Unbeaten Braves pick up second conference win

Apr. 9—What a difference a year makes.

When Terre Haute South played high school baseball at Bloomington North last spring, the Braves ran into junior Caden McCoy, who pitched five perfect innings with something like 13 strikeouts as the Cougars won.

Tuesday night at South, with several scouts on hand behind the plate to watch him, McCoy wasn't quite as effective. Despite his low-90s fastball, the Braves got to him for seven runs in three innings and picked up a 7-4 Conference Indiana win, keeping them undefeated for the season.

"We'd been practicing all week for it," South senior Ty Stultz said after the game. "We've got a new pitching machine ... and the whole team was ready to grind, ready to compete."

Stultz seemed to be ready. He pitched out of a second-and-third, one-out situation in the top of the first and led off the bottom of the second with the first hit off McCoy. Nathan Wright sacrficed courtesy runner Tyler Swan to second base, a passed ball put him at third and Matthew Ewing got an RBI on an infield grounder to put the home team ahead.

Bloomington North tied it immediately in the top of the third on a double, a sacrifice and a wild pitch, but the Braves were just getting started.

With one out in the bottom of the inning, the Weidenbenner twins both singled — a liner to left by Brady, a bunt for a hit by Levi. A wild pitch put both in scoring position, but a fielder's choice wiped out Brady Weidenbenner at home for the second out. Brady Wilson was hit by a pitch to load the bases, but McCoy quickly got two strikes on Stultz.

Stultz smashed the two-out, 0-and-2 into right field to drive in two runs, however, and Wright, Ewing and Noah Fields followed with run-scoring hits of their own.

"[McCoy is] an amazing pitcher, but we were ready for him," the eventual winning pitcher said after the game. "He dominated me last year, so I was coming back with vengeance."

The 7-1 lead shrunk by half in the top of the fourth, when the Cougars got some two-out hits of their own. but Stultz got a called third strike to end that inning and pitched out of a jam in the fifth. Brady Weidenbenner got a save with two innings of scoreless relief, helped by big defensive plays by Ewing and Wilson and a throw from left fielder Collin Knopp that ended the game.

And the Braves are 4-0 for first-year coach Jason Fields.

"It's a senior-laden team," Fields said after Tuesday's game. "They believe in each other and they have a lot of grit."

So working over the talented McCoy wasn't that much of a surprise, he indicated.

"They're all confident," he added. "They believe they can hit and they believe in themselves."

BLOOMINGTON NORTH (AB-R-H-RBI) — Barnett ss 2-0-0-0, Grupenhoff cf-p 4-0-1-0, McCoy p-dh 4-0-1-0, D.Ogden lf 0-0-0-0, Freund lf-cf 3-1-1-0, Eads c 3-1-2-0, Meyer 1b 3-0-0-0, R.Ogden 3b 2-0-0-1, Smith rf 3-1-1-1, Burton 2b 3-1-2-1. Totals 27-4-8-3.

TERRE HAUTE SOUTH (AB-R-H-RBI) — L.Weidenbenner 3b 4-1-3-0, Hoke cf 4-1-0-0, Wilson ss-2b 2-1-0-0, Stultz p-ss 3-2-2-2, Wright 1b 2-1-1-1, Ewing rf 3-1-2-3, Fields c 3-0-1-1, Knopp lf 2-0-0-0, Napier ph 1-0-0-0, B.Weidenbenner 2b-p 3-0-1-0. Totals 27-7-10-7.

Bloomington North 001 300 0 — 4

Terre Haute South 016 000 x — 7

E — Fields, Wilson. LOB — BN 7, THS 4. 2B — Burton, Smith, L.Weidenbenner. SB — McCoy. CS — Barnett. SH — Barnett, Wright. SF — R.Ogden.

Bloomington North IP H R ER BB SO

McCoy (L) 3 7 7 6 0 4

Grupenhoff 3 3 0 0 0 5

Terre Haute South IP H R ER BB SO

Stultz (W) 5 7 4 4 2 5

B.Weidenbenner (Sv) 2 1 0 0 0 1

HBP — by McCoy (Wilson). WP — Stultz 3, McCoy 3, Grupenhoff. PB — Eads 2. T — 2:02.

Next — Terre Haute South (4-0, 2-0 Conference Indiana) plays Friday at Northview. Bloomington North is now 2-3 and 0-1.