EVANSVILLE — Graham Saiko has been hounding local teams for years, but he may have saved his most crushing blow for last.

The Castle High School star, a quarterback who ended the Jeffersonville football team’s season in the sectional final last fall, crushed a two-RBI single to force extra innings and then the Knights went on to end New Albany’s season 9-8 in eight innings in the final of the Class 4A Evansville North Regional at Bosse Field on Saturday.

Saiko’s clutch hit, however, was barely the tip of the iceburg in a game that twisted and turned long into a cool evening. New Albany, which had led 4-0 after the second inning, was down to its last chance in the top of the seventh before rallying against Castle reliever Robby Ort to take an 8-6 advantage on Jordan Striegel’s one-out double.

The Bulldogs (26-5) should have been accustomed to the pressure. It took 10 innings and a broken-bat, walk-off single from pitcher Phil Forbis to beat Terre Haute South 1-0 in the afternoon’s first semifinal.

Castle (26-4), which beat Bloomington North 4-3 to advance to the title game. The Knights will play in next weekend’s semistate round, the location of which has not been announced.



New Albany vs. Castle

Though it turned out to be a classic, it looked like New Albany might run away in the early going.

Castle starter Ben Wright labored with control problems throughout his short 1 1/3 inning run, and the Bulldogs made him pay. It was Striegel who struck first, singling in Taylor Klein, who drew a lead-off walk and moved to third on a wild pitch. Sean Godfrey then hit a single and Nathan Poff delivered a two-RBI triple for a 3-0 Bulldog lead. Forbis then scored Poff on a sacrifice fly.

But two innings later, the high-powered Knights offense got into high gear. After tacking on a run in the bottom of the second, Castle struck for four more in the fourth to chase New Albany starter Jacob Jones.

Jeremy Juliot quickly escaped from a jam, with a runner on third and one out, but was touched up for a run in the fifth that put New Albany in a 6-4 hole.

And that’s where it stayed until the Bulldogs faced what could have been their final three outs of the season.

Graham Brown opened the top of the seventh by reaching on an error and moved to third on a single by Eric Burnett. The first run scored on a wild pitch and then Simon Weber followed with an RBI single to tie things at 6. Taylor Klein then reached on a error to set up Striegel’s heroic hit, a deep drive to left that scored a runner from first and put the Bulldogs in control again.

While it appeared New Albany had once again survived in the most improbable way, Saiko and the Knights still had one more turn at the plate.

Juliot, who had thrown a scoreless sixth and seemed to be finding his groove, struck out the first hitter of the seventh for one out, but then hit Ben Coudret and issued a walk to Robby Ort, the very pitcher that New Albany had just rallied against. The runners moved on a grounder by Jeff Zahn, leaving it up to Saiko with two on and two out.

Juliot jumped ahead 0-2 before throwing three close balls that looked close enough to the strike zone to send Bulldog catcher to his feet believing he’d caught the final pitch. But the umpire disagreed, and Saiko sent a line drive deep into right for the tying runs.

New Albany mounted no threat in the eighth and Castle ended it on a walk-off single by Coudret that looked much like the hit that had sent the Bulldogs past Terre Haute South earlier in the day.



New Albany-Terre Haute South

If anyone deserved to be the hero in New Albany’s semifinal victory, it Forbis.

The Bulldog senior finally ended the scoreless marathon in the bottom of the 10th inning with a walk-off single that scored Sean Godfrey and propelled New Albany into the championship game.

It was Forbis’s magnificent pitching that allowed the Bulldogs a chance to win in the first place. He matched Terre Haute South ace A. J. Reed every step of the way, striking out 11 in 10 shutout inning with just one walk. The Braves managed nine hits along the way, but Forbis stepped up when it counted, escaping each jam unscathed.

“His curve and slider were as nasty as I’ve ever seen them,” New Albany coach Chris McIntyre said. “He never gave up any of the big hits – the doubles or triples that really get you in trouble. It was a good day to do it, because there was no margin for error.”

While Forbis and the New Albany defense kept the door sealed, the Bulldog offense labored to produce until the very end. Up until Forbis and Godfrey teamed up to produce in the 10th, New Albany had managed just five hits and struck out 14 times. Much of the problem was Reed, who jumped ahead of most hitters, yielded only two talks and pitched with both authority and command.

“He’s good,” McIntyre said. “A lot of teams have trouble with him and we knew we’d have our work cut out. Without a doubt, he’s one of the best we’ve faced.”

Forbis had to dance out of a tough spot in the top half of the final inning, giving up a lead-off single to Jacob Hayes, who moved to second on a bunt by Tylor Goldman. After an intentional walk to Reed, who had two hits on the day, Evan Luken grounded into a fielder’s choice, with the out coming at second. That left runners on the corners for No. 5 hitter Ricky Wheatfill, but he grounded out to end the threat.

With each passing inning, South (19-12-1) appeared to be closer to solving Forbis, so the Bulldogs came out with a sense of urgency in their half of the 10th.

Reed still collected his final strikeout of the day by getting Logan Striegel in four pitches. Godfrey then hit a hanging fly ball that dropped neatly into centerfield for a double, and he moved to third on a grounder by Nathan Poff. That brought up Forbis, who was 0-for-4 on the day before taking a ball from Reed and then crushing the next pitch into center and bringing the New Albany contingent a sigh of relief.

It didn’t look like the Bulldogs would make it out of regulation when the Braves took advantage of a Forbis throwing error – New Albany’s only major miscue – to load the bases with one out in the seventh. But the defense was up to the task, alerting making the play at home on a grounder by Hayes and getting out of the frame when Forbis got Goldman to ground out to second base.

South got its lead-off hitter aboard in the final four innings, each time moving the runner over on a bunt. The Braves had a runner on third in the ninth with two out, but A.J. Buck grounded out to end the threat.

“Our middle infield was great,” McIntyre said. “They turned big double plays, stayed down on the ball and kept is in it.”



CLASS 4A EVANSVILLE REGIONAL

At Bosse Field, Evansville

FINAL

FINAL

NEW ALBANY 040 000 40—8 7 1

CASTLE 010 410 21— 9 14 4

W — Ort. L — Juliot.



SEMIFINAL

TH SOUTH 000 000 000 0—0 9 2

NEW ALBANY 000 000 000 1—1 7 1

W — Forbis. L — Reed. 2B — Reed (T), Godfrey (N).

Records — Terre Haute South 19-12-1, New Albany 26-4.