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BASEBALL: Illiana Christian tops Winamac at regional

beau wicker, pharos-tribune, logansport, ind.
·5 min read

Jun. 4—On a chilly June day near the shores of Lake Michigan, the Winamac bats went cold at the wrong time.

Illiana Christian powered past the Warriors 11-1 in five innings Saturday in a semifinal game of the Class 2A Whiting Regional at Oil City Stadium.

The Warriors (18-5) managed just one run on five hits against Illiana Christian senior right-hander Ian Van Beek, who entered with a 1.88 ERA. Van Beek struck out 10 and walked zero in the five-inning game.

The Vikings (19-7) scored 11 runs on 10 hits against Winamac pitchers Mitchell Bonnell and Caleb Seymour. The Warriors also allowed three walks and three hit by pitches.

Hayden Clark had two hits and run scored to lead the Warriors. Bonnell, Seymour and Caleb Good each added a hit.

The Warriors had their chances to get more offense going. Seymour and Bonnell led off the second with back-to-back singles when it was still a scoreless game. But Van Beek struck out the side to get out of the inning. When the Vikings led off the second with back-to-back hits, they proceeded to score four runs.

The Warriors answered with a run in the third when Clark scored on an error but the Vikings responded with three runs on one hit in the bottom of the inning as they took advantage of some wildness by the Winamac pitchers.

The Vikings continued their relentless offensive attack and added two runs in the fourth and two more in the fifth. The game ended early on a Van Beek two-run single in the bottom of the fifth.

Winamac coach Marcus Kay talked about the contest with WKVI 99.3-FM's Harold Welter following the game.

"We had a chance. We did scrape one across there in the third. But in the second we had two guys on and nobody out and we couldn't convert on that," Kay said. "The kid we saw on the mound, he threw pretty hard. He just threw strikes. I thought their lineup from one through nine, there was no significant dropoff from one through nine. Mitchell Bonnell started for us and I would go with him 100% of the time in this game even knowing the outcome. He's been a sub-1.00 ERA all year for us and just a touch over 1.00 to finish the year. Let's face it, that's a very solid baseball team from one through nine.

"I'm not taking anything away from us. I thought we were in the ballgame for a little over three innings. At that point, things kind of made a turn for the worse. It's just sad to see these eight or nine guys who have been with us for a super long time, it's going to be very odd to not see them around anymore. We met quickly because there were a lot of people that made the trip up and we wanted to make sure they got with their loved ones and the people who came up to see them. We told them we would talk more when we got home. But I'm super proud of what this baseball team has accomplished all year. It's been a heck of a ride. I would have loved to have stayed around and rolled that ball out one more time for that regional final, but that's a heck of a baseball team that you saw today."

The Warriors competed at a baseball regional for the first time in 23 years. They won the HNAC this year with a 13-1 league mark.

"It's definitely a bitter pill to swallow now but hey it still feels good," Kay told the radio. "This is a program changer for those freshmen and sophomores that are dressing. There's no juniors unfortunately. We have a handful of freshmen and sophomores that are playing for us. It's definitely a stepping stone to open their eyes to there's definitely a higher world of baseball. There's sectional play and Boone Grove is very solid. But you take that next step to the regional and you're talking kids that have some offers to go play and move on later in their career in the college ranks. I think what this does for us is we've got to work our tails off even harder. You can tell them that all day long and they're going to be like, 'yeah,' but when they see it for themselves and see what that extra step up in baseball, when you get to that next level at the regional, it can do nothing but make our program better which makes me happy."

Winamac sophomore Wyatt Wheeler made a web gem at first base for a double play to get out of the fourth. Sophomore Max Gearhart drew the start at second base.

But the Warriors will graduate eight senior starters, several of whom made a big impact in baseball, basketball and football.

"There is a lot of talent on that baseball team," Kay said. "Three of those seniors have started for me for probably 75 games at this point. With COVID losing a year it would have been a hundred. I'm proud of them. I'm proud of what we accomplished. That Hoosier North is no joke of a conference. And again it wasn't like we ran away with it. We struggled to pull that out. That's what we talked about today, Boone Grove is not playing today. They're a top 10 team."

Illiana Christian is a school that started in Illinois in 1945 and moved to Lake County in Indiana in the 2018-19 school year and has quickly become a Class 2A power in IHSAA sports.

"We played today. Did it go our way? No, it didn't go our way," Kay said. "I think we can probably play that baseball team 10 times and we might beat them once out of 10 times and that's taking nothing away from those gentlemen that play baseball for us. It's just that is a very high end program. I guarantee you I didn't know much about them coming into this point but I'll probably never forget that name for a long time."