By RYAN WALKER
CONVERSE — The Norwell baseball team’s post-season journey came to an end in the semi-state semi-final at the hands of the defending state champion on Saturday.
Norwell (23-8) fell 8-3 to No. 2 ranked Andrean (28-6-1), hosted by Oak Hill High School. The Knights got hot at the right time at the end of the season, winning seven games in a row before the loss, making the ride enjoyable for head coach Dave Goodmiller.
“It’s been a fun group to work with,” Norwell’s skipper said after the game. “We’ve played well down the stretch, I think we had a seven-game winning streak coming into this, and you always want to be playing your best baseball by the end of the year, and we did that two years ago, winning eight in a row going into the semi-state. It’s been very satisfying with these guys.”
The Fighting 59ers pounced on starting pitcher Lane Lewis in the top of the first inning with four runs, taking advantage of two free passes and a couple of defensive mistakes.
James Kirk and Jack Vogt drove in the first pair of runs on RBI singles. Then, a passed ball and a fielding error plated two more.
Norwell’s pitching and defense was a primary reason why the Knights were in the semi-state in the first place, allowing four total runs in the first four post-season games. Goodmiller shared that the team perhaps was nervous, facing an unfamiliar, high-caliber opponent on the big stage.
“I think a little bit,” he said when asked if the team was nervous in the first inning. “I mean, it’s a semi-state. You’re playing against somebody that you haven’t seen during the season, and you haven’t had many common opponents at all. There’s probably a little bit of nerves and feeling out a little bit what they would do, so we knew they’d (Andrean) be aggressive, and we knew they were a good club.”
Goodmiller challenged his team in the middle of the first inning, telling his group they had to bat around the order if they wanted to compete with Andrean, and the Knights did just that.
With two outs and runners in scoring position, senior Cale Mallery delivered a single to score two runs. The next batter, Trey Bodenheimer, sliced a single through the infield to score another run and cut the deficit to one run.
On the mound, Lewis responded by retiring the 59ers in order, giving his team momentum for the offense.
To start the bottom half of the inning, Luke McBride and Drew Graft hit back-to-back singles. The pressure was enough for Andrean head coach Dave Pishkur to pull his starter Garrett Benko from the game to replace him with sophomore Ivan Mastalski. The move worked for the 59ers, as the new pitcher held the runners in check and left the inning without a scratch.
Unfortunately for the Knights, Pishkur’s change made was the right decision not only in the second inning but also for the rest of the game.
Norwell sent the next 12 batters to the plate, and Mastalski sent them back to the dugout for outs. It wasn’t until the sixth inning before a Knight was on the bases again when Mallery tallied his second hit the game, but did not score.
The 59ers put up five more runs while the Knights went quiet, highlighted by an opposite-field, two-run home run by Kirk.
In the seventh inning, Norwell kept the season alive with a single and a hit-by-pitch but wasn’t able to provide enough of a spark.
Though Saturday didn’t end the way Norwell was hoping for, the team still finished the season with hardware, winning its third-straight sectional title and winning the regional championship. The team graduates eight players, and Goodmiller said he liked the best about the group is the leadership and the examples they set behind them.
In the semi-state final, Andrean defeated Heritage 8-2 and will face No. 6 Silver Creek in the 3A state championship game on June 16 at Victory Field in Indianapolis.
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