PREP BASEBALL: Strong pitching lead Goshen, Penn to Sectional 4 semifinal wins

May 27—MIDDLEBURY — Only five pitchers were needed across both Class 4A, Sectional 4 semifinal baseball games Saturday.

The first contest featured complete games from both hurlers, with Penn senior Adam Lehmann outdueling Northridge senior Kaden Plank to win, 1-0, and send the defending 4A state champions to the sectional championship game.

In the second game of the day, Goshen senior Thomas Castillo went the distance as well, beating the Elkhart duo of Sam Russo and Jackson Stewart, 4-1, to advance the RedHawks to the title contest.

Goshen (15-12) will face Penn (22-8) for the Sectional 4 championship Monday at 11 a.m. at Northridge High School.

"You want to be a part of these games," Goshen coach JJ DuBois said. "Obviously, not just their whole program, but their head coach (Greg Dikos) having over 800 wins, that's a tough challenge. It's one that our kids have earned. They earned the right to play for a conference championship last year. They've earned the right to play for a sectional championship this year. It's where we'd like to be consistently, playing teams like Penn and having a shot against a really, really good team."

PENN 1, NORTHRIDGE 0

It was the type of game Northridge coach Chad Gerard likes to play.

Unfortunately, his team couldn't muster any runs off Lehmann, bringing his team's season to an end with a record of 18-10.

"Those are the kind of games that we want to play," Gerard said. "We want to play great teams, and we want to be in games and be competitive with great teams, and today was every bit of that. We had our opportunities to get a couple of runs across, and just didn't."

Northridge's best chance to score came in the top of the sixth inning. Up to that point, Lehmann was throwing a no-hitter, having struck out seven of the previous eight batters he had faced. With one out in the frame, though, senior Harrison Kauffman ripped a single to center field.

After senior Gavin Collins hit a long flyout for the second out of the inning, junior Jack Urbanski smacked a single to give the Raiders two runners on base and its first in scoring position since the first inning.

With the game still in the balance, junior Max Horner came up. The seven-pitch at-bat ended when Horner hit a ground ball to Penn third baseman RJ Cromartie, who then beat Kauffman to the bag at third base for a force out to end the scoring threat.

Lehmann then sent the Raiders down in order in the top of the seventh, including two strikeouts to give him 12 for the game.

Penn's only run came in the second inning. Zach Pelletier started off the frame with a single. He then advanced to second base on a groundout by Lehmann. Hunter Morrett then laid down a perfect bunt single, giving the Kingsmen runners on the corners with one out.

This brought up Dawson French, who hit a groundball up the middle. It was stopped by Northridge senior shortstop Kade Sainz, who was able to get the force out at second base. Unfortunately for Sainz, his ensuing throw to first base to try and turn the double play was late, allowing Pelletier to score.

It was a tough loss for Plank, who pitched six strong innings, allowing only five hits and minimizing the damage anytime Penn would get runners on base. It was the second time this season Plank has lost a complete game, 1-0 decision, with the other coming against Mishawaka on April 28.

"He's a slider-first pitcher, so the slider was working well," said Gerard of Plank. "He also had the fastball working well, too, because he was hitting the corners with the fastball when he needed it. He had them swinging over the top a little bit with the slider like he always does. ... He was around the plate, they put balls in play and our defense made those plays."

GOSHEN 4, ELKHART 1

While the first game was completed in less than 90 minutes, two lengthy delays pushed the game between Goshen and Elkhart to nearly three hours in length.

The first delay came in the top of the second inning when Lions senior second baseman Ethen Leazenby collided with sophomore right fielder Cooper Schoetzow while both were trying to catch a fly ball in shallow right field. While Schoetzow was OK, Leazenby had to be taken off the field on a stretcher. His was conscious, with his nose notably bloody from the contact made.

Then, in the bottom of the third, a foul ball went off the home plate umpire's arm, sending him to the ground. While he remained in the game, he moved from behind the plate to being a field umpire, causing a delay while a new umpire put on the necessary gear to move to the pitch-calling spot.

In total, the game lasted two hours and 37 minutes.

"I have never played in a game with two long delays," DuBois said. "Obviously, the kid from Elkhart, that's a horrible situation. It's hard to watch that, whether he's your teammate or not. That long delay, you're just making sure that kid's OK. ... and then with the umpire going down, we had to reset and refocus, and I think it kind of relaxed our team. We were a little fired up early for a sectional game, and that was able to settle us down and get us where we play well."

Elkhart coach Scott Rost wasn't sure what the official injury to Leazenby was.

"The thing with Ethan: he's been swinging the bat really, really well the past three weeks," Rost said. "He's been a little bit of a force for us, offensively, after he struggled the first half of the year. He's been pretty solid for us defensively, too, so what we lost with him there was big."

Through all the stoppages was a great pitching performance from Goshen's Castillo. He recorded six strikeouts across his seven innings of work, only allowing one run in the first inning before shutting down the Lions' offense the rest of the way. He only gave up three hits in the game as well.

"Every time he's on the mound, we know we have a really good chance to win," said DuBois of Castillo. "Our defense loses some without having him at shortstop — sadly, he can't play every position. When he's on the mound, we know we're going to compete."

Elkhart's run put them ahead, 1-0. After Goshen stranded the bases loaded in the top of the first, the Lions got a walk from Russo, single from senior Max Grove and single from senior Preston Stimac in a row, all with two outs. Stimac's hit brought home Russo.

Goshen tied it in the top of the second. The play that caused the Leazenby injury left RedHawk sophomore Kyan Miller on second base with a double. He was then driven in with an RBI single off the bat of senior Nate Pinarski.

Elkhart had a chance to score more runs in the bottom of the second, loading up the bases with one out via a hit-by-pitch, a walk and an error from Goshen. Castillo was able to then strike out Lions junior Braeden Becker before Russo grounded into a fielder's choice, with RedHawk third baseman Braxton Cline stepping on third base to get a force out and end the inning.

"We had a golden opportunity there to kind of break things open in the second, and we couldn't capitalize," Rost said. "That could've really changed the complexion of the game. There wasn't enough good at-bats from us, offensively, today to make anything happen. ... We had only given up two (runs) going into the last inning, so you've got to win when you do that."

Goshen broke the tie in the top of the fifth with an RBI single from Adam Ellison, plating Castillo.

Two more insurance runs then came in the seventh. Cline had a sacrifice fly to score junior Caelan Miller, then sophomore Quinn Shreiner-Landes smoked a double off the right field wall, bringing in Pinarski.

Russo pitched six innings, allowing five hits, two runs and just one walk while striking out six batters. Elkhart's season comes to an end with a 10-18 record.

Note: due to there being no print publication of The Goshen News Monday due to Memorial Day, this story will only run on the web.

Austin Hough can be reached at austin.hough@goshennews.com or at 574-538-2360. Follow him on Twitter at @AustinHoughTGN.