Whitko Tops TRC Rival ValleySOUTH WHITLEY – While the outcome of Monday evening’s Three Rivers Conference baseball game was different for the Tippecanoe Valley Vikings and host Whitko Wildcats, the postgame comments from the opposing coaches were very similar. Following the Wildcats’ 5-2 win, Whitko coach Erik Hisner and Valley skipper Justin Branock talked about their respective teams controlling their own destiny. With Monday’s win, Class 2A No. 5 Whitko improved to 12-1 overall and 2-0 in the TRC, while Valley fell to 4-3 and 1-1. A year ago at this time, the Wildcats were 0-2 in the TRC before winning seven in a row and sharing the title. “It’s a huge difference, but it doesn’t change our mentality of trying to win every game one game at a time,” said Hisner. “But being 2-0, we don’t need any help this year, we control our own destiny after two games, unlike last year.” Branock was fiery with his team after the game and wanted his players to understand that they are very much in the championship hunt with seven league contests remaining. “I definitely think if we can win out the rest of the way we’re gonna give ourselves a chance to win a conference championship,” said Branock. “Right now, we get to control it. If we lose another one, we have to get help. Right now we control our own destiny, and I think we can win out.” Whitko took control early with three runs in the second inning. River West scored on a fielder’s choice ground ball hit by Bailey Platt, followed by Alex Robbins scoring the same way on ball hit by Landen Goff. Platt then scored on Alex Bechtold’s double. Valley rallied with a pair of runs in the top of the fourth inning, as Tanner Trippiedi scored on a Whitko error and Lucas Walters plated Adam Myers with a single. “Sometimes you’re gonna have that with young guys,” Branock said when asked about falling behind early. “We play a lot of young guys ... we play five or six sophomores at any given time. We’ve got a lot of guys who didn’t play varsity baseball last year who are upperclassman and now getting a chance to do that. “For whatever reason, I think right now we try to feel things out a little early in the game before we decide we ‘hey, wait a second, we can play with these guys.’ I think that’s what happened today. We came out a little timid and got down early. That’s on me. It’s my job to have them ready.” The Wildcats responded to Valley’s rally with a pair of their own runs in the bottom of the fourth inning, as Alex Bechtold scored on a double steal and Drew Bradford scored on Zach Hewitt’s double. Bradford, who last week pitched a no-hitter in the conference opener against Maconaquah, had three of Whitko’s hits and also got the win on the mound. Bradford pitched 6-2/3 innings, giving up seven hits and two runs. He struck out 10 and walked two. Facing a bases-loaded situation with no outs in the seventh inning, Bradford fanned Trippiedi and Myers and was then replaced because of the IHSAA’s new pitch count rule. West, facing a bases-loaded situation, recorded the final out for the save when he got Hunter Early to fly out to right field. “He did a good job,” Hisner said of Bradford, who had given up just two hits and struck out 27 of 48 batters faced in his previous 14 innings. “It’s hard to be as dominant as he was the last two outings. He still threw the ball well, but the second time, third time and last time through the order Valley did a pretty good job of battling him and running his pitch count up. He hung in there, and I thought he made some good pitches when he had to. Overall, just a good performance. “With one out, he was at 119 pitches, so he could pitch to one more batter and then he had to come out because of pitch count. That’s a new rule by the IHSAA, and that’s why we had River up the last few innings in case we needed him.” Lucas Walters was charged with the loss for Valley after giving up three hits and three runs in 1-1/3 inning of work. He struck out two and walked none. Alec Craig replaced Walters and gave up four hits and two runs in 4-2/3 innings. Craig struck out five and walked one. Along with Bradford’s three hits, Bechtold had two for Whitko. Trippiedi led Valley with two hits. The Wildcats are in action again today at Parkview Field in Fort Wayne against county rival Columbia City. Valley hosts Culver Academies today.
WHITKO 5, TIPPECANOE VALLEY 2 TV 000 200 0 – 2 7 2 W 030 200 X – 5 7 1 Valley – Lucas Walters (L, 1.1IP, 3R, 3H, 2BB, 0K), Alec Craig (4.2IP, 2R, 4H, 1BB, 5K). Whitko – Drew Bradford (W, 6.2IP, 2R, 7H, 2BB, 10K), River West (S, .1IP, 0R, 0H, 0BB, 0K). 2B – Alex Bechtold (W), Zach Hewitt (W), Tanner Trippiedi (TV), Adam Myers (TV) Records: Valley 4-3 (1-1 TRC), Whitko 12-1 (2-0 TRC)
