4A BASEBALL: Red Devils, Bulldogs each win semifinals at Seymour

By KEVIN HARRIS
Kevin.Harris@newsandtribune.com

May 31, 2009 01:51 am

— SEYMOUR — Last year, the Jeffersonville baseball team defeated New Albany in a dramatic Class 4A sectional final in eight innings, 1-0.
At 6 p.m. on Monday at Owls Field, both teams will have a chance to duplicate that postseason thriller.
The Red Devils and the fifth-ranked Bulldogs both advanced to the Class 4A Seymour Sectional final by posting semifinal wins on Saturday afternoon.
Jeff (20-11) blanked Bedford North Lawrence in the first semifinal 4-0, while New Albany (24-4) beat the host Owls, 7-3.
It will be the third time the Devils and the Dogs have played this season. Jeff cruised to victory in the regular-season matchup, prevailing in five innings 14-3 on April 22. New Albany returned the favor on May 15 with an 8-3 win in the Hoosier Hills Conference Tournament championship.
“After our game we played with them last year in the tournament, it was kind of destined that it was going to work out like that,” New Albany head coach Chris McIntyre said. “They’ve got a good team. We’re going to have our work cut out for us. If people want to see a good game, they need to get up here on Monday.”

JEFF-BEDFORD
For the second straight contest, the Red Devils got another gem from their pitching staff.
After Hunter Tipton threw a two-hitter in Thursday’s opening-round win against Floyd Central, teammate Jeremy Eger tossed a complete-game five-hitter against the Stars. The left-hander struck out nine, walked two and hit one batter to up his record to 5-2.
“He got ahead of the hitters and he used his breaking pitch. He kept them off-stride,” Red Devils head coach Al Rabe said. “He’s not overpowering, but he throws strikes and he throws quality strikes. He’s pitched well all year, so we expect that from him.”
Eger got just enough offensive support from his teammates, particularly from senior Ryan Pierce.
The University of Evansville signee had a 2-for-3 game with three RBIs and two runs scored, continuing his late-season hot streak.
“He’s shown signs about the last three or four games that he’s starting to hit it well,” Rabe said. “Good players rise to the occasion.”
Pierce scored Jeff’s first run in the bottom of the second inning. With one out, he lined a single into center field. After John Jacobs flied out to left, Aaron Hargett got on base with an infield single, moving Pierce to second. Then senior Jeremy Chesher plated Pierce with a single to center.
Pierce took advantage of the wind blowing out in the sixth. With runners on second and third base with one out, Pierce smashed a three-run home run to left-center field to give Jeff a four-run advantage.
Rabe anticipates a hard-fought game in the rubber match with New Albany on Monday.
“We’re going to see a good team and we’re going to see good pitching,” Rabe said. “It’s just good to be there. We’re going to show up and do the best we can.”

NEW ALBANY-SEYMOUR
New Albany redeemed itself against Seymour starter Cory Thomas, who tossed a three-hit shutout in a 1-0 victory over the Bulldogs on April 11.
New Albany chased Thomas, who entered the contest with a 1.61 earned-run average, after 3 1/3 innings of work. The senior right-hander gave up six runs (all earned) on seven hits and three walks.
“We’re a much better hitting team now than we were at that point. We are doing such a good job swinging at good pitches and not going outside the strike zone,” McIntyre said. “When we played them in April, we swung at every curveball in the dirt and every fastball over our head. We really didn’t give ourselves a chance.
“We laid off that stuff today and sat on the fastball a little bit more and did a nice job.”
Trailing 1-0, the Bulldogs scored four runs in the second. The big blast was a three-run shot over the left-center fence by senior Erik Winburn with two out to give New Albany a 3-1 lead.
After Jordan Striegel doubled to deep center, he scored on a single by Sean Godfrey to make the score 4-1.
Bulldog catcher Simon Weber extended the lead to 5-1 in the bottom of the third with an RBI double to left-center to knock in Graham Brown. In the fourth, Striegel hit an opposite-field solo shot off Thomas that caromed off the scoreboard in right-center field to give New Albany a 6-1 lead.
Striegel provided the Dogs’ final run. He drove in Weber on a sacrifice fly off Seymour reliever Mitch Hunnicutt in the sixth.
Winburn and Striegel, the Bulldogs’ No. 8 and 9 hitters, respectively, combined to go 4-for-5 with five RBIs and three runs scored. Winburn went 2-for-3 with three RBIs, while Striegel, who battled a hip injury earlier this year, was 2-for-2 and drove in two runs.
“Those guys can hit the ball,” McIntyre said. “They might not have the average than some of the guys at the top (of the lineup). But they’ve done a good job in the last two or three weeks. Erik Winburn has really come along. Striegel has been hurt most of the season. He hasn’t really been healthy until probably the last two or three weeks, and it has made a big difference in him.”
Weber went 3-for-3 with two runs scored, and Godfrey was 3-for-4.
New Albany starter Phil Forbis remained perfect on the season with a complete-game win. The senior improved to 9-0, yielding seven hits and no walks. He struck out seven and hit two Owls.

CLASS 4A SEYMOUR SECTIONAL
SEMIFINALS
BEDFORD NL 000 000 0—0 5 1
JEFF 010 003 x—4 7 0
W — Eger (5-2). L — McPike (3-4). 2B — Roberts (B), Fertig (J). HR — Pierce (J).
Records — Jeffersonville 20-11, Bedford North Lawrence 10-12.

SEYMOUR 100 010 1—3 7 1
NEW ALBANY 041 101 x—7 10 3
W — Forbis (9-0). L — Thomas (6-3). 2B — Thomas (S), Striegel (N). HR — Thomas (S), Winburn (N), Striegel (N).
Records — New Albany 24-4, Seymour 20-9.

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