‘We ain’t finished’: Centerville baseball is heading to the IHSAA 2A state championship

MOORESVILLE, Ind. — Linton-Stockton intentionally walked Logan Drook to bring up Keegen Schlotterbeck. Just like that, Centerville’s senior shortstop was 10 years younger.

Schlotterbeck had the scenario every kid recites as they step up to the plate in their backyard: last inning, bases loaded, down by one. Usually, they picture themselves in game seven of the World Series. Schlotterbeck had to settle for the bottom of the seventh inning at semistate Saturday with a trip to the state championship on the line. Still, it was the biggest at-bat of his life to that point.

The Miners warmed up a new pitcher to face Schlotterbeck, and as he got loose, the Bulldogs’ three-hole hitter turned to Jamari Pamplin, who was standing in the on-deck circle, and they smiled at each other.

“I was like, ‘You’ve got bases loaded with one out. You’re destined to do the good thing,’” Pamplin said he told his teammate.

“I was like, ‘All right. I got you, ’Mari,’” Schlotterbeck responded.

Schlotterbeck stepped into the batter’s box, and the first pitch clipped his shoulder. Tie ballgame.

He immediately turned around and locked eyes with Pamplin again, and they screamed at each other loud enough for the rest of their teammates and the Centerville fans who echoed them. They knew what was about to happen.

“I was like, ‘Oh, ’Mari is about to win us the game right here,’” Schlotterbeck said.

“I was like, ‘Good grief, this game’s over,’” Pamplin said. “I was fully confident in myself. I was due, let me tell you.”

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The rest was just making belief reality. Pamplin smoked a line drive to right field to score his twin brother, Javontae, from third base, give Centerville a 6-5 win and send the Bulldogs to the state title game.

As the ball dropped in right field, so did head coach Tracey Crull, down to his knees, as his most emotional moment of the season unfolded in front of him.

“We just found a way and wouldn’t quit at the end,” Crull said after the postgame celebration as his face lowered to meet his palms. “Those kids just won’t quit, and I can’t believe we’re going to Victory Field. I cannot believe it.”

He may not have been able to believe it in the moment, but his players knew it from day one. After the very first game of the year — a 5-2 win over then-No. 3 Monroe Central — Drook said the Bulldogs were going to state. All season long, that’s where their sights were set.

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The regular season didn’t go as smoothly as they had hoped — even though a 16-5 record at the time was still pretty darn good — but their end goal hadn’t changed. Centerville’s magic number was six. The Bulldogs needed to win six games to hoist the state championship trophy. That number is down to one.

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They eked out a 4-2 win over Shenandoah in the sectional semifinals. They got revenge on Hagerstown with a 14-8 sectional championship win. They outlasted Cascade 6-3 in the regional semifinals. They seemingly had their way with Heritage Christian in an 8-2 regional championship win. On Saturday, they walked off a 6-5 semi-state win over Linton-Stockton in their most exciting game of the year.

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There’s one more game left this season in all of Indiana Class 2A, and Centerville is playing in it.

“We’re not done yet. That’s all I’ve got to say,” Drook said. “We’re not done. We want a state championship more than anything. That’s all we want.”

It’s not just this team that wants it, and it’s not just the Centerville community that wants it. Crull had a long night on the phone Saturday, and it capped off a week full of people reaching out to wish him luck.

Bill Richardson, Crull’s high school coach when he played at Centerville; Mike Baumer, Crull’s predecessor at Centerville; Lou Michael, a former Hagerstown coach and one of Crull’s mentors; John Cate, a former coach at Richmond High School; Jeff Mathews, a former coach at Union County High School; and every current coach and athletic director in the Tri-Eastern Conference have all reached out to Crull. And that’s just scratching the surface of his inbox.

“The number of coaches — and this is really important to me — that this means so much to who aren’t even Centerville people … It means so much to more than just us, and we know it,” Crull said. “Those are the type of phone calls I’ve gotten: not just Centerville people but people from all over the county.”

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There’s a reason Crull has received this type of support, of which he repeatedly mentioned couldn’t mean more to him and his team. They keep making history.

A week prior, the Bulldogs advanced further than any other Centerville baseball team ever had by winning their first regional game. On Saturday, they advanced further than any other Centerville athletics team ever had by winning their semi-state game.

The Bulldogs are hoping they can make a little more history at Victory Field, but it’ll be more than just Centerville history if they can get it done. No baseball team from Wayne County or the TEC has ever won a state championship.

Hagerstown assistant coach Dan Davis reached out to Crull and told him just how much the Bulldogs are playing for, which, essentially, is the future of the TEC.

“He said, ‘If you win this, other sports in the TEC are going to win a state title because they know it can be done,’” Crull recalled.

The Bulldogs know what’s at stake, and they’re ready to go. Their six-part plan is five parts down. The last one is Friday, June 17, at Victory Field against Illiana Christian.

The smiles on Schlotterbeck and Pamplin’s faces before clutching up to win Saturday were pretty big, and they got even bigger as they talked about it afterwards. Pamplin said they “could get a lot bigger” a few days from now.

“We ain’t finished,” Pamplin said. “It’s a surreal feeling to have a goal and then meet your goal. At the same time, we have to complete our goal, which is winning the state title. It’s not just getting there. We’ve got to win it.”

Zach Piatt reports on sports and education for The Palladium-Item. Contact him at zpiatt@gannett.com or on Twitter @zachpiatt13.

This article originally appeared on Richmond Palladium-Item: IHSAA baseball: Centerville to play for title after semistate win