Dorsett, Pilipovich, Reed. DP — THN 1. LOB — THN 5, THS 7. 2B — Meggs, Eller. 3B — Wilguess. HR — Kraemer (5), Eller (3), Buske (2), Reed (4), Fulkerson (1). SB — Gauer, Pilipovich, Lough, Odum. CS — Luken, Gauer. SH — Wilguess. SF — Meggs.
IP H R ER BB SO
Terre Haute North
Dorsett (W, 2-3) 7 10 8 5 4 7
Terre Haute South
Reed 4 3 4 3 6 6
Luken 1/3 1 2 2 1 0
Duggins (L, 0-1) 22/3 4 5 5 2 6
Reed pitched to 2 batters in 5th.
HBP — by Dorsett (Kraemer), by Dorsett (Ferrell). WP — Reed, Dorsett, Luken. PB — Freeman. T — 2:17.
Next games — North (8-11, 4-5 in Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference) and South (8-9, 2-6) play at 7 p.m. tonight at North.
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No wind involved in decisive triple off bat of Wilguess as North tops South
Dorsett earns complete-game victory on mound
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