AKRON – By no means did first-year Tippecanoe Valley High School baseball coach Justin Branock want to lose to the Northfield Norsemen, the team for which he was previously an assistant. Branock’s emotions following Monday evening’s 11-3 loss, however, weren’t fueled by who his Vikings lost to as much as how they lost. In a Three Rivers Conference clash in Akron, Valley simply didn’t look like the team it has for much of the season. The Vikings, said Branock, weren’t ready, and it showed. “They put it in play, and we didn’t make plays on defense,” said Branock, whose team was charged with four fielding errors. “I’ll take responsibility for that, I didn’t have us ready to play today. That’s on me, and I’ll make sure we come back on Wednesday (against Whitko) and our guys are ready to play, and we’ll have a better showing.” Branock said the things he was disappointed with were “a lack of energy and a lack of focus.” On top of committing four errors in the field, the Vikings managed just four hits at the plate, as they fell to 3-3 in the TRC standings. Valley had chances to capitalize on four Norsemen errors and six walks by Northfield starting pitcher Shane Vigar, but failed to do so, leaving nine runners on base in the loss. “Offensively, we had a decent approach,” said Branock. “Vigar’s a kid that’s not over-powering and he throws a lot of off-speed pitches. We talked in the second inning, we were gonna change our approach to sit on the off-speed stuff and make him beat us with the fastball because he doesn’t throw very many of them. We hit the ball fairly well. Did we have a ton of runs? No. But we hit the ball right at guys a lot. “Offensively, our approach was OK. We weren’t great, but we weren’t terrible either. Overall, the focus and effort and energy, it wasn’t there, and we weren’t ready to play. That’s on me.” Drake Hyden had Valley’s only extra-base hit, a double in the third inning, while Eric Hammer, Alec Craig and Jarred Littlejohn hit singles. The Norsemen, who pounded out 11 hits in the win, had four extra-base hits – doubles by Vigar and Jakob Hayes and homers by Adam Roser and Vigar. While showing off his power at the plate, Vigar pitched six innings and gave up just three hits, though he did issue the six walks. With Northfield leading 4-3, an advantage aided by Roser’s three-run blast in the second inning, Vigar’s two-run shot in the fifth gave the Norsemen some breathing room. A two-run double by Hayes in the sixth inning pushed the lead to 8-3. “He’s a good player,” Branock said of Vigar. “I’ve gotten to see him play the last handful of years. He played in the summer organization that I coach and I got to coach him some in the fall and things like that for the Sluggers. I got to coach him last year at Northfield, and I got to coach him at Northfield this fall in football. He’s a hardworker. He’s a competitor. He’s gonna give you everything he’s got in the tank when he’s on the mound, and it’s gonna take a good effort to beat him. He wants the ball, and he wants the ball against good teams.” Valley’s Luke Helton was charged with the loss after giving up nine hits, 10 runs and three walks in five innings of work. He fanned six Northfield batters. Jay Myers pitched the final two innings for Valley and gave up two hits, one run and a walk, while striking out two.
NORTHFIELD 11, TIPPECANOE VALLEY 3 NF 130 025 0 – 11 TV 201 000 0 – 3 Northfield – Shane Vigar (W, 6IP, 3H, 3R, 3K, 6BB), Adam Roser (1IP, 1H, 0R, 1K, 0BB) T. Valley – Luke Helton (L, 5IP, 9H, 10R, 6K, 3BB), Jay Myers (2IP, 2H, 1R, 2K, 1BB) 2B – Vigar (NF), Jakob Hayes (NF), Drake Hyden (TV) HR – Adam Roser (NF), Vigar NF
