By Noah Dalton
MITCHELL — On Monday night, Mitchell High School successfully rallied against Sullivan, erasing a two-run deficit in the bottom of the seventh inning to be crowned 2A sectional champions.
The game was decided in dramatic fashion with one final swing from senior catcher Carsyn Herald, who drove a pitch from Sullivan’s Will Brooks deep to left field near the foul line with two outs and the bases loaded in the bottom of the final half-inning, which dropped fair for a base hit to allow Simon Gaines, who tied the game with a two-run double earlier in the inning, to score the winning run for the team.
Getting the game-winning hit in a sectional championship game in front of a lively hometown crowd in Mitchell is a moment that Herald will likely never forget.
“The crowd was insane, that was crazy,” he said. “That was the craziest thing I’ve ever done in my life.”
Herald and the Bluejackets have had an affinity for showing up in the biggest moments throughout this postseason run so far, so it was only fitting for their championship moment to come this way.
In the first round against South Knox, the team won 3-2 with Herald throwing out a runner stealing third base to record the final out and send the Spartans home.
Then, earlier in the afternoon on Monday, they played their semifinal matchup against Linton-Stockton, which saw them enter the seventh down 5-1 before tying up the game and eventually winning with another walk-off in 11 innings, that time from Ashton Luman.
Through Monday’s back-to-back seventh inning comeback, walk-off wins to clinch the crown, Mitchell head coach Jerry Chaney said he had a simple message for his team.
“Never give up, man. Never give up. I said don’t go up there and make an out. Nobody make an out, let’s get it done and we got it done which was amazing. Great feeling, great feeling, unbelievable,” he said.
Now, after beating the best teams this sectional group had to offer in three straight games, adding this championship to their resume is a huge feather in the cap of a Mitchell team in the midst a historic season, with a school-record 25 wins on the year.
“It’s amazing man, these kids weren’t even born the last time Mitchell won a sectional,” said Chaney. “We just broke the school record, we just won the sectional. We did it the hard way, we beat the best teams through it and we proved we were number one.”
After a strong season last year, which saw the team go an undefeated 6-0 in conference games to win the Patoka Lake Athletic Conference championship, finishing 17-9 in the regular season, they were beaten in the first round of sectionals by Linton-Stockton in a close, 8-7 game.
Chaney said the team set out to make sure they didn’t experience that feeling a second year in a row.
“We’ve been highly favored. We’ve won some games we shouldn’t have won. We beat a great team tonight. Again, we had to beat three very good teams to win the sectional and my boys believed and we got it done,” Chaney said. “We were so close last year and we all felt the disappointment and we refused to let that happen again. That was huge.”
Perhaps the biggest disappointment for the team this year was their 13-6 loss at home to Perry Central on April 21, a game which ultimately decided the conference with the Commodores finishing a perfect 6-0 to win the PLAC and the Bluejackets taking second place with a conference record of 5-1.
Now, the two teams will square off in the regional on Saturday, June 3 for the rematch, a matchup both Herald and Chaney said the team hoped to get so they would have an opportunity to avenge that loss.
“Here we go. I mean, they’re good. They’re very good. They’ve got a great pitcher, two of them. We do too and we’re playing our home field. Let’s go for it. Let’s do it. I mean, we’ve been there all year, we might as well keep doing it,” Chaney said.
“The conference, losing that was pretty tough, but this is so much better than the conference and we get redemption against Perry Central, we’ve been wanting that. We should have had them but this is insane, there’s no feeling like it,” Herald said after the team’s sectional win. “I feel completely confident. We’ve got to get our plays down, get rid of the errors, get our pitching ready to go and we should be good, bring them on.”
Stats
Sullivanmore stats
| Lineup | AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marcus Roshel | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Isaak Osborne | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Conner McCrary | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Tyler Kellett | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Jaden Norris | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Jacob Hawkins | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Ryder Pinkston | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Ty Hamilton | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Cody Adams | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Brady Drury | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ben McKinley | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Will Brooks | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Totals | 30 | 4 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
BattingTB: Marcus Roshel, Isaak Osborne 2, Jaden Norris 2, Jacob Hawkins 2, Ty Hamilton
RBI: Jaden Norris, Jacob Hawkins
SAC: Ryder Pinkston
ROE: Conner McCrary, Tyler Kellett, Cody Adams
HBP: Tyler Kellett
GIDP: Conner McCrary
SB: Isaak Osborne
TotalsTeam QAB: 14 (41.18%)
Marcus Roshel 2, Isaak Osborne 2, Conner McCrary, Jaden Norris 4, Jacob Hawkins 2, Ryder Pinkston, Ty Hamilton, Cody Adams
Team LOB: 9FieldingE: Ryder Pinkston 2
DP: Marcus Roshel, Conner McCrary, Ty Hamilton
Mitchellmore stats
| Lineup | AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simon Gaines | 4 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| AJ Sarver | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Ben Seitzinger | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Carsyn Herald | 4 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Gibson Glassco | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ethan Turner | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Bryson Zeeks | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Kody Earl | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Ashton Luman | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Connor Teague | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Aiden Premo | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Totals | 26 | 5 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 5 |
Batting2B: Simon Gaines
TB: Kody Earl, Simon Gaines 2, Gibson Glassco, Carsyn Herald 2, AJ Sarver, Ethan Turner
RBI: Kody Earl, Simon Gaines 2, Carsyn Herald, AJ Sarver
SAC: Ethan Turner
ROE: Simon Gaines
FC: Ashton Luman
HBP: Ben Seitzinger
GIDP: Carsyn Herald
SB: Simon Gaines
TotalsTeam QAB: 9 (29.03%)
Kody Earl 2, Simon Gaines 2, Gibson Glassco, Carsyn Herald, AJ Sarver, Ben Seitzinger, Ethan Turner
Team LOB: 3FieldingE: Kody Earl, Ashton Luman, Ethan Turner
DP: Kody Earl, Simon Gaines, Ben Seitzinger
Sullivanmore stats
| Pitching | IP | #P | S% | H | R | ER | SO | BB | HR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Will Brooks | 6.2 | 89 | . 629 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 0 |
| Totals | 6.2 | 89 | . 629 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 0 |
PitchingL: Will Brooks
HBP: Will Brooks
Pitches-Strikes: Will Brooks 89-56
Groundouts-Flyouts: Will Brooks 5-8
First pitch strikes-Batters faced: Will Brooks 15-31
Mitchellmore stats
| Pitching | IP | #P | S% | H | R | ER | SO | BB | HR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ashton Luman | 6.0 | 78 | . 679 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| Ben Seitzinger | 1.0 | 18 | . 722 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Totals | 7.0 | 96 | . 688 | 8 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 0 |
PitchingW: Ben Seitzinger
HBP: Ben Seitzinger
WP: Ashton Luman
Pitches-Strikes: Ashton Luman 78-53, Ben Seitzinger 18-13
Groundouts-Flyouts: Ashton Luman 7-7, Ben Seitzinger 1-1
First pitch strikes-Batters faced: Ashton Luman 16-27, Ben Seitzinger 3-7
