Arrows fall in extra-inning thriller at baseball semistate

The high school pitching rule was the only thing that was going to get Sullivan’s Jaden Norris off the mound Saturday night at the Class 2A Lawrence Central Semistate for high school baseball — and unfortunately for the Arrows, it did.

And in a nine-inning game whose last three frames were littered with twists and turns, top-ranked Evansville Mater Dei was happy to see him go, scoring three two-out runs in his forced absence and earning a trip to the state finals with a 5-2 win.

“It hurts to see anybody lose a game like that,” Sullivan coach Tony Steimel said after it was over. “Really well played by both sides, both teams had shots to win it . . . you can’t hang your head about anything like that.”

Norris, first of all, has five pitches he’d no doubt like to get back — the first five of the game. A hit batter, a four-pitch walk and then a double steal had runners at second and third with nobody out.

Norris struck out one batter but then Dylan Murphy, the sophomore half-brother of recent West Vigo star Carter Murphy, turned a low-90s fastball around and ripped a line drive up the middle, glancing off Norris’s calf and bouncing 20 feet in the air for an infield hit and an RBI. Norris turned the pain, which had to have been considerable, into fuel and retired the next 14 batters — although the first of those was an RBI bunt by Mater Dei’s Nick Collins.

Even after the Wildcats starting reaching base again, Norris showed he wasn’t going to let them score, pitching out of bases-loaded, one-out and man-on-third, no-out situations.

“He just gets stronger as the game goes on,” Steimel said, “and his velo [velocity] gets harder . . . he’s just a winner, a flat-out winner.”

But while he was pitching so well, Mater Dei’s Spencer Schiff took a no-hitter into the bottom of the seventh. Then things got interesting.

Jaxon Zollman broke up the no-hitter with a single up the middle, and Zane Abbott followed with an infield single, plus an overthrow at first that put runners at second and third with nobody out. Mater Dei’s Darret Branson relieved Schiff and walked the first batter he faced and the winning run was aboard.

Paul Ridgway dumped a one-out single into shallow center field for a game-tying single and continued to second on the throw home — second and third, one out — but Carter Mischler’s grounder to the left side was backhanded and thrown desperately to the plate, where Schiff — who had moved to catcher when he was replaced on the mound — made a huge catch and diving tag to keep the winning run from scoring.

Norris pitched a one-two-three eighth inning, and the Golden Arrows loaded the bases in the bottom of the inning on two walks and another hit by Zollman. But two strikeouts followed, the latter of those a full-count pitch — that would have either forced in the winning run or retired the side — called a strike to much anguish by people wearing purple. And then Norris reached his 120-pitch limit.

Asked about his team’s 24-4 season, Steimel said, “I couldn’t be happier. I couldn’t say [the season] was beyond our expectations, because we aimed so high . . . and we could have won the state with one more hit. It’s been the best season of my life, and I thank [the Arrows] for taking me there.”

• Sullivan 2, Heritage Christian 0 — In Satrday’s second semifinal game, Ty Hamilton allowed his first hit in two weeks — but only one — and Sullivan got a pair of clutch two-out hits. Mater Dei beat University 6-2 in Saturday’s first game.

Hamilton, who combined with Jaden Norris for a five-inning no-hitter in last Saturday’s regional, walked four batters but yielded only a ground-rule double by the Eagles’ Alex Jackson with one out in the top of the sixth.

By that time his team and its small-ball attack — “If we score three runs, we think we’re in pretty good shape,” Steimel had said earlier in the week — had produced the only two runs he needed.

Zollman led off the bottom of the second inning with a single, was bunted to second by Abbott and scored on a two-out single by Spencer Hanks.

Sullivan’s other run came in the bottom of the fifth. Karsen Norris was hit by a pitch, stole second and scored on Mischler’s two-out hit.

HERITAGE CHRISTIAN (AB-R-H-RBI) — Benson lf 3-0-0-0, A.Jackson cf 3-0-1-0, Gregory 2b 3-0-0-0, Meriweather 3b 3-0-0-0, Sponseller rf 3-0-0-0, Marshall 1b 2-0-0-0, Perraut dh 2-0-0-0, Smith pr 0-0-0-0, Williams c 1-0-0-0, McVey ph-c 1-0-0-0, Wilhite ss 1-0-0-0. Totals 22-0-1-0.

SULLIVAN (AB-R-H-RBI) — Mischler lf 3-0-1-1, J.Norris rf 3-0-2-0, Mason ss 3-0-0-0, Hamilton p 3-0-0-0, Zollman 2b 3-1-1-0, Abbott cf 2-0-1-0, K.Norris 3b 2-1-0-0, Hanks dh 2-0-1-1, A.McKinley c 0-0-0-0, Ridgway 1b 2-0-0-0. Totals 23-2-6-2.

Heritage Christian 000 000 0 — 0

Sullivan 010 010 x — 2

E — Hamilton, Zollman. 2B — A.Jackson, Abbott. SB — Marshall, K.Norris, Smith. CS — Sponseller. SH — Abbott.

Heritage Christian IP H R ER BB SO

Compton (L) 6 6 2 2 0 5

Sullivan IP H R ER BB SO

Hamilton 7 1 0 0 4 8

HBP — by Compton (K.Norris). T — 1:38.

EVANSVILLE MATER DEI (AB-R-H-RBI) — Schickel cf 4-2-2-1, Schiff p-c 3-1-0-0, Miller 1b 5-0-2-2, Simmons pr 0-0-0-0, Murphy 3b 5-0-2-1, Collins c-lf 3-0-0-1, Schaefer rf 4-0-0-0, Stratman dh 4-0-2-0, Sallee pr 0-1-0-0, Kane lf 0-0-0-0, Branson p 0-0-0-0, Hoffman 2b 4-0-0-0, Caldemeyer ss 3-1-1-0. Totals 35-5-9-5.

SULLIVAN (AB-R-H-RBI) — Mischler lf 5-0-0-0, J.Norris p-rf 4-0-0-0, Mason 3b-p 4-0-0-0, Bell pr 0-0-0-0, Hamilton ss 2-0-0-0, Zollman 2b 4-0-2-0, Cox pr 0-1-0-0, Abbott cf 2-1-1-0, K.Norris rf-3b 2-0-0-0, Hanks dh 4-0-0-0, A.McKinley c 0-0-0-0, Ridgway 1b 4-0-1-2. Totals 31-2-4-2.

Evansville Mater Dei 200 000 003 — 5

Sullivan 000 000 200 — 2

E — Caldemeyer 2. DP — EMD 1. LOB — EMD 8, Sullivan 10. 2B — Murphy. SB — Schickel, Schiff, Mischler. SH — Collins.

Evansville Mater Dei IP H R ER BB SO

Schiff 6 2 2 2 4 4

Branson (W) 3 2 0 0 4 5

Sullivan IP H R ER BB SO

J.Norris (L) 8.1 7 3 3 1 10

Mason 0.2 2 2 2 2 0

HBP — by J.Norris (Schickel). WP — J.Norris 2, Schiff. T — 2:34.

Next — Evansville Mater Dei advances to the Class 2A state championship game with a 29-3 record. Sullivan finished 24-4, Heritage Christian 17-10-1 and University 21-11.