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Greencastle looks for first regional title since 1989 in Covenant Christian rematch
Just like the Greencastle softball team was looking to avenge an early season loss, the Tiger Cub baseball team will be looking to turn around a defeat from earlier in the 2024 season when it faces off with Covenant Christian for a second time at the IHSAA Baseball Park Tudor Regional Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m.
Greencastle, having won its 13th baseball sectional but first since 1994, has only ever won one regional title in 1989, defeating Riverton Parke 6-1 and Sullivan 13-2 in the final at Northview. The Tiger Cubs lost to eventual state runner-up Logansport in the semistate opener 7-0.
In the first meeting between the two schools this year, played on May 10 in Indianapolis, the Warriors were able to take advantage of a pair of Greencastle errors in the first inning, scoring two runs while scattering the Tiger Cub bats, giving up six hits and only allowing one batters who hit a double to score in a 2-1 decision.
Greencastle’s offense found its footing after the loss to Covenant Christian and a 3-0 loss to Lafayette Central Catholic, winning four of its last five games heading into sectional play before defeating Southmont 7-2 and Cloverdale 12-0 in five innings to win the Greencastle Sectional Monday night.
“We played one of our best games this year against Cloverdale,” senior Owen Huff said. “We hit really well, Bryton (Gregg) threw a great game and we played well as a team.”
“Our bats came alive on Monday,” sophomore Ashton Dayhuff added. “We played well as a team and didn’t make a lot of errors.
“What felt best was that we all came together at the right time and we played how we usually play.”
While the squad had not played beyond Memorial Day together before, the team was relaxed and enjoying its extra practice time during the week whether it was in the batting cage or out on the field.
“This team is pretty locked in,” Greencastle head coach Ben Wells said. “They love being here, they love playing together and they’re probably one of the closest teams we’ve had in terms of camaraderie.
“They relish every moment that they get together. It’s been 30 years since the school won a sectional title but, with them being so young, they don’t know any better.
“Thirty years to them doesn’t mean anything to them because, with most of them being sophomores and freshmen, it’s not that big of a deal,” Wells added.
“It feels good to be playing after Memorial Day,” Tiger Cub junior Treyten Clark said. “We played great Monday, especially in the championship game.
“I had a pretty good first game and we rallied together throughout. We were dominant late and we can bring that into Saturday.”
Taking on Covenant Christian a second time gives Greencastle a chance to get a win back in a high-leverage spot, though Wells said it was going to take a more concerted effort to leave with a regional title despite the Warriors being state runners-up from the previous year.
“(Covenant Christian) is a solid team 1-9 hitting and they’re going to make plays in the field,” Wells said. “They graduated most of their stud pitching and they’re really young like us.
“The big thing in that game was we committed two bad errors in the first inning that allowed their two runs. We were in a point in our season where we weren’t hitting the ball well and, despite three doubles, we couldn’t produce.
“We broke out a little bit on Monday with the bats and hopefully we’re able to produce a little bit more and get some runs in key spots,” Wells added.
The players themselves felt the first game was there for the taking but a few mistakes here and there kept them from doing so.
“We left a lot of runners on base,” Huff said. “Our run production wasn’t great and we had bad strikeouts at bad moments.
“We played solid but we didn’t give them our best game.”
“We beat ourselves,” Dayhuff added. “If we clean up in the field and put the ball in play, we’ll be good to go.
“We’ve come together as a team since then, have hit better and our defense has been pretty good all year.”
“We played well then but we’ve gotten a lot of games in since then,” Clark said. “I feel we’re going to hit better as a team and we’ll bring the bats we had Monday into the game.”
Covenant Christian is led on offense by seniors Nolan Moore and Ty Gillespie, the former batting ,416 with 37 hits, 15 RBI, six doubles and seven triples while the latter bats .386 with 32 hits, 28 RBI, seven doubles and four triples. Both players have two homes runs. Seven different players have double-digit RBI 20+ hit seasons for the Warriors.
The pitching staff, which lost two key arms in Ethan Kimmerle and Brad Nardi from a year ago to graduation, has two players with 30+ innings in Cason Soots, who has a 4.77 ERA with 19 strikeouts and nine walks in 44 innings, allowing 62 hits and 42 runs, while Weston Laughlin has thrown 32.2 innings with a 3.64 ERA, allowing 38 hits and 32 runs with 18 strikeouts and 16 walks. Three other pitchers had 20+innings with Gabe Unger leading the team in strikeouts with 28 while while Nolan Guzman has a team-best 2.80 ERA.
Sutherlin and Gooch have been the top two batters for the Tiger Cubs with the former batting .444 with 32 hits and 35 RBI while the latter is hitting .429 with 27 hits and 14 RBI.
Gregg leads the pitching staff with 43.2 innings of work, posting a 1.60 ERA with 59 strikeouts against 11 walks, allowing 36 hits and 18 runs. Sutherlin has a 1.15 ERA in 24.1 innings of work, allowing 15 hits and nine runs while strikeout 37 and walking 10.
Wells said Gregg, who has pitched in several big spots as a freshman, will likely get the call to start but said there were several arms ready to go if trouble started to brew.
“With the way Bryton is throwing, we’ll probably go with him at the start,” Wells said when asked about who would take the mound Saturday. “Sam (Gooch) is still nursing a bit of an arm issue and we don’t want to rush that back.
“Having one game to focus on, we’ve got everybody loaded up and ready to go. If Bryton were to get in trouble early, we have Nathan (Sutherlin), we have Sam, we have Trevin (Long), so we have a lot of guys we feel comfortable with throwing some innings and getting us out of trouble if we need it.”
While an undoubtedly big spot for the team, Wells said the team was feeling good after its sectional win and the plan was to go in there looking to keep its season going.
“Our message to these guys this weekend is to just enjoy it,” Wells said. “These guys are baseball players; they’ve played a lot of ball already and our expectations are to go there and win.
“The message last week was be ready to go 2-0 and for this weekend, it’s to go 1-0. They understand what’s at stake but they’re also a pretty levelheaded group that’s pretty loose.
“There’s no pressure because it’s baseball. It’s a game. But our expectations are to go out there and win,” Wells added.
The players all agreed.
“I’m expecting to win,” Huff said. “We’re going to win the first regional in a long time.”
“I expect to win and think we have a good shot at doing so,” Clark added.
“We’re going to go out there, perform and win regionals,” Dayhuff said.