NAPPANEE – Tippecanoe Valley baseball coach Justin Branock took a chance on starting ace lefthander Eric Hammer against NorthWood in sectional play Saturday. After the junior had been off several weeks with a leg injury, Hammer was less than sharp from the outset in NorthWood’s 11-1, five-inning win. Hammer gave up three walks and a single, but limited the damage to one run in the first inning, and had a relatively quiet second frame. But the lefty opened the third by walking three and hitting a batter while recording one out before being pulled in favor of Luke Helton. The Panthers hit three singles off Helton, but scored seven times in the inning to put the game on ice. “There were (eight) walks in the baseball game given to them, that’s (eight) free bases,” Branock said. “You put (10) runners on in a game and they don’t have to earn it, they should score 10 or 11 runs.” Branock admitted he took a risk rolling Hammer out for the postseason after more than a month off. “Hammer had a tough year,” he said. “He started off the year good for us, and pitched early on. After about his fourth start he had a strained UCL and was shut down for the last five weeks. “We rolled the dice a little bit. We knew NorthWood was a tough team and took our chances running him out there without throwing for five weeks.” Hammer did have Valley’s only extra base hit, a double in the second inning. The Vikings got to Panther starter Chad Sellers in the fifth when Hammer reached on an error, was sacrificed to second and scored on Garrett Bell’s single. Gavin Bussard drew a walk but the Vikings weren’t able to score another run to extend the game. NorthWood, now 19-3, will take on Wawasee in the sectional final. Valley finished the season at 16-10.
NORTHWOOD 11, TIPPECANOE VALLEY 1 (5 innings) TV 000 01 – 1 4 3 NW 107 3X – 11 7 1 Valley – Hammer (L, 2-1/3 IP, 1H, 5R, 6BB, 4K), Helton (1-2/3 IP, 6H, 6R, 2BB 0K) NorthWood – Sellers (W, 5IP, 4H, 1R, 1BB, 6K) 2B – Hammer (TV), D. Miranda (NW) Records: Valley 16-10, NorthWood 19-3
