By RYAN WALKER
CONVERSE — The Norwell baseball team jumped out to a quick lead to defeated Mississinewa 4-1 in the opening round of the sectional under the lights at Oak Hill High School.
The Knights (20-7) scored all four of their runs in the first two innings from the one and top two hitters in the lineup, Drew Graft and Luke Graft.
Luke drove in Drew in the first inning on a sacrifice fly. A throw down to second on a stolen base had Brody Bolyn hustling down the third base line, sliding in safely to take a 2-0 lead.
The Grafts, in the second inning, hit RBI singles to finish Norwell’s scoring for the night.
For the rest of the game, starting pitcher Dylan Oatess of Mississinewa’s (13-13) induced a lot of ground balls and his defense made excellent plays in the infield. The Indians may have even changed their approach with pitch sequencing to keep Norwell guessing, according to head coach Dave Goodmiller.
“I think they changed their pitch pattern a little bit and started throwing a little more breaking balls early in the court to some of our guys,” Norwell’s head man said after the game. “Which, their defense played well. We hit some balls hard to the left side of the infield, and the third baseman and shortstop both made nice plays, so give them some credit too. They played well.”
Oatess’s counterpart, Curtis Ellis, was more successful in getting out of jams in the first two innings.
A long at-bat turned into a walk by Indians’ leadoff man Deakon Dilts to begin the game. Dilts would make it to third, but Ellis worked a flyout and a punchout to end the inning without a scratch.
In the second inning, Mississinewa did its most damage with some small ball. Two of the three bunt attempts were successful, as Jared Fortney sacrificed in the lone run, which ended up being bang-bang play at the plate.
Goodmiller mentioned the wind was a factor in a negative way for the offense, as the howling wind came from centerfield toward home plate and prevented both teams from hitting anything through the air.
Over the next five innings, Ellis was dealing. The senior had his fastball-changeup mix working that didn’t just keep the Indians off-balance but couldn’t get much of the bat on the ball.
“I thought he was a little bit (missing) high with his stuff early in the game in the first inning,” Goodmiller said about Ellis’s early struggles. “I think he really started to focus on getting the ball down in the strike zone, and I thought he made that adjustment.”
A few one-two-three efforts combined with 10 strikeouts had the Norwell dugout erupting at the end of each inning as Ellis commanded the mound.
“It feels pretty good, especially when you’ve got the guys hyping you up the whole time, and it gets your momentum going,” Ellis said. “It got me going, and I like it.”
In the complete, seven-inning effort, Ellis allowed just three hits and two walks, with the one run coming across via the sacrifice bunt.
That also means that Norwell will have the rest of its arms ready to go without any usage. Lane Lewis and Lleyton Bailey have started in big games this season for the Knights, while Brody Bolyn and Graham Gaier also await in the bullpen.
The Knights are set to square off in the sectional semi-final against Peru (14-12) starting at 12 p.m. Saturday, May 27. The Tigers defeated host Oak Hill in the Wednesday’s first game 7-6.
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