By Todd Golden
MARTINSVILLE — Pack your bags!
The latest installment of the Terre Haute North-Terre Haute South baseball rivalry will take place 90-plus minutes from Terre Haute at Martinsville’s Tutterow Field. The Braves advanced with a 5-3 victory over Northview, while the Patriots rallied for a 7-5 win over Plainfield.
The two teams will face at 6 p.m. today at Martinsville. South is vying for its third straight sectional crown, North last won the sectional in 2006.
n TH South 5, Northview 3 — All season long, South coach Kyle Kraemer has implored pitcher Tylor Goodman to bear down in tough situations. The message got through in Tuesday’s semifinal against Northview.
“Kraemer has been telling me all year, when people get on base I seem to get rattled. He told me to keep my composure and fight through it,” Goldman said.
“All I did was throw strikes … and hoped no one hit them.”
The Knights got on base, but couldn’t capitalize on their chances. Goodman pitched out of trouble in nearly every inning, but only allowed Northview to score in two of them, as the Braves advanced. Goldman struck out six and walked no one in a solid performance.
Northview took a 2-0 lead in the top of the second on an error and a RBI single by Caleb Mershon, but South wasted no time in response. South got a run back on an error after a Ricky Wheatfill double and Josh Dove single. Two batters later, South took a 3-2 lead, as A.J. Buck doubled down the right field line and two Braves scored as Drake Stevenson’s diving effort came up for naught.
One pitch later, South put two more runs on the board. Jacob Hayes lifted a Mershon offering into the wind in right field for a two-run home run as South’s advantage increased to 5-2.
“We talk about winning innings. I was happy to see how the kids responded to that,” Kraemer said. “Tyler shut it down from there. He’s grown a lot as a pitcher and as a person.”
Northview punched back in the fourth. Kodie Girton hit a solo home run to dead-center to make it 5-3. The Knights got runners on base in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings, but Goldman extricated himself out of both jams with an inning-ending strikeout in the fifth, a 6-3 double play in the sixth, and by snagging a Kyle Pestoff line drive that would have been a base hit with runners on first and second.
Northview coach Scott McDonald lamented the missed opportunities, but wasn’t unhappy with the way the Knights (16-13) played.
“We played well. Our pitchers pitched well, one inning did us in. We had opportunities to take, we just didn’t take them,” Northview coach Scott McDonald said. “The kids really bought into the system we’re trying to implement. We’re only going to grow from this spot.”
n TH North 7, Plainfield 4 — Sixteen walks. Six wild pitches. Three errors. Two batters caught stealing. A balk and a passed ball. That was the combined tally in a North-Plainfield nightcap wasn’t a masterpiece, but which turned out in the Patriots’ favor.
“It wasn’t a masterpiece ... definitely. It was a how-to on how not to win a ballgame for most of the game on both teams part,” North coach Shawn Turner said. “I don’t know that we did anything spectacular to get out of this, other than a three-run lead to take into the seventh.”
The Patriots’ safe harbor came from starter John Robert Patterson’s pitching. The sophomore allowed just three hits over six innings and struck out four.
North (15-15) took the lead in the second. Dougie Collett hit a solo home run to the deepest part of the field in left-center. After walks by Michael Mace and Tony Rosselli, Cody Gardner singled to right, scoring Mace. Rosselli was thrown out trying to score, but the Patriots had a 2-0 lead.
A two-out Quaker rally wiped it out in the third. After a walk and a line shot off the body of North third baseman Michael Eberle, Plainfield’s Corey Cragen hit a sinking liner to center that short-hopped in front of center fielder Andrew Gauer. The ball glanced off Gauer and kept rolling to the wall. Two Quaker runs scored and the speedy Cragen came all the way around to score himself. It was officially scored as a single and error, it could also have been scored an inside-the-park home run, but the end result was the same ... a 3-2 Plainfield lead.
Eberle, who had to be tended to by trainers after he was struck by the line drive, tied the game in the fourth with a towering solo home run to left.
North had a chance to take the lead in the fifth when Gauer was hit by a pitch and advanced to third on a pair of wild pitches. He tried to score on another wild pitch, but Quaker catcher Cragen tracked the ball down and flipped to pitcher Johnny Jay who tagged Gauer out in a close play at the plate.
Another play at the plate didn’t go North’s way in the sixth. After a walk by John Hudson and hit-and-run single by Johnny Jay, Daniel Wuensch hit a medium-deep fly to center. Gauer’s throw to the plate was on time, but Hudson slid under the tag in a bang-bang play and the Quakers had a 4-3 lead on the sacrifice fly.
Down to their last six outs, the Patriots responded. Collett led off the sixth with a single, moved to second on a Nick Pilipovich sacrifce, and Michael Mace drove pinch runner Chris Burk home with a game-tying double.
Walks by Rosselli and Gardner loaded the bases for Gauer, who hit his own sky-high fly to center. Mace scored easily to put the Patriots in front. North got another run when center fielder Jay and left fielder Ryan Kellum got crossed up on a Parker Fulkerson pop up as Rosselli scored. North scored another run on a Plainfield balk to make it 7-4.
“We had so many leaders step up in the game and get big hits,” Gauer said. “We have nine seniors keeping us together.”
Plainfield loaded the bases and scored a run in the top of the seventh on a bases-loaded walk, but Shawn Walker struck out the side to set up tonight’s North-South battle.
TH South 5, Northview 3
Nv ab r h bi THS ab r h bi
Butts dh 4 0 0 0 Hayes ss 3 1 1 2
Mason 3b 4 0 2 0 Buske rf 3 0 0 0
Niehaus cf 4 0 0 0 Brock ph 1 0 0 0
Pestoff c 3 1 0 0 Reed 1b 2 0 1 0
Thomas pr 0 0 0 0 Luken 3b 3 0 0 0
Hull 1b 3 1 1 0 Wheatfill 2b 3 1 1 0
Girton lf 3 1 2 1 Dove dh 3 1 1 0
Nodley 2b 3 0 1 0 Goldman p 3 1 1 0
Mershon p 1 0 1 1 Telezyn pr 0 0 0 0
Bell p 2 0 0 0 Freeman c 2 0 1 0
Lawson p 0 0 0 0 Buck lf 2 1 1 2
Stevenson rf 1 0 0 0 Rubey cf 0 0 0 0
Brown ph 1 0 0 0
Elliott cf 0 0 0 0
Totals 29 3 7 2 Totals 25 5 7 4
Northview 020 100 0 — 3
TH South 050 000 x — 5
E — Decker, Pestoff, Reed, Hayes, Wheatfill. DP — THS 1. LOB — NV 8, THS 6. 2B — Mason, Wheatfill, Buck, Reed. HR — Gershon, Hayes. S — Stevenson, Freeman. SB — Mason, Reed. PK — Niehaus.
IP H R ER BB SO
Northview
Gershon (L) 2 4 5 3 1 2
Bell 3 1/3 3 0 0 0 3
Lawson 2/3 0 0 0 2 0
TH South
Goldman (W) 7 7 3 2 0 6
BK — Goldman. HBP — by Goldman (Pestoff).
Next — Terre Haute South (18-11-1) moved into today’s 6 p.m. championship game. Northview finished 16-13.
TH North 7, Plainfield 5
Plainfield ab r h bi TH North ab r h bi
Mennonno 2b 1 1 0 0 Gauer cf 2 0 0 1
Yoho ss 4 1 0 0 Fulkerson ss 3 0 0 0
Cragen c 4 1 1 1 Eller dh 3 0 0 0
Hudson rf 1 1 0 1 Bush ph 0 0 0 0
Jay p-cf 4 0 1 0 Eberle 3b 3 1 1 1
Wuensch dh-p 2 0 0 1 Collett c 4 1 3 1
Sander 3b 3 0 0 0 Burk pr 0 1 0 0
MGardner 1b 2 0 0 0 Pilipovich 1b 1 0 0 0
Blevins ph 0 1 0 0 Mace rf 2 2 1 1
Kellum lf 2 0 1 0 Rosselli lf 0 1 0 0
Elliott cf 0 0 0 0 CGardner 2b 2 0 1 1
Stevenson rf 1 0 0 0 Gehrich pr 0 1 0 0
Brown ph 1 0 0 0
Totals 25 5 3 3 Totals 20 7 6 5
Plainfield 003 001 1 — 5
Terre Haute North 020 104 x — 7
E — Eberle, Gauer, Jay. LOB — Plainfield 6, THN 8. 2B — Mace. HR — Collett, Eberle. SB — Rosselli 2. CS — Collett, Gauer. SH — Mennonno, Pilipovich. SF — Wuensch, Gauer.
IP H R ER BB SO
Plainfield
Jay (L) 5 1/3 6 5 5 5 6
Wuensch 1/3 0 2 0 3 0
Jones 1/3 0 0 0 1 0
Terre Haute North
Patterson (W) 6 3 5 3 4 5
Walker (Sv) 1 0 0 0 3 3
WP — Jay 4, Wuensch, Patterson. PB — Cragen. Bk — Jones. HBP — by Jay (Gauer).
Next — Terre Haute North (15-15) will play Terre Haute South (18-11-1) at 6 p.m. today.
