By Justin Sokeland
WBIW.com
BEDFORD – Bedford North Lawrence senior Evan Waggoner celebrated his 19th birthday on Monday, and Loogootee gift-wrapped a victory to help him celebrate in the regular-season finale.
The Lions, 16-7 and ranked No.9 in Class A, were guilty of five errors, leading to 11 unearned runs, as the Stars blew out the candles – and blew out mistake-prone Loogootee – on a 12-0, five-inning triumph. Cole Karr allowed only three hits in four innings on the mound, and BNL (19-10) took advantage of the uncharacteristic defensive letdown by the unenthused opponent.
Karr and Waggoner both had two hits, while Braydon Brown and the Woodward brothers (Konley and Kline) all drove in two runs. BNL will now focus on the postseason and Saturday night’s rematch with Jeffersonville in the Class 4A sectional semifinal at Floyd Central.
Loogootee’s demise was definitely self-inflicted and was obvious from the opening inning. With two outs, Whitt Callahan reached when a third strike was dropped, and that opened the door for four runs, with Konley Woodward hammering a two-run double down the right-field line and Brown cracking a two-run double to left-center.
The carnage continued in the second. A dropped fly ball led to a RBI single by Karr. Waggoner ripped a hard single and Callahan was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Kline Woodward plated a run with a fielder’s choice, and another run scored on a dropped pop-up on the infield.
“We didn’t show up at all,” Loogootee coach Scott Arthur said. “It was a bad time of the year to put out an effort like that. But hopefully it’s an eye opener. We’ve only had one or two outings this year like that, and of course one of them was tonight. I hope we’re resilient to come back. When it started snowballing, we just laid down. We’ll bounce back.“
BNL scored three more runs in the third, with RBIs from Waggoner (double to left), Callahan (sacrifice fly) and Kline Woodward (single to left). Ryker Hughes singled and later scored on a passed ball and Jacob Fisher got the final RBI with a sacrifice fly in the fourth.
“That happens,” BNL coach Jeff Callahan said of the miscues. “It can happen on the good side when things start going well. On the flip side of things, it can go bad. And we’ve seen the same thing happen to us. It makes it tough.”
Karr (5-3) was sharp, and he got defensive help from Kline Woodward (who made a dazzling stop and throw at third), Waggoner (who picked off a runner at first) and Kaedyn Bennett (who made a nice snag of a foul ball down the right-field line).
“It was good to get Cole more work before the weekend,” Callahan said. “We’ll approach Saturday with using whoever we need to use. We’ll have everyone in our arsenal ready.”
Loogootee will face Shoals in the first round of the Class A sectional at North Daviess on Wednesday.
BNL will have the rest of the week to prepare for the clash with the Red Devils. Jeffersonville posted a 3-0 victory over BNL on April 23. Callahan is eager to use the week of practice sessions for a peak performance.
“There was one time this year where, after we played Bloomington South, we had three straight days of practice and came back with the best game of the season,” he said. “So we have four days of practice, and we need to get a lot of things done. We want to make sure we’re ready. I like the idea of four days of practice, and hopefully play the best game we’ve played all year.”
The sectional at Floyd will begin on Wednesday, with New Albany facing Jennings County in the opener while Seymour will meet Floyd Central in the second game. BNL will face the Devils in the second semifinal on Saturday at approximately 7:30 p.m. The final is scheduled for May 31 at 1 p.m.
