They’ve been splintered for years. A few of them here, a few of them there. But by the time whatever act of fate or timing conspired to keep them apart finally relented, it became pretty obvious that they were destined to be together.

The results have been nothing short of magical.

Now, the Floyd Central softball team, powered by an abundance of talented underclassmen, has flown higher than any team in the history of the school. Last weekend, the Highlanders (23-6-1) toppled Columbus North and Plainfield to capture the championship of the Class 4A Floyd Central Regional and advanced to the IHSAA State Finals. Floyd will meet Lafayette Harrison (24-7) in the first of two semifinals at Ben Davis High School on Saturday, and needs just two victories to claim the highest prize in Indiana softball.

It’s a career-making accomplishment for any team or coaching staff, but the Highlanders’ run makes a mockery of one of the golden rules of prep sports — that experience, and experience alone, wins championships.

With only three seniors on the roster, Floyd is powered by a starting lineup that includes four juniors and four sophomores. Much of their success can be pinned in particular to two 10-graders in pitchers Samantha McClure and Jordan Batliner, who also double as the team’s top two threats at the plate. Junior Cherrod Gwaltney is perhaps one of the most talented players ever to come through the highly-touted Highlander system and is hitting .377 on the year and junior Jenna Allen is batting at .378 clip and is second on the team in RBIs and third in total hits.

Collectively, the underclassmen play with an intelligence that also flies in the face of conventional wisdom. The Highlanders seldom make the kind of mistakes that often plague squads inexperienced at the varsity level.

“This team has the highest of what I’d call softball IQ than any team I’ve coached,” said Floyd coach Joe Witten, who has had many highly-touted squads in his seven seasons, including the one from two years ago, led by all-state pitcher April Ehlers, that went into the postseason at 26-1 before falling in the regional. “They are all students of the game and they all try to learn as much as they can. They don’t just execute, they can actually adjust to any style and any given situation and that’s been paramount to our success. For the most part, they just have this instinct that allows them to win big games.”

Witten had a hunch that he might have had some talent, and he proceeded to test his mostly-untested team with a beefed-up schedule in the regular season that included perennial-power Carmel, a true road game at Bloomington North and a tourney at Boonville that included some of the state’s best clubs.

“It was there (at Boonville) that this team really figured out that it could play with the best teams in the state,” Witten said.

Instead of wilting against the high-powered competition, the Highlanders excelled. They dominated the local scene by winning the Hoosier Hills Conference and the Jennings County Sectional in seemingly-easy fashion. Even in their losses, the Highlanders were close, losing four of six by a single run.

A young team thrives on confidence, and Floyd’s built with each game. And then it got contagious.

“I don’t think I’m very good,” said outfielder Brigid Morrissey, a standout in both soccer and basketball who admits softball is probably her third love. “But this team has a way of picking me up. They make it very easy to be confident.”

Last season, the Highlander roster featured eight seniors, while much of this year’s team was spending time in the dugout and on the junior varsity. While that experience-laden team had its share of success, its season ultimately wound up in the sectional, where it was upset by a Jennings County team that featured – surprise, surprise – a large group of underclassmen. In the wake of that devastating loss, the seeds were sown for this year’s success.

“I think we’re so much better as a team,” said Gwaltney. “We’re just so much closer with each other this year. I think there were cliques last year, but we all get along very well.

According to most of this year’s underclassmen, last year’s large senior class created a divide. With their graduation, and so many players moving onto the varsity in new positions, the new teammates found themselves in the same boat across the board.

With such a prodigious talent baste, what’s most surprising about this Floyd team is that no one seemed to have seen it coming — not even the players.

While juniors like Gwaltney, Allen and Meghan McRae spent their sophomore season playing with last season’s varsity, this year’s impact sophmores — with the exception of McClure — paid their dues on the junior varsity.

“At the first practice, I don’t remember thinking that we’d be very good,” said McClure, one of the state’s breakout stars. “I knew we had talent, but you don’t know how things are going to come together.”

Witten didn’t know, either, although he had an inkling. He still put things together slowly, moving his players through the system like chess pieces, waiting until everything was in place.

“Last year, I remember thinking this group had tremendous upside,” Witten said. “But we were loaded with seniors and we had a lot of experience that we felt needed to be on the field. The freshmen had ability, but we never wanted to move anyone up too quick. Samantha played with the varsity, but with someone like Jordan, we wanted to be real patient and move her up methodically.”

The approach worked. Batliner has an 11-2 record on the mound with a .80 earned-run average, numbers good enough to be the staff ace on most teams. McClure has a 12-4-1 record with a .76 ERA and 140 strikeouts in 119 innings. Paige Davis, a sophomore who is now a fixture at third base has had a solid season defensively and has driven in seven runs, fourth-highest on the team. Sophomore outfielder Emily Brown is hitting .342. And the list goes on.

Much of it can be attributed to natural talent, according to Witten.

“We go to the Little League and watch the players develop,” he said. “We see their habits and the truth is that they didn’t have too many bad habits. We can really coach them, because we aren’t breaking them out of natural tendencies and that’s a credit to their Little League coaches and our whole system here.”

The shift in leadership to underclassmen has only made the freshman — there are three on the Highlanders’ state roster — and the seniors even better. It also sets up what could be a nice, long run of success for a Floyd team that hasn’t been together nearly as long as you’d think. It’s almost like it was destined to happen.

“It’s weird, but this is really the first time all of us have been together on the same team,” said McRae. “A lot of us hadn’t even really known each other before.”



SUPER SOPHOMORES

P — Samantha McClure, 12-4-1, 119 IP, 0.76 ERA, 140 K. .359 BA, 12 RBI, 2 HR

P/1B — Jordan Batliner, 11-2, 96 IP, .80 ERA, 89 K, .414 BA, 20 RBI, 4 HR

OF — Emily Brown, .342 BA, 7 RBI, 6 2B

3B — Paige Davis, .253 BA, 7 RBI, 3 2B



SUPER JUNIORS

OF — Cherrod Gwaltney, .377 BA, 6 RBI, 4 2B, 14 R

2B — Jenna Allen, .378 BA, 16 RBI, 4 2B, 3 3B, 14 R

OF — Meghan McRae, .266 BA, 7 R, 3 RB