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Greencastle faces North Posey in Plainfield Semi-State opener with eyes on finals, beyond
The baseball field at Greencastle was empty this week.
Not because the Tiger Cubs’ season is over. They were just on a different field instead.
After an elongated regional round, Greencastle found out its opponent and its destination for Saturday’s IHSAA Baseball Semistate, traveling to Plainfield to face North Posey, the top-ranked team in Class 2A, in the opening game slated to begin at 11 a.m.
The Tiger Cubs defeated Covenant Christian 7-3, reaching the semistate for the first time since 1989, and will face the Vikings with a spot in the semistate finals on the line against either Providence or Knightstown, who square off in game two, at 8 p.m. Saturday night.
“This is why you do what you do,” Greencastle head coach Ben Wells said. “This is a great group of guys, great coaches, our community has been fantastic in its support of these guys and to see what they’re doing and the outpouring of support they’ve given us has been cool to see.
“It feels absolutely amazing to still be playing.”
The young Tiger Cubs said it was fun to get the win back over the Warriors and also showed the work put it to fix the loss from the first game between the teams.
“It was pretty close the whole game,” sophomore Trevin Long said. “We threw the first punch in the first inning and kept it up after that.
“We kept the lead and even though it got close in the sixth, we bounced back to give Bryton (Gregg) a lead on the mound and went from there.”
“We hit so well that game,” sophomore Jayce Spidel added. “Our defense was a lot better than it was against North Putnam and some other big teams.
“It was overall a better game. The first inning was huge and the biggest star was our hitting.”
The opportunity was not lost on the players as well, who get another week to spend together.
“It was a fun experience, playing with my team in a regional,” sophomore Connor Sullivan said. “Not many players get to do that in their high school careers, so doing it as a sophomore is pretty cool.
“The weather wasn’t great but it’s fun to play in conditions like that sometimes.”
“I would have had a travel game this weekend but instead, I’m playing in a semistate, so that will be fine,” Spidel added.
“It’s pretty impressive being one of the top eight teams left,” Long said. “I like it. It’s fun.”
As for Saturday, North Posey poses a different set of problems for Greencastle with an offense that knows how to bring in a run or two, having scored 228 runs in 29 games.
Colby Angel leads the team in battering average (.446), runs scores (37) and doubles (13) while Easton Luigs has the most hits (44), Kade Buecher leads the team in RBI (44) and triples (5), Ethan Mansfield has 30 RBI and leads the team in home runs (4) while Logan Simmons had 31 hits and 28 RBI and Gage Cullman adds 23 hits and 22 RBI. Collectively, North Posey has 86 extra-base hits.
Luigs, Angel and Mansfield all have 30-plus innings on the mound with Luigs posting a 2.69 ERA over 54 2/3 innings, allowing 52 hits, 30 runs and 15 walks against 56 strikeouts while Angel has allowed 34 hits and 24 runs against 46 strikeouts in 36 innings and Mansfield has allowed 42 hits, 25 runs and 21 walks against 29 strikeouts.
Wells, who got the chance to watch the Vikings on Monday, said the squad was as good as advertised.
“North Posey is No. 1 in the state for a reason,” Wells said. “They’re a very good program, a very good team and a really good hitting ball club 1-9.
“Going down to watch the regional game against Linton gave me a chance to see what they’re proficient at and, honestly, made me a little excited about the possibilities on Saturday.”
“(North Posey) is pretty good,” Long added. “They hit well 1-9 but we’re a good defensive team and if we play well, we’re hard to stop.”
One bit of good news for the Tiger Cubs came when the semistate locations were drawn as Greencastle was sent to Plainfield, a far closer drive than either Jasper or Castle, two other potential semistate venues. Mooresville, who reached the semistate round, will host the Class 4A semistate.
“We were very happy with Plainfield,” Wells said about the semistate site. “All along, the coaching staff and I had thought we’d be heading to Jasper with the way things were playing out, which wouldn’t have been bad.
“To be at Plainfield, it’s a 45-minute drive, we’re familiar with the area and we don’t have to wake up super-early, which will be nice for the guys.”
The one notable change about playing at Plainfield is that the Quakers use a turf field, though the surface is not totally unfamiliar to the Tiger Cubs.
“We played at Cascade, which is all turf, so we were able to get used to it there,” Wells noted. “Fortunately, most of our guys play travel ball and most games are played on turf.
“We also have a turf football field, so we can practice on that, get acclimated to the feel and get reps in on that. Turf is a little faster, so the ball is a little faster, especially on line drives to the outfield, so outfielders need to take a proper angle as the ball can skip and get to the fence quickly.
“The beautiful thing about playing on turf is you’re not going to get bad hops,” Wells added. “One of our biggest assets is our team speed and guys are faster on turf than dirt, so that’s something we’re hopefully going to be able to take advantage of.”
Unlike the regional, should the Tiger Cubs win the opening game, the team would have several hours before the semistate final later that evening, a scenario Wells said the squad would deal with should the situation call for it.
“I was asked about that and we haven’t really talked about that,” Wells said when asked about plans between games should the team win the opener. “We gave everyone (Monday) off to recoup while we scouted but we’re not sure how we’ll handle that.
“Obviously, that would be a great problem to have. Hopefully it’s something we have to worry about.”
While the semistate was a big spot for Greencastle to be in, Wells said the players were taking things just as they had all season and while he wanted team to take in the moment, he wanted the same effort and energy the squad had been bringing the past few weeks as well.
“It’s the same thing as always,” Wells said. “I want the guys to enjoy this and not take it for granted.
“It’s the first time in 35 years the school is playing in a semistate in baseball. I’d like to think we have a few more chances but this is baseball and you can’t take things for granted.
“I want them to go out, enjoy the week, go out Saturday, play hard like they always do and have fun with it.”
Much like ahead of the regional, the team had one goal in mind.
“We’ve got to beat North Posey first,” Long said. “It’s going to be tough but we’re capable it. No doubt in my mind.”
“We’re going to go in, play our hardest, play our best game and try to move on to the final,” Sullivan added.
“We think that we can win it,” Spidel said. “If not, we’ll have the lesson that we can get this far, so let’s keep doing it and eventually win state.”