BOURBON - Three months ago, Triton High School's boys basketball team ended Fort Wayne Blackhawk Christian's season in the regional championship game.
The two class 1A schools squared off in a baseball regional championship game Wednesday, only this time Blackhawk ended the Trojans' season, beating the hosts 14-12.
The Braves, who improved to 9-14 on the season, wasted no time in jumping out to a lead, as they scored eight runs in the first inning, the first of which came on a home run by leadoff hitter Brock Reilley.
Even with the big first-inning deficit, the Trojans fought their way back into the game, they just ran out of outs and time.
"We needed a couple more innings, and then I think we would have gotten them," said Triton coach Ted Doty, whose team finished the season with a 13-16 record. "We started our comeback a little too late."
Triton scored two runs in the first and and four more in the sixth, but Blackhawk added three runs of their own in the third inning and then scored one run in each of the final three innings.
Trailing 13-7 after six innings of play, the Trojans certainly made things interesting late in the game, scoring five runs over the final two innings.
In the end, however, the early deficit and four Blackhawk home runs proved too much to overcome.
Nonetheless, Doty was proud of the way his players fought back.
"I told the kids that says a lot about their character," said Doty. "It would have been easy to fold when we were down 8-0 in the first inning. They could have been thinking, 'how bad is this going to get?' But they didn't think that at all. We knew their was plenty of time to come back, we just needed a couple more innings. We put together a comeback every time we came to the plate. But every time we came back they had a response, that's the sign of a good team."
With the win, Blackhawk advanced to Saturday's semistate at Kokomo's Highland Park, where the Braves will play Whiting at approximately 1 p.m. Rockville and Cowan will play in the first semifinal game at 11 a.m. The winners will play in the championship game at 8 p.m.
Reilley, who started the game behind the plate and later closed the game on the mound, finished the contest with two homers for the Braves. His second blast was a two-run shot in the third inning that gave the Braves an 11-6 lead.
Michael Baxter and Mitchell Whitman also homered for the Braves, while Reilley also added a double.
Triton's Brett Houlihan started the game on the mound and was charged with the eight runs in the first inning. The Braves were able to put the ball in play, and then a couple errors in the outfield really hurt the Trojans. Houlihan was replaced on the mound after 2-2/3 innings of work.
"He wasn't as on today as he's been in the past," Doty said of Houlihan. "There were a couple balls in the first inning that weren't hit that hard but they dropped or found their way into a gap. There were a couple bloops and a couple flies that went their way. Things like that add up."
While he may not have been "on" on the mound, Houlihan did what he could at the plate for the Trojans, going 5 for 5 with a double and a two-run homer.
His home run cut Blackhawkís lead to 14-12 with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning. Catcher A.J. Fleagle then came to the plate and was hit by as pitch, bringing Ellis Edel to the plate as the tying run.
Edel, who won Saturday's sectional championship game over South Central for the Trojans with a walkoff home run had the chance to be the hero again Wednesday but struck out, ending the game and the Trojans' season.
Other extra-base hits for the Trojans included a triple by Troy McIntyre and doubles by Mitchell Mellott, Dustin Kreft and Fleagle.
The Trojans have a strong nucleus of players coming back next season, but they will lose five seniors - Zachary Hoffer, Kody Senff, McIntyre, Mellott and Fleagle.
"Yeah, we have a strong nucleus coming back, we started six underclassmen, three juniors and three sophomores," said Doty. "But these seniors are going to be missed.
"The seniors brought more to the table than what you saw out on the field," he added. "They brought leadership and the intangible things that you can't always see. They were great leaders."
FW BLACKHAWK 14,
TRITON 12
(Triton Regional)
B 803 011 1 - 14 15 0
T 241 002 3 - 12 15 2
Brock Reilley (W), Ryan Hartsough (1), Mitchell Baxter (2) and Baxter, Reilley; Brett Houlihan (L), Brandon Anthony (3), Troy McIntyre (6) and A.J. Fleagle
