Sectional baseball doesn't get much better than this

Class 2A baseball sectional 47 at Roy Herndon Field in Linton couldn't quite match the excitement, intensity and suspense of the 2A basketball sectional at North Knox.

I'm not sure anything could.

But it came close.

Monday's slate was filled with nail-biting fantastic finishes that came down to the final out.

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Actually it started the previous Wednesday.

Mitchell outlasted South Knox 4-3 in a 13-inning thriller. It's a good thing the Bluejackets didn't have to turn around and play the next night. Instead they had four days off.

Apparently Mitchell was well-rested. The Bluejackets bore little resemblance to the squad who lost 10-1 to Linton-Stockton in early April.

Kendall Williams crossed the plate with the go-ahead run after leading off the seventh with a double and taking third on a throwing error.

Miner coach Matt Fougerousse called for Williams to steal home. The ball got past the catcher and Williams touched home giving the Miners a 5-4 lead.

But the pesky Bluejackets weren't quite finished yet.

Mitchell filled the sacks with two outs in the bottom of the seventh. Again it was Williams who delivered. The shortstop made a diving snag of Caleb Lobosky's hard-hit grounder and flipped to Trey Passen at second for the game-ending force-out.

Fougerousse was forced to summon his ace Logan Hollingsworth to the hill for the final four innings. Doing so meant Matt would face a dilemma in the championship game.

It was only the beginning...

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White River Valley coach Chris Cornelius told me before the Wolverines' sectional tilt with Clay City he thought Eastern Greene had a good chance of beating Shakamak. It just goes to show you - Chris knows a heck of a lot more about baseball than I do.

The Lakers jumped out to a quick 6-0 lead after two frames.

Three innings later the upset-minded Thunderbirds broke through. Consecutive base hits by Nick Abel and Nathaniel Nolting set the table for Klint Stille. Stille ripped a three-run shot down the left-field line.

Next time up Abel's fourth single of the game plated Isiaha Padgett drawing the T-Birds within two.

Stille drew a free pass to lead off the seventh, moved to third on Caleb Hamilton's double and scored on an error.

Isaac Hamilton followed with a base knock to load the bags with no outs.

And like his Miner counterpart, Shakamak skipper Todd Gambill had little choice but to call on the fireman.

Braden Scott came on and locked down the win, getting a force play at the plate and two whiffs.

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I can't speak for Gambill and Fougerousse. But having to resort to their top guns to finish off a semifinal game was surely cause for consternation.

And if they hadn't we might have seen a Bluejackets-Thunderbirds sectional final.

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Hollingsworth had six innings left for the sectional championship game. Fougerousse took a calculated risk, handing the ball to Noah Woodward to start the game.

The Miner coach explained, "Logan only had six innings for tonight so then it becomes, 'What do you do? Do you start him and bring in someone else for the seventh?'

"And we know Noah does a great job mixing up speeds so we decided to go with him and go as long as we could."

Credit Woodward. The sophomore kept Shakamak at bay, holding the Lakers scoreless on one hit through three innings.

But the lone hit was nearly a goner. A drive off the bat of Zack Moorman caromed off the top of the center field fence for a long double. It wasn't the last long ball Moorman would deliver.

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I doubt anyone in attendance believed Shakamak would go quietly into the night.

Parker Green's big bat led off the Laker fourth with a solo shot to left field.

Tanner Yeryar legged out an infield hit to start off the fifth frame. He moved to second on a hit batsman, took third on a passed ball and scampered home with Shakamak's second run on a wild pitch.

In the sixth, with Logan Kinnett and Yeryar aboard Moorman tagged a three-run blast.

Fortunately for the Miners they were operating with a 7-2 cushion at that point.

I've heard coaches all year stress "pitching to contact." It's a dangerous strategy to employ against the Linton-Stockton lineup.

They made contact - and the balls found the holes.

The Miners batted around in a big second inning. A pair of 2-RBI singles by Garyck Russell and Austin Allen staked the sectional hosts to an early 4-0 advantage.

Three more runs came across in the fourth. With the bases loaded and one out Cory Anderson raced home on a passed ball. Hollingsworth stepped up and delivered Linton's third two-run single of the night.

The Miners had no extra-base hits. But they had plenty of traffic on the base paths.

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But a 7-5 lead was hardly safe against Shakamak.

The Lakers loaded them up with two outs in the seventh on an error, a free pass and Green's scorcher down the left-field line.

And again a stellar play in the field bailed the Miners out. Second baseman Trey Passen nabbed Mason Wood's sinking liner ending Shakamak's season.

"Give Shakamak credit," Fougerousse said. "We're up 7-2 and they came right back with the three-run bomb. Then they had bases loaded and were a base hit away from tying the game."

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I couldn't help noticing a few Twitter tweets directed at Shakamak.

The gist of the comments was, "Welcome to 2A, Shakamak!"

In the immortal words of Sergeant Hulka, "Lighten up, Francis."

Trash-talking has a way of coming back to bite you. Unless you can back it up.

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I've said it before and I'll say it again - and it applies to sports of all sorts - there is very little difference between a good 1A program and most of 2A. I also maintained all season Shakamak and Linton were very evenly matched.

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Linton may get its own "Welcome to 2A moment" this weekend. The Miners face defending 2A state champ South Spencer in the Providence Regional Saturday. The Rebels are 23-6 and were ranked eighth in the final regular season coaches' poll. Host Providence is 24-3 and fourth in 2A.

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Interesting tidbit - all three of those teams were in the 2A Paoli basketball regional field.

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Come Saturday I'll be taking the Last Train to Clarksville. Meet you at the station.

Terry's Final Rankings

Linton-Stockton (17-11, 6-1)

Shakamak (16-12, 7-0)

White River Valley (15-9, 3-4)

Bloomfield (10-13, 2-5)

Eastern Greene (6-16, 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.