BY CHRIS GARNER
When the Lewis Cass baseball team collides with Heritage Christian for the IHSAA Class 2A state championship Saturday at Victory Field in Indianapolis, the Kings will know exactly what’s at stake.
It’s a story that’s been written at many other tradition-rich small schools in Indiana since the advent of class sports — one that’s already been penned by Cass’ basketball, softball and football teams — but Saturday the baseball team will have its turn to play for a state title and the honor of everyone who’s ever worn a Kings uniform.
The team witnessed firsthand part of that legacy after its dramatic, 11-inning semistate win Monday in South Bend when several former players joined in the celebration.
Game time Saturday is set for 1 p.m.
“When you look at all of the ex-Cass baseball players who didn’t make it this far, and you see tears in their eyes because these guys won semistate, it makes you want to dig a little deeper and win [state] for them,” said coach Greg Marschand, who has been at the helm at Cass for 30 years. “I know our guys not only want to win it for themselves, they want to win it for all those guys who didn’t quite get there.
“Our guys know they haven’t completed the journey yet. They’re looking forward to a win that makes everything complete now.”
Much has been made of the fact that the Kings and the Eagles last met in the championship game of the Class 2A state football finals just seven months ago.
Heritage Christian won that contest 17-14, and with 15 Cass players on both the football and baseball rosters, Marschand confirms they’ve been champing at the bit this week. But Marschand was also quick to point out the need for level heads.
“Our kids are competitors and they don’t like to get beat, but they also know to keep it in perspective,” he said. “It’s two different sports. They keep it under control.”
The Eagles haven’t forgotten recent history, either, but at least one of their players is cautioning his team about what happened when Heritage Christian reached the football state finals in 2007, losing to Fort Wayne Bishop Luers.
“Our third baseman and emotional leader, Christian Rector, was a key player on both teams and he talked about his experience as a junior when he went to the state championship game and lost,” coach Dan Ambrose said. “So we’re not making a big deal out of Cass, we’re making a big deal out of you get so close to a state championship, you don’t want to lay an egg.”
A look at the Eagles
The No. 9-ranked Eagles (24-6) are paced by senior outfielder Chris Ward, who leads an offense averaging more than 10 runs a game.
Ward, who also has a team-high six pitching wins and a team-low 1.58 ERA, has clubbed 13 home runs this season, driven in 47 runs and scored 40. He bats at a .600 clip.
Ambrose said Ward probably won’t pitch on Saturday, except in relief.
“He would be our No. 1 most years, but we’ve been able to use some other guys and keep him in center field,” said Ambrose. “If we use him [pitching] we lose a really good center fielder.
“Offensively, he’s kind of a man among boys with our team. He’s a complete hitter.”
In addition to Ward, Rector has four homers and 30 RBIs. Sterling Harpst has 40 runs scored and carries a .391 batting average.
“We’ve surpassed my expectations,” Ambrose said of his team’s hitting. “I thought our team batting average might be around .370, .375, but right now we’re at .413 as a team. And we’ve gotten a lot of production out of the 6-7-8-9 holes in our lineup.”
Ambrose said three pitchers are being evaluated this week as potential starters — twins David (4-3 W-L, 3.78 ERA) and Ryan Ledbetter (2-0, 1.72) and Joe Perrott (5-1, 2.79).
A look at the Kings
Ambrose said the unranked Kings (20-8) remind him a lot of his own team.
“They’ve got a couple studs in their lineup that are real tough outs, and then they’ve got a bunch of other guys who put the ball in play and don’t strike out very much,” said Ambrose. “And to win an 11-inning game, they had to have some depth at pitching as well that carried them through. That sounds a lot like us.”
Pitching indeed has been an odyssey for Marschand and Cass, especially since junior Brody Edgerly underwent pitching-shoulder surgery after the football finals and hasn’t pitched this season, and fellow junior Damon Foreman started the season 4-1 with a 1.40 ERA but was shelved early in May with biceps tendinitis.
Enter classmates Andrew Troutman and Evan Depew, who have picked up the ball and carried the team, in Marschand’s words.
Troutman is 6-1 with a stingy 1.08 ERA and Depew is 3-3 with a 4.78 ERA.
Foreman has gradually returned to the mound, earning the win Monday with 4 1/3 innings of relief pitching. All three are being prepped this week for Saturday.
“They’ve been tremendous, both of them,” Marschand said of Troutman and Depew. “We knew they would pitch somewhere, we just didn’t know where it would be.
“Damon has been telling us that he’s ready, but we left him at second base and threw the other two guys. Damon was always in the background, telling us, ‘Hey, I’m ready to go here.’ It was special to see him back and that we could count on him too.”
Edgerly has made his presence felt with the bat, stinging opposition pitching with a .458 average and a team-high 29 RBIs. He drove in the game-tying run Monday with a double in the bottom of the seventh inning.
Catcher Colton Zeck has a team-high five home runs and has driven in 28, while outfielder Keith Lee has driven in 26 and scored a team-high 36 runs.
The Kings average just under eight runs per contest.
“Brody has done a fantastic job ever since mid-April,” said Marschand. “He’s just gotten better and better. His approach at the plate is very disciplined and he hits good pitches. It’s really fun to watch him hit.
“Colton is a real sparkplug. He gets guys going and leads them in the right direction. There isn’t anybody who works harder than he and Keith Lee do.”
Marschand knows the Kings must do better than the five errors they committed in the semistate win over Hammond Bishop Noll.
“That’s uncharacteristic of us to throw the ball away and boot it around like we did,” Marschand said. “At this point in the tournament is boils down to pitching and defense, and hopefully those two things will be good for us.
“This team just has a tremendous work ethic, and they have come through a lot of adversity,” added Marschand. “People pretty much wrote us off, but they have found a way to come together.
“They’re a bunch of tough-nut kids who aren’t willing to throw in the towel. They’re willing to do what it takes.”
State finals:
At Victory Field in Indianapolis
Today
7:30 p.m. — Class A, Lafayette Catholic (27-4) vs. Vincennes Rivet (16-10)
Saturday
1 p.m. — Class 2A, Lewis Cass (19-8) vs. Heritage Christian (24-6)
4 p.m. — Class 3A, Andrean (32-2) vs. West Vigo (28-1)
8 p.m. — Class 4A, Fort Wayne Snider (23-3) vs. Westfield (24-5)
Did you know?
Westfield coach Ryan Bunnell is a Howard County native. He played at Northwestern and later worked as an assistant coach at Western. He owns a 96-102 record in seven seasons as the Shamrocks’ coach.
