DIVISION I: Lakota West earns trip to Final Four
DIVISION II: Ross blanked by DeSales in regional semi
DIVISION III: Carlisle falls in eight-inning heartbreaker
“He’s been our big guy all year,” Chaminade Julienne coach Mike Barhorst said.
CJ (21-4) earned its first trip to a regional championship game since 2014. The Eagles will play Columbus DeSales in a contest scheduled for 4 p.m. on Saturday at Mason.
DeSales advanced with a 9-0 win over Ross in Friday’s first game at Mason. Thursday’s inclement weather pushed the semifinals and final back one day.
Junior shortstop Ryan Peltier and Wissman’s younger brother, sophomore second baseman Nick Wissman, drove in Chaminade Julienne’s other two runs with sacrifice flies, and the Eagle defenders were sharp while turning in an errorless game. Garrett Wissman credits CJ’s tough schedule with keeping the Eagles on their toes.
“We had tough games against Butler and Tippecanoe at the end of the regular season,” he said, referring to CJ’s last two losses. “That got our competitive level up. It forced us to focus on offense and defense.”
“That’s what we’ve been preaching for the past 4, 5, 6 years — throwing strikes and playing solid defense,” Barhorst said. “We always say, ‘If we can keep the other team from scoring, we’ll figure out a way to score some runs.’ I would say that was one of our best games of the season for sure.”
The only miscue was Garrett Wissman’s wild pitch on strike three with two outs to Spartans senior catcher Luke Moore in the fifth. Moore reached first base, but Wissman regrouped to get sophomore left fielder Cam Anderson swinging and finish the rare four-strikeout inning.
He allowed a leadoff single to Waynesville senior right fielder Micah Spille in the seventh and walked the next batter, senior center fielder Mason Callahan. Dickerson brought in Peltier, who was 8-0 with 43 strikeouts and a 1.03 earned run average, to face the top of Spartans coach Ryan Hill’s lineup.
Peltier responded with two strikeouts and a fielder’s-choice grounder for his first save of the season
“Wissman’s been pretty good for a few years,” Hill said. “We knew that going in. We hit a couple of balls right at people, but we couldn’t string hits together like we had been doing. When you can throw a couple of pitches for strikes, that’s baseball in a nutshell. We thought if we got into their (bullpen), we’d have a shot, but Peltier has a good arm too. Unfortunately, we were on the wrong end of it.”
CJ snapped a scoreless tie with a two-run third. Waynesville sophomore third baseman Drake Stiles and Moore bumped into each other while trying to make a play on sophomore third baseman Cameron Benoit’s deft one-out bunt. Benoit hustled to third base on senior center fielder Mark Barhorst’s perfect hit-and-run single through the hole into left field, Peltier’s sacrifice fly on the next pitch.
Garrett Wissman followed with a double, beating the throw with a headfirst slide into second base as Barnhorst scored from second for a 2-0 Eagles lead.
Waynesville (23-7) got on the board in the fourth on senior first baseman Tommy Isaacs’ leadoff double and Anderson’s two-out double.
The Eagles padded their lead with a two-run sixth that started with a leadoff single and stolen base by Peltier. Garrett Wissman drove in Peltier with a single and went to second on the throw home.
Hill replaced left-handed starter Brady Stone (7-4) with senior sidearming left-hander Jake Oakes, who uncorked a wild pitch behind Nick Wissman, allowing Garrett Wissman to move up to third base. He scored on Nick Wissman’s sacrifice fly.
Chaminade Julienne 002-002-0—4-7-0
Waynesville 000-100-0—1-4-0
WP — Garrett Wissman (4-0); LP — Brady Stone (7-4); S — Ryan Peltier (1). Records: C 21-4, W 23-7
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