Whitko Wins First Sectional Title
May 30, 2017 at 4:01 p.m.
Whitko Wins First Sectional Title
By Mark [email protected]
The tenth-ranked Wildcats won their first sectional title Monday night with a 5-3 win over No. 12 Cass in the 2A tournament at Chris Rood Field in Wabash.
Whitko got off to a solid start, scoring three runs in the first inning thanks in large part to aggressive baserunning. Alex Bechtold drew a one-out walk and advanced to second on Drew Bradford’s single. Zach Hewitt laid a nice bunt down the third-base line, and Bechtold beat the throw to third to load the bases.
River West’s single drove in Bechtold, then with two outs Cass pitcher Alec Eurit found Hewitt wandering a little too far off second base. During the rundown, Bradford was credited with stealing home, and Hewitt made it to third by sliding around a tag. He scored the third run of the inning on a balk.
“I knew coming in we’d be facing a pretty good pitcher, so every time we had a chance to score we were going to have to make something happen. I thought we did that in the first inning,” Whitko head coach Erik Hisner said. “Hewitt did a good job getting his bunt down, Bradford had a great slide at third base, and River did a good job of putting the ball in play with two strikes.
“We used a couple of special plays to squeak across a couple of more runs, and getting three in the first was huge for our confidence.”
On the mound, Bradford, the Wildcat ace, was in and out of trouble all night. In 5-2/3 innings of work, he never retired the Kings in order. Cass scored two runs in the second and tied the game in the bottom of the third.
Hisner said “when they tied it, I kept telling the kids through the middle innings ‘hey, we’re right where we want to be, man. If someone had told us we’d be tied in the fourth or fifth inning of the sectional championship, we’d take it.’”
Bradford poked a two-run single through a drawn-in infield to give Whitko the lead for good in the fifth. From there, the Wildcats came up with something to get themselves out of trouble until West secured the win by retiring the four hitters he faced.
“Obviously (Bradford) didn’t have his best stuff, and part of that was our fault,” Hisner said. “He threw 48 (pitches) Saturday night to get to tonight. But he battled his tail off, and you can’t say enough about the big pitches he made.
“Give (catcher) Zach Hewitt a lot of credit; he made a some big plays keeping the ball in front of him and preventing Cass from getting free bases. And our defense stepped up when it needed to. Overall, we executed in big spots.”
Hisner said getting the first sectional title in the 43-year history of Whitko wasn’t so much a relieving of pressure as much as it was hard work coming to fruition.
“I never thought it was a sigh of relief. I felt like our players and coaches and parents and fans have worked pretty hard over the last 11 years,” he said. “For me, this is the fruits of our labor. Our efforts finally paid off.”
Whitko (21-9) returns to Wabash for the regional on Saturday. The Wildcats will take on the Wapahani Raiders (16- 11) around 1 p.m., following the first semifinal between No. 1 Lafayette Central Catholic (29-3) and Blackford (17-12) at 11 a.m. The regional title game will be at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
Semifinal Win
Bailey Platt scored on a double by Landen Goff with one out in the bottom of the eighth to give Whitko a 4-3 win over Rochester Saturday.
Bradford pitched the last four innings, shutting out the Zebras on two hits and getting the win.
Bradford had a two-run double in the third inning that gave the Wildcats a 3-0 lead. Rochester answered with a three-run rally in the fourth, capped by Brady Perez’s two-run single and setting up the dramatic extra-inning finish.
Sectional Final
WABASH 5, CASS 3
W 300 020 0 – 5 7 2
C 021 000 0 – 3 7 0
Whitko – Drew Bradford (W, 5.2IP, 3R, 3ER, 7H, 4BB, 7K), River West (SV, 1.1 IP, 0R, 0ER, 0H, 0BB, 1K)
Cass – Alec Eurit (L, 7IP, 5R, 5ER, 7H, 2BB, 7K)
2B – Spencer Sroufe (W), Caden Zack (C), and Jaret Humphrey (C)
Records: Whitko 21-9, Cass 17-6.
Semifinal
WABASH 4, ROCHESTER 3 (8 inn.)
R 000 030 00 – 3 7 0
W 000 300 01 – 4 10 2
Whitko – Alex Robbins (4IP, 5H, 3R, 2ER, 2BB, 1K), Drew Bradford ( W, 4IP, 2H, 0R, 0ER, 1BB, 3K)
Rochester – Carter Hooks (L, 7.1 IP, 10H, 4R, 4ER, 5BB, 4K)
2B – Spencer Sroufe (W), Landen Goff (W)
The tenth-ranked Wildcats won their first sectional title Monday night with a 5-3 win over No. 12 Cass in the 2A tournament at Chris Rood Field in Wabash.
Whitko got off to a solid start, scoring three runs in the first inning thanks in large part to aggressive baserunning. Alex Bechtold drew a one-out walk and advanced to second on Drew Bradford’s single. Zach Hewitt laid a nice bunt down the third-base line, and Bechtold beat the throw to third to load the bases.
River West’s single drove in Bechtold, then with two outs Cass pitcher Alec Eurit found Hewitt wandering a little too far off second base. During the rundown, Bradford was credited with stealing home, and Hewitt made it to third by sliding around a tag. He scored the third run of the inning on a balk.
“I knew coming in we’d be facing a pretty good pitcher, so every time we had a chance to score we were going to have to make something happen. I thought we did that in the first inning,” Whitko head coach Erik Hisner said. “Hewitt did a good job getting his bunt down, Bradford had a great slide at third base, and River did a good job of putting the ball in play with two strikes.
“We used a couple of special plays to squeak across a couple of more runs, and getting three in the first was huge for our confidence.”
On the mound, Bradford, the Wildcat ace, was in and out of trouble all night. In 5-2/3 innings of work, he never retired the Kings in order. Cass scored two runs in the second and tied the game in the bottom of the third.
Hisner said “when they tied it, I kept telling the kids through the middle innings ‘hey, we’re right where we want to be, man. If someone had told us we’d be tied in the fourth or fifth inning of the sectional championship, we’d take it.’”
Bradford poked a two-run single through a drawn-in infield to give Whitko the lead for good in the fifth. From there, the Wildcats came up with something to get themselves out of trouble until West secured the win by retiring the four hitters he faced.
“Obviously (Bradford) didn’t have his best stuff, and part of that was our fault,” Hisner said. “He threw 48 (pitches) Saturday night to get to tonight. But he battled his tail off, and you can’t say enough about the big pitches he made.
“Give (catcher) Zach Hewitt a lot of credit; he made a some big plays keeping the ball in front of him and preventing Cass from getting free bases. And our defense stepped up when it needed to. Overall, we executed in big spots.”
Hisner said getting the first sectional title in the 43-year history of Whitko wasn’t so much a relieving of pressure as much as it was hard work coming to fruition.
“I never thought it was a sigh of relief. I felt like our players and coaches and parents and fans have worked pretty hard over the last 11 years,” he said. “For me, this is the fruits of our labor. Our efforts finally paid off.”
Whitko (21-9) returns to Wabash for the regional on Saturday. The Wildcats will take on the Wapahani Raiders (16- 11) around 1 p.m., following the first semifinal between No. 1 Lafayette Central Catholic (29-3) and Blackford (17-12) at 11 a.m. The regional title game will be at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
Semifinal Win
Bailey Platt scored on a double by Landen Goff with one out in the bottom of the eighth to give Whitko a 4-3 win over Rochester Saturday.
Bradford pitched the last four innings, shutting out the Zebras on two hits and getting the win.
Bradford had a two-run double in the third inning that gave the Wildcats a 3-0 lead. Rochester answered with a three-run rally in the fourth, capped by Brady Perez’s two-run single and setting up the dramatic extra-inning finish.
Sectional Final
WABASH 5, CASS 3
W 300 020 0 – 5 7 2
C 021 000 0 – 3 7 0
Whitko – Drew Bradford (W, 5.2IP, 3R, 3ER, 7H, 4BB, 7K), River West (SV, 1.1 IP, 0R, 0ER, 0H, 0BB, 1K)
Cass – Alec Eurit (L, 7IP, 5R, 5ER, 7H, 2BB, 7K)
2B – Spencer Sroufe (W), Caden Zack (C), and Jaret Humphrey (C)
Records: Whitko 21-9, Cass 17-6.
Semifinal
WABASH 4, ROCHESTER 3 (8 inn.)
R 000 030 00 – 3 7 0
W 000 300 01 – 4 10 2
Whitko – Alex Robbins (4IP, 5H, 3R, 2ER, 2BB, 1K), Drew Bradford ( W, 4IP, 2H, 0R, 0ER, 1BB, 3K)
Rochester – Carter Hooks (L, 7.1 IP, 10H, 4R, 4ER, 5BB, 4K)
2B – Spencer Sroufe (W), Landen Goff (W)
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