By RYAN WALKER
CONVERSE — The Norwell Knights are not done yet on the baseball diamond, and there wasn’t any question about it with a 12-2 win over New Castle and yet another dominating performance.
The regional championship at Oak Hill High School featured the Knights, now 23-7 on the season, who outscored the three-game sectional field 23-2. New Castle (7-20) was the only team between them and a regional trophy.
Despite the score and the Trojans’ record, regional championships aren’t easy to come by. Last season, Norwell fell in the regional semifinal (in the former two-game regional format) to Bishop Dwenger.
Head coach Dave Goodmiller was happy to just be in the game, let alone winning it and especially with his eight seniors.
“It’s great. It’s hard to get to the regional, and then to win one is really special. It feels good,” he said after the game. “I think they (the seniors) just know it’s the last go around, and they want to do everything they can.”
The Knights made their mark from the start of the game. Leadoff hitter Drew Graft took a 2-0 pitch to dead-centerfield over the head of Landon Semler to leg out a triple. He later scored on Luke Graft’s RBI single to get Norwell on the board first.
Lleyton Bailey brought in Graft with a base hit of his own, and a pair of throwing errors put Norwell in a 4-0 position before New Castle could get back to the dugout. But for the Trojans, their bats couldn’t pick up any steam either.
Knights’ senior starting pitcher Curtis Ellis got himself off to a fast start, too, as he got the first two batters out on two pitches. He exited the inning with 10 pitches and allowed only a single to Garren Mefford.
A 4-0 lead in the first inning stunned New Castle for at least the next four innings. Ellis and the Knights shut down the Trojans for no runs through four while posting a 7-0 lead.
“I was really pleased to see us jump out and swing the bats well,” Goodmiller said. “I was glad to see us have a good first inning where we ran the bases and hit the ball hard — I think that got them on their heels a little bit. It might have taken their pitcher off his game a little.”
The only blemish to Ellis’s start came in the fifth, where Jason Johnson and Mefford drove in the Trojans lone two runs on RBI singles. He finished his start after the fifth inning with two earned runs, six hits, and six strikeouts.
The Knights would strike back in the sixth inning, where Brody Bolyn singled to make the score 9-2.
Lane Lewis took over the pitching duties and threw two perfect frames, striking out six to seal the championship trophy. Lewis, who is usually a starting pitcher, was an option only due to the IHSAA’s new one-game regional format. Ellis and Lewis made for a great duo to help keep runs off the board.
“Curtis went out and threw strikes and got those first two guys out, and I thought Lane really complemented Curtis,” Goodmiller said. “Lane came out with that bulldog attitude and wanted to get him some work today against hitters since it was just one game today. I was really impressed with the pitching.”
Logan Cotton and Luke Graft rounded out the scoring with a double and a single to collect the 11th and 12th runs.
The next step in the new post-season format for Norwell will be to play a potential two-game semi-state Saturday with eight teams remaining.
The Knights are set to play the reigning state champion and No. 2 in Class 3A Andrean (26-6-1), starting at 2 p.m. Saturday, June 10, at Oak Hill High School.
Andrean will be the first-ranked opponent for Norwell in the post-season, though the Knights split with No. 1 Guerin Catholic in the regular season and also lost to No. 9 Crawfordsville. The Knights have received votes in the final poll.
The winner will play either Heritage (19-7) or Frankfort (19-12) later that day at 8 p.m. at the same location.
On the other side of the 3A bracket at Southridge will be Bishop Chatard against Tri-West Hendricks and Silver Creek against Evansville Memorial.
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