ROCKPORT — A long trip through the loser’s bracket ended with a third-place finish for Byron Cox Post 72 baseball this past weekend.
Following weather delays and cancellations, the team started a game Monday night and finished it Tuesday. That was a win over the unbeaten team in the bracket, Terre Haute.
But due to those same weather issues, they had to turn around in the 110 heat index of the Tuesday afternoon sun to take on Valparaiso in the final game of the loser’s bracket.
One bad inning turned into an 8-2 loss, and elimination, and the end of the season.
With three wins in the state finals, Post 72 finishes with a 25-12 record, the most wins in the eight seasons under Kyle Proctor.
“I think we exceeded expectations by quite a lot,” Proctor said of the campaign. “Coming in, I knew we were very young, and the guys coming back were pretty new, pretty inexperienced from a Legion standpoint. The chemistry was great all year. From the very start of the season all the way through. It was nearly perfect. Winning 25 games is way above my early expectations, but as we got going, I realized this team could/would win a lot of games. This was a really fun team to coach. These guys never backed down from anyone, as you see from all the close games with Terre Haute. We lost the first game of this (State) tournament and battled all the way back to take third place. We had so many guys step up from one game to another, guys like (Sam) Gooch, Wooten, Miller, Kouns, Scott, Riser and so many more. We had Kaden Smith as our Mister Irrelevant; the last guy we picked. He was great at third base and was a real leader. At the start of the season, I wasn’t sure we could get far, but by the time of the state tournament, we thought we could get to the finals and maybe win it.”
As this season ends, the prospecting for players for next season starts. Proctor has around a dozen guys who played this season that will be eligible to return.
“Some might have college summer ball commitments, but we hope to see a lot of these guys back,” Proctor said. “We will sure keep their uniforms ready for them.”
Game 4 Win vs Terre Haute
It was the seventh meeting between the two teams this season. Two were the home-and-home matchups of the regular season, with all the rest coming in various tournaments.
Except for the first game, the other six were decided by two runs or less and two went into an extra inning.
Crawfordsville had handed Post 346 their first loss of the season on June 30 and then dropped four straight close games.
The State Tournament matchup, like many of the other state finals contest, came down to late-inning heroics, or a mistake, and that is the story of the 2-1 win over Wayne Newton Post 346.
A pair of runs in the top of the sixth erased a 1-0 Terre Haute lead and turned into the only scoring Post 72 got.
Nate Kouns (Lebanon) had come in as a relief pitcher for Ethan Wooten (Danville/Huntington U) in the top of the fifth, and he didn’t allow a run as he allowed two hits in the appearance, picking up his fourth win of the season. That went along with the save he picked up in the win over South Haven earlier in the tournament.
Terre Haute got their run in the fourth when a hit batter eventually scored.
Post 72 won the game in the sixth when Gooch (Greencastle/Wabash Valley JC) singled and stole the team’s 100 base of the season. He scored on a Peyton Grimmett (Seeger/Minnesota North Rainy River College) single.
Grimmett then scored all the way from first when Wooten laid down a bunt that was fielded and thrown over the first baseman’s head into right field.
The win dropped Post 346 to 34-4 on the season, noting that two of those losses were to Crawfordsville.
Game 5 Loss vs Valparaiso
The tournament and the season came to finish with an 8-2 loss to Post 94, who went on to beat Terre Haute 1-0 in the championship game.
After two early runs gave Post 72 the lead, Valpo tied the game in the third, and then put six runs on the board in the fourth.
There was no comeback this game, as Post 94 starting pitcher Dylan Bradford and relief hurler Ethan Glassman shut the batting door.
Crawfordsville’s runs came in the second when Kaden Scott (Greencastle) reached on an error, and courtesy runner Ethan Campbell (Crawfordsville) scored on an error after Wooten reached on a bunt single.
An infield single by Matt Miller (Crawfordsville/Concordia) moved Wooten to third and he scored on a single by Aiden Ambriz-Cruz (North Montgomery).
The six-runs in the fourth for Valpo all came with two outs. Post 94 had loaded the bases to start the inning, but Post 72 was an out from getting out of it before things imploded. A hit, two errors, another hit and a walk and another two hits all contributed.
Scott, who had to take over pitching duties when Kouns was ruled ineligible to pitch in the game, tired and gave way to Campbell, who finished the inning.
Valpo moved to 21-13 and advanced to the championship game.
