By RYAN WALKER
CONVERSE — For the third straight season, the Norwell Knights are baseball sectional champions.
The three-peat was capped off Monday in a 14-0, five-inning mercy rule over Northeast 8 foe Bellmont (10-12). The win completed a three-game quest that was earned by clean, well-played baseball throughout the tournament. The Knights (22-7) outscored post-season opponents 23-2 and made just three errors in the three games, putting a season’s worth of hard work together at the right time.
“It’s a great feeling,” Norwell head coach Dave Goodmiller said after taking pictures with family members after the game. “The kids have come together and played pretty well this week. I felt like the last week of the regular season, we started to come together and started doing the little things that we needed to work on and clean up.”
The Knights jumped out on Braves freshman starting pitcher Beau Baker in the first inning on a first-pitch single by Drew Graft, the first hit of the team’s nine, and later scoring on a wild pitch. Lleyton Bailey plated home a run on another wild throw to make it 2-0.
Luke Graft set up a monster second inning for Norwell, pounding a double that scored two more runs. A few throwing errors and a single by Cade Shelton got the lead up to seven.
Conversely, Bellmont could only strike for two hits in the game. Norwell starting pitcher Graham Gaier and the defense behind him made for an untouchable duo that gave the Braves just five baserunners in as many innings.
In the three sectional games, the Knights only used three pitchers, with all the starters going the distance. Curtis Ellis, Lane Lewis, and Gaier threw a combined 19 innings, 25 strikeouts, 13 hits/walks, and compiled a 0.95 earned run average.
Defensively, the team adjusted to playing on a turf field at Oak Hill High School, which speeds up the ball hit on the ground along with the wind playing a role in flyballs.
“I was very pleased with that (the defense),” Goodmiller said. “Of course, you’re playing on turf, it’s a little bit different, and you’re getting more true hops, and it’s a little faster too, but I thought the kids reacted pretty well with that. With the wind, I thought the outfielders did a good job tracking fly balls — I don’t think we had any misplayed flyballs in the three games. That was good too.”
In the third inning, senior first baseman Brody Bolyn put the icing on the cake. With the bases loaded, he pulled a pitch to deep left field for a grand slam and finally released some of his bad luck with a hard-hit ball for a recorded hit. Bolyn had a few lines drives for outs in bad spots in the first two games, including one that nailed teammate Drew Graft running to third and would have scored but, by rule, was called out.
“I’ve been robbed a couple of times this weekend, in all honesty, with some hits,” Bolyn said. “I’ve hit pretty hard, and I’ve even hit my own teammates. I just prayed a little bit to the baseball gods a little bit today. My dad and I went into the batting cage this morning and tuned some things up, and I just knew I was going to get one. I wasn’t sure when, but I knew I was going to get a hard hit, and that was the one.”
Another hit came in his next time up, which scored another run, totaling five of the nine RBIs for his team. Norwell had a 10-run mercy rule by the third inning, but the slam and hit by Bolyn and a fly ball error knocked the score up to 14.
The team, family, and fans rejoyced on the field afterward, taking photos, and hugs were distributed all around.
The road will continue on Saturday, June 3, for Norwell in the regional championship, as the Knights will face New Castle (7-19).
The Trojans, who won the sectional at Yorkton, scored two runs in the sixth inning against Delta (11-17) and won by a score of 3-2.
The location and time of the game are still unknown, as that information will be released on Wednesday. Possible sites for the regional include LaPorte, South Bend Clay, Plymouth, Griffith, Oak Hill, Logansport, Lafayette Jefferson, and Lafayette Central Catholic.
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