All the talk before the Class A South Central baseball sectional was of defending champions Henryville’s bid to go back-to-back this season.
Instead it was Christian Academy of Indiana using back-to-back home runs of their own to take down the Hornets bid for a repeat.
CAI’s Josh McKain and J.B. Butner connected on back-to-back homers in the third inning, kick starting a six-run outburst for the Warriors as they took down Henryville, 12-7 to advance to Tuesday’s championship game.
The Warriors will meet host South Central in the final. The Rebels cruised into the championship with a 19-0 victory over Borden in the first semifinal on Saturday.
“We talked a lot about this being a big moment and practiced hard all week to sort of drive home the importance of these games to our guys,” said CAI head coach Ryan Wheeler. “They responded to everything we asked them to do.”
Henryville held a 1-0 lead after the first two innings but things turned quickly for the Warriors in the third frame.
Levi Stewart led off the inning with a single and Joel Sellers followed with a sacrifice bunt to advance the runner.
McKain and Sellers then connected to put the Warriors up 3-1.
After a Trey Haendiges single and a walk to Evan Strong, Alex Hayes lined an RBI double to left and two batters later Paul DeVore hit a two-run single.
By the time the third inning ended, CAI had sent 10 batters to the plate and chased Hornet starter Kyle Robertson, who was pulled for junior Taylor Stone during the Warrior rally.
“We were focused in on getting out ahead early if we could and letting our talent take control of the game,” said Wheeler. “We didn’t want to have to chase, we wanted to be aggressive and put the pressure on them.”
Henryville came back with three runs of their own in the bottom of the third, all on a three-run homer by Andrew Collings that made it 6-4.
With the score 7-4 in the fifth, CAI went on a five-run scoring spree that was aided by back-to-back-to-back errors in the field for Henryville.
The Hornets wound up committing five errors on the day and CAI was able to swipe seven total bases in the victory.
“We put the ball in play and made them make plays and when we got guys on we wanted to stay aggressive and run our way into scoring opportunities.”
Eight of Christian Academy’s nine starters managed a hit in the victory. Butner went 2-for-3 with a walk and two runs scored in the contest.
Henryville scored its final three runs in the sixth on RBI singles by Kiefer Stiffler, Cory Munk and Lucas Hostettler.
But the Warriors ended the sixth with two Hornet runners on base as Haendiges retired Collings on a fly ball to right field and the Warrior lefty retired the side in order in the seventh.
“Trey did what he does and that’s battle through the whole game,” Wheeler said. “He didn’t walk a bunch of guys and stayed aggressive in the strike zone. When they got people on they had to earn it.”
Munk, Kenny Harrell, Colan Connan and Colton Dietrich all had a pair of hits in the loss for Henryville — who loses seven seniors: Stiffler, Levi Powell, Hostettler, Harrell, Munk, Dietrich and Collings.
CLASS A SOUTH CENTRAL SECTIONAL
Semifinal
CHR. ACADEMY 006 150 0—12 9 1
HENRYVILLE 103 003 0— 7 11 5
W — Haendiges. L — Robertson. 2B — Hayes (C). HR — Butner (C), McKain (C), Collings (H).
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