Sectionals begin without a hitch - or an interruption

For awhile I thought I was going to have to write another weather-related column. The forecast wasn't looking too promising early in the week.

But the rains held off Wednesday and all the baseball and softball sectional games went off as scheduled.

A thunderstorm rolled through late Thursday morning. But the skies cleared, the sun came out, and there was baseball.

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The field at White River Valley withstood Thursday's downpour. And the playing surface was in excellent shape for Class A sectional 57 - and a first-round matchup between presumptive sectional favorites WRV and Clay City.

This game had more twists and turns than State Road 54 east of Bloomfield.

Three Wolverine hitters reached base on swinging third strikes.

Tyler York did so twice. The first time York circled the bases on a pair of errant throws. But he was ruled to have strayed beyond the three-foot-wide running lane down the first base line.

On the second one York reached third and scored on a passed ball.

I never thought about this, but it's probably as hard for the guy with the catcher's mitt to catch up to Hunter Wolfe's fastball as it is for the guy wielding the bat.

"It's something we've dealt with all year," Clay City coach Kyler Rhodes said. "We've learned to live with it."

The Eels pushed the winning runs across on a blooper, two bunts, a passed ball and a routine groundout.

In White River Valley's last chance Hunter Cornelius met a Wolfe fastball squarely on the barrel of the bat and sent it flying far beyond the left field fence. Everyone knew instantly it was a goner.

When bat speed meets pitch velocity just right the ball can travel a long way.

For White River Valley a record-breaking season came to a disappointing end. The Wolverines entered sectional play with a single-season school record 15 wins.

Clay City's win sets up a rematch with Bloomfield. The Eels won a close one, 3-2 over the Cardinals at Clay City in the regular season.

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Bloomfield certainly received the beneficial draw at WRV. The Cardinals rolled Eminence 16-0 and mercy-ruled North Central 16-3.

Now they'll face Clay City in the sectional final.

When the teams met at Clay City a month ago, Bloomfield led 2-1 in the fourth inning when weather suspended play. The Eels answered with two runs in the bottom of the fifth to take the lead and held on for a 3-2 win.

"We were right there," Cardinal skipper Jason Pegg said.

Bloomfield was right there - with Hunter Wolfe pitching. Wolfe struck out 14.

The Cardinals enter Monday's sectional with confidence knowing they can stay with Clay City even with Wolfe on the mound.

At Roy Herndon Field in Linton Wednesday the Miners dispatched North Knox 10-0 in five innings, just as they'd done 12 days earlier.

Linton-Stockton will face Mitchell in Monday's first semifinal at 11 a.m.

The Bluejackets outlasted South Knox 4-3 in 13 innings. Matt Fougerousse told me the game didn't end until 11:30. Mitchell probably didn't get home before 1 a.m. I'll bet the Bluejackets are happy they didn't have to make a return trip to Linton the next day.

I wonder if Mitchell had school Thursday.

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Speaking of school - with commencements approaching, now would be a good time to recognize our graduating student-athletes.

Looking through the Greene County Daily World graduation tab, I counted nine athletes among the 13 candidates vying for Valedictorian and Salutatorian at our five area high school. Every school had at least one athlete in its top two. Several had two or three.

And they aren't just "kids on a team" either. All nine are among the area's best athletes in their respective sports.

The term "student athlete" is thrown out so frequently it has almost become generic.

And when it's used to describe the semi-professionals competing in big-time intercollegiate athletics, it's downright oxymoronic.

Not so with these outstanding young people. They are "student athletes" in the truest sense of the word.

Terry's Weekly Rankings

Shakamak (15-11, 7-0)

Linton-Stockton (15-11, 6-1)

White River Valley (15-8, 3-4)

Bloomfield (10-12, 2-5)

Eastern Greene (6-14, 2-5)

Terry Schwinghammer is a sports writer for the Greene County Daily World. He can be reached by telephone at (812) 847-4487, ext. 27. He can also be reached via email at tschwing32@yahoo.com.