Published: May 31, 2009 12:20 am         

3A Baseball Sectional: West Vigo hits then steals its way past Greencastle; South Vermillion takes care of Sullivan 12-2

Greencastle starting pitcher Kyle Nobles must have felt like Peanuts comic strip character Charlie Brown, who is continually getting undressed by line drives while on the pitching mound.

Leading off the bottom of the first inning for West Vigo, Jordan Pearson hit a sizzling line drive that literally spun Nobles around, the ball scooting into center field for a single. Pearson promptly stole second base.

The second batter, Cameron Fagg, hit a scorching line drive into left field for a single to plate Pearson. Fagg promptly stole second base.

The fourth batter, Jeremy Lucas, hit a screaming line drive a few feet over the shortstop’s head. But instead of landing in left field, the ball literally elevated again and dropped over the fence just shy of the football bleachers.

West Vigo would eventually score four runs in the first and go on to dispatch Greencastle 9-2 in a Class 3A West Vigo sectional baseball semifinal game on Saturday.

In similar fashion, South Vermillion lit up Sullivan with a six-spot in the top of the first inning of the nightcap. The Wildcats would proceeded to eliminate the Arrows 12-2 in a five-inning contest.

Class 3A No. 3-ranked West Vigo (24-1) will oppose South Vermillion (13-9) in the all-Western Indiana Conference sectional championship game at 6 p.m. on Monday.

“Good start,” stated West Vigo coach Steve DeGroote. “Kids came to play. The first two, three or four innings, if they’ll come to play like that all the time, we’ll be tough to beat. They just came to play and played with intensity. I thought we let up a little bit at the end, then they tightened down and did a good job.”

“When you don’t get a lot of hits and make a few mental mistakes against a team that’s fundamentally sound as West Vigo, you’re not going to get very far with them,” countered Greencastle coach Troy Remsburg.

The Vikes would score two runs in the second, then single runs in the next three innings. They only generated five hits after the first inning, but utilized eight stolen bases, four wild pitches and two errors by the Tiger Cubs to key their scoring punch.

The Vikings even flashed some leather, especially in the fourth inning.

Executing a pregame defensive drill to perfection, the Vikings quickly turned a 6-4-3 (Wampler-to-Pearson-to Aaron Welch) double play to erase a leadoff single. Brodey McCalister tracked down a long foul ball, reaching back over his head while running into the left field corner, to account for the third out.

“Our defense has always been there for us,” DeGroote said.

Winning pitcher Scotty West went the first six innings, scattering six hits and allowing two runs, both of those unearned. Lucas pitched a scoreless seventh inning to close out the victory.

Fagg was 3 for 4 with three RBI’s, including a long home run off his bat for West Vigo’s final run in the fifth inning.

In the nightcap, the Wildcats struck like lightning — which narrowly avoided the West Vigo ballpark, although a steady light shower dampened the second and third innings.

A Sullivan error — the Arrows would commit eight miscues — was followed by a walk to lead off the first inning. Cody Mumaw doubled in one run, Nick Alfke singled in the second run, a wild pitch scored a third run, Josh Vaughan singled in a fourth run, then eighth-place batter Trevor Monroney hit his first home run of the season to account for their fifth and sixth tallies.

With the sudden 6-0 lead, the Wildcats added two runs to the scoreboard in each of the second, third and fifth innings.

“I thought the kids came out ready to play … that’s been important both [sectional] games,” said SV coach Tim Terry. “We knew game one [Friday’s win over Owen Valley] was important because you’ve got to have it and game two gets you to the title game, which is where we want to be. And anything can happen in that game.

“We’ve worked to come together at this point,” Terry said of his team’s last season success. “We hope we have.”

Things were a bit glum for Sullivan as they managed just one hit, after defeating Edgewood 9-3 on Friday.

“Disappointed,” Sullivan coach Vance Edmondson said. “Feel bad for the seniors … and all of our guys. We just have to give credit to South Vermillion. They came out and did what they needed to do. I don’t think we ever recovered from that.

“For us to be successful, we have to get off to a good start. In the past four or five games we’ve played, we’ve done that. Tonight we just didn’t do that and it caught up to us.”



West Vigo 9, Greencastle 2

Greencastle ab r h bi WVigo ab r h bi

Grzesiek dh 3 0 0 0 Pearson 2b 3 2 1 0

Johnson c 0 0 0 0 Fagg 3b 4 2 3 3

Ford 2b-p 3 0 1 1 Wampler ss 3 0 2 0

Nobles p-1b 3 0 1 0 Lucas c-p 2 2 1 2

Shuee ss 3 0 1 0 Welch 1b 4 1 1 0

Rchrdsnn 1b-3b 2 0 0 0 McCalister lf-c 4 0 0 0

R.Battin ph 1 0 0 0 West p 1 1 0 0

Bartrum rf 3 1 1 0 Keith lf 0 0 0 0

Remsburg cf 2 0 0 0 Thornton rf 4 0 1 2

T.Battin lf 1 0 0 0 Knoepfel cf 0 0 0 0

Vrmiln 3b-2b 3 1 2 0 Aff cf 2 1 1 0

Wheat rf 0 0 0 0

Totals 24 2 6 1 Totals 27 9 10 7

Greencastle 000 020 0 — 2

West Vigo 421 110 x — 9

E — Nobles, Richardson, Fagg. DP — WV 1. LOB — G 5, WV 8. HR — Lucas (7), Fagg (5). SH — T.Battin. SB — Pearson 3, Fagg 2, Wampler, West, Aff. PO — Wampler.



IP H R ER BB SO

Greencastle

Nobles (L) 1 5 6 5 4 0

Ford 5 5 3 2 2 3

West Vigo

West (W, 5-0) 6 6 2 0 2 3

Lucas 1 0 0 0 1 2

Nobles pitched to two batters in the second inning.

WP — Nobles, Ford 3. HBP — by Ford (Lucas 2). PB — Lucas. T -- 1:51.





South Vermillion 12, Sullivan 2

5 innings

SVerm ab r h bi Sullivan ab r h bi

Johansen cf 4 3 1 0 Shorter rf 2 1 0 0

Reyher ss 2 3 1 0 Dugan cf 3 0 0 0

Mumaw 3b-lf 4 2 2 2 Clements 2b-ss 3 0 1 1

Alfke p-3b 4 1 2 3 Lisman pr 0 0 0 0

Naylor 2b 4 0 0 0 Nash p-1b 1 0 0 0

Vaughan dh 2 1 1 1 Ka.Wilson pr 0 0 0 0

Turchi 1b 0 0 0 0 J.Smith ss-p 1 0 0 0

A.Smith c 2 1 1 0 Jones 1b-2b 3 0 0 0

Monroney rf 3 1 1 2 Hammrbchr c 3 0 0 0

Frazier lf 2 0 0 0 Plummer 3b 1 0 0 0

Kemp p 1 0 0 0 A.Smith lf 1 1 0 0

Totals 28 12 9 8 Totals 18 2 1 1

South Vermillion 622 02 — 12

Sullivan 002 00 — 2

E — Reyher, Turchi, Shorter, Clements 2, J.Smith 2, Plummer 3. LOB — SV 5, Sul 8. 2B — Mumaw 2. HR — Monroney (1). PO — Johansen.



IP H R ER BB SO

South Vermillion

Alfke (W) 2 2-3 0 2 1 4 2

Kemp 2 1-3 1 0 0 3 2

Sullivan

Nash (L) 3 8 10 5 2 3

J.Smith 2 1 2 0 2 2

WP — Alfke, Nash 2, J.Smith. PB — Hammerbacher. T — 1:31.

Next — West Vigo (24-1) opposes South Vermillion (13-9) in the Class 3A West Vigo sectional championship game at 6 p.m. on Monday. Greencastle (8-17) and Sullivan (8-15) concluded their seasons.