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June 9, 2012

Shakamak baseball face team similar to itself in Class A semistate

Andy Amey The Tribune-Star

JASONVILLE — What kind of experience is best?

That’s a question coach Chip Sweet thinks might decide the Class A Jasper Semistate today between South Central (Elizabeth) and Sweet’s Shakamak team, and it’s one that can be looked at in a couple of different ways.

The Rebels, 24-8 for the year and ranked eighth in the final regular-season Class A poll, have plenty of seniors while the Lakers — 26-6 and ranked second — have just two, center fielder Brock Dowell and second baseman Robert Fowler.

The Rebels also, however, are in a baseball semistate for the first time. These Lakers — who hope to head to Victory Field for the fifth time in their school’s history by winning this afternoon’s 1 p.m. game — haven’t played in a semistate either, but a lot of Lakers with younger brothers and younger fans went down that road a few times.

“[Seeing other Shakamak teams there] could be a mental edge,” Sweet said hopefully this week. “These kids have seen the older [Shakamak] kids who have done it.”

And not getting caught up in the moment could be important today as two teams with a lot of similarities battle it out.

“The team that holds themselves together emotionally and plays up to their skill level will probably come out of [Jasper],” the Shakamak coach predicted.

The Lakers come into today’s game playing the best they have all season, both Sweet and his players feel.

“The kids played well [at last weekend’s regional, when Shakamak beat University 14-0 and sixth-ranked Rising Sun 7-2],” Sweet said. “The last three weeks we’ve been hitting the ball much, much better. Pitching and defense carried us the first half of the season.”

“We’re really hitting well,” Fowler agreed. “I think we’re good; ready to take on any team. Our pitching has always been there so far.”

Shakamak’s improved hitting as a team isn’t quite as dramatic as Fowler’s was last week. A two-year starter whose career has been spent at or near the bottom of the batting order — or occasionally as the defensive player removed for a designated hitter — the senior infielder was 4 for 5 with a double and a couple of walks at the regional, scoring five runs and driving in four.

“I hit the ball well. I had a great game,” Fowler said earlier this week, sporting a smile impossible to remove from his face. “We’re excited; we’re ready to play [today].”

Fowler’s outburst raised his batting average to .250 for the season, and Shakamak also is getting big late-season contributions from Christian Burris (.210) and Kyler Fulford (.160). That gives the Lakers a nice complement to leadoff batter Dowell (.427, .530 on-base percentage) and the power spots in the middle of the order filled by Patrick Green (.400, 9 homers, 39 RBIs), Brodie Crowe (.343, 5 homers, 28 RBIs) and Brett Yeryar (.408, 4 homers, 31 RBIs). Luke Sweet is also hitting .344, and Dylan Collins (.239) has been doing a good job with his responsibilities as the No. 2 hitter in the order.

Shakamak also has a team earned run average of 2.05 and its four main pitchers are better than that. Green (9-1, 1.63, 78 strikeouts in 47 1/3 innings) will start today, but Yeryar (9-2, 2..02), Dowell (1-2, 1.71) and Crowe (5-0, 1.17) are also available.

South Central also feels it’s playing its best baseball right now, thanks to the return of ace pitcher Alex Wiseman.

The tall senior left-hander suffered an off-the-field injury during the first week of baseball practice and has been available only recently. He’s had just five mound appearances, but two of them came as he used his entire 10-inning allotment at the regional last weekend, pitching a shutout against Northeast Dubois in its championship game.

The Rebels have three extremely good hitters in Jason Boston (.423, 9 homers, 45 runs, 40 RBIs), Jordan Yale (.410, 41 runs) and Austin Knear (.363, 41 runs). South Central is averaging almost four runs per game just on the tallies of those three hitters.

“They’re really solid,” Sweet said of the Rebels. “They are senior-oriented, with a lot of experienced kids. We’ll probably see their lefty; he doesn’t throw real hard, but his offspeed pitches seem to be his out pitches … they’re pretty comparable to us.”

Sweet and his staff expect a low-scoring game between two evenly matched teams, and the Lakers have worked this week on defending against small-ball tactics.

“If they try to give us outs [by sacrificing], we need to make sure we get those outs,” the coach said.

 

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