by Jeff Cox Class 3A State Championship at Victory Field, Indianapolis
Andrean 6, West Vigo 3
In Class 3A, no team was finer than the Andrean 59ers.
 Ryan Dineen was 3-for-3 with a double and a triple, Mike Pokers and Ken Mahala homered, and winning pitcher Adam Norton got stellar defense behind him as the 59ers doubled up West Vigo, 6-3, and doubled the number baseball state championship trophies in the school's trophy case, adding this one to the one Andrean won in 2005.
"We've been wanting to win state, and we came out and did it," Andrean CF Kyle Kovach said. "This was awesome."
Kovach sparked a two-run first inning rally by reaching on a swinging bunt off West Vigo starter Jordan Pearson (14-2). He then stole second and scored on Ryan Dineen's double. Dineen would eventually score on a double play groundout, but it was his defense as much as his offense that impressed Andrean coach Dave Pishkur after the senior made a diving stop and throw to erase a sure Viking hit in the top of the inning.
"How great was Ryan Dineen?" Pishkur said. "He played defense like Ozzie Smith out there and then he gets a hit in the first inning to help us out."
West Vigo rallied in the top of the second when Aaron Welch and Brodey McCalister singled to open the inning, but Norton (9-0) quickly erased the threat by striking out the next three hitters. It would remain 2-0 until the bottom of the third, when Dineen led off with a triple and came home on Norton's single. With two outs and no one on, Mahala singled through the right side, setting the stage for Pokers' blast to right field, which was inches short of going over the wall. Thanks to a tricky carom, it turned out to be a home run just the same.
"I knew I was getting three bases easily," Pokers said of the play that plated Mahala ahead of him, "and when I was coming around third and saw Coach Pishkur jumping--which he doesn't do very often--I knew that I had a chance to score."
And he did, and suddenly Andrean lead 5-0 heading to the fourth. But in that inning, the resilient Vikings got a couple runs back. L.V. Phillips Award winner Jeremy Lucas singled and went to third on Welch's double. McCalister and West hit sacrifice flies to make it a 5-2 game, and West Vigo didn't stop there. The Vikings made things even more interesting in the top of the fifth when Tyler Wampler singled home Cameron Fagg, who had doubled. The damage could've been worse, but Wampler was thrown out at second and the Vikings had a runner picked off first earlier in the inning.
"Mistakes of aggression you can put up with," West Vigo coach Steve DeGroote said. "That's how we got here. We wouldn't be here if any one player or any one coach was missing from this squad."
It would stay 5-3 until the bottom of the sixth when Mahala hit a home run the conventional way. His blast to center gave the 59ers more breathing room heading to the seventh.
"In the top of the sixth, I thought, 'I'm gonna try to hit a home run.' This is the last time with these seniors, and I wanted to to it for them," Mahala said.
Norton struck out West to open the top of the seventh, but Scott Thornton singled to give the Vikings a brief glimmer of hope. West Vigo's hopes of winning its first state title in any sport were dashed, however, when Dylan Aff hit a soft liner to Dineen, whose stellar defense began the game and ended it when he tossed to Matt Doolin to double Thornton off first. From there, the celebration was on, as the veteran 59ers finished on a 31-game winning streak and ended up with the same 33-2 mark that the 2005 state champions had. West Vigo, which saw a 26-game winning streak of its own snapped, wrapped up its season at 28-2.
"We were determined," Coach Pishkur said of his team. "It was like we weren't going to be beat. It was like that aura you just feel, and I felt it." |