Brought to you by WBIW News and Network Indiana
Last updated on Tuesday, May 30, 2017
(BEDFORD) - The Bedford North Lawrence baseball team celebrated Monday when they defeated Floyd Central 9-3 at Stars Field to claim their first sectional crown since 1994.
The team has a 22-4 record heading into Saturday's game at Evansville's Bosse Field, where the Stars will face Evansville Central at 11 a.m. local time (10 a.m. central time) for the 2016-17 IHSAA Class 4A Baseball Regional Championship.
"We played them (Evansville) earlier in the season and we won 11-6. But we know it's going to be a much different game, I mean that was the third game for both of us," Coach Jeff Callahan says. "We know that this game on Saturday morning is going to be a hard fought, two good teams playing, and its going to come down to who can get the key hits and who can play solid defense and pitch well. If we do all those things for seven innings, we'll be ok."
If the team wins Saturday morning. They will play Saturday night, facing the winner of the Martinsville vs. Columbus North game.
MaxPreps' baseball rankings have updated Bedford North Lawrence's national rank to National Rank 259 and 6th in the state.
"The strength of this team all year long has been the pitching and the defense," Callhan added. "When you do those two things well you're going to give yourself the chance to win. And then you just have to hope that you will get some of those key timely hits and you know we were able to do that yesterday up and down the line-up."
The team has 11 seniors.
"So it's very special for them," Coach Callahan says. "But it's a whole team. We have 15 guys in the dugout and everybody has a role and everyone has accepted that role. That's what has allowed us to be successful this year."
"We came out and we did the things that we needed to do to win the game," he added. "Drew Hensley pitched well. And we played good defense behind him and we got some timely hits in a couple innings and were able to secure a victory at 9-3."
The Stars started off strong with Drew Hensley hitting home plate when Austin Long hit a two-out RBI single up the middle giving the Stars the lead in the first inning 1-0.
At the top of the second the Stars didn't mess around and blasted in four runs with a single from Tanner McBride and Blake Fisher who slammed an RBI triple into center field. Fisher then scored on a wild pitch, Garrett Ramsey walked and Hensley hit one to left center putting him on second after a two-base error. Underwood came through with a two-run single making it 5-1.
The Stars tacked on a run in the fifth when Brody Tanksley got a leadoff hit, and McBride's sacrifice fly scored courtesy runner Ben Barker. But Floyd was able to score two runs making the score 6-2.
Hensley walked to lead off the sixth, and Underwood laid down a bunt single, with the throw getting away putting runners at second and third. Tanksley walked, and Brandt Callahan coaxed a one-out RBI walk before Cole Mathews ripped a two-run single to left to make it 9-2.
Floyd Central got its final run on a solo home run by Brayden Edwards in the sixth.
1340 AM WBIW welcomes comments and suggestions by calling 812.277.1340 during normal business hours or by email at comments@wbiw.com
© Ad-Venture Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved.