Published: June 05, 2009 02:13 am      

4A BASEBALL: New Albany returns to historic stadium for 4A regional

Earlier this season, the New Albany baseball team made a trip to play a doubleheader at historic Bosse Field. The Bulldogs enjoyed playing at the 94-year-old stadium so much that they dreamed about making a return trip in June for the Class 4A Evansville North Regional.

On Saturday, that dream will come true.

No. 5 New Albany (25-4) will face Terre Haute South (19-11-1) in the first semifinal of the regional at noon EDT. No. 6 Castle (24-4) will face Bloomington North (20-6) in the second semi at 2:30 p.m., followed by the championship at 8 p.m.

“We knew we wanted to get back there,” New Albany senior second baseman Graham Brown said. “We’ve just been working hard for that. It’s a really nice place.”

The Bulldogs will be vying to win their first regional championship since 1995, which was Chris McIntyre’s first season as New Albany head coach. McIntyre says playing at Bosse Field makes the postseason even more thrilling.

“You just want to advance as far as you can advance,” he said. “Bosse Field is a fun place to play. It doesn’t matter if it’s a regional or a summer game or the regular season. It’s just a neat place to play and being in the regional adds a little more excitement. It’s a real good atmosphere and environment. It’s just smells like baseball when you go to that place.”

McIntyre scouted South’s 6-0 victory over city rival Terre Haute North in Tuesday’s Martinsville Sectional final, and got a glimpse of the Braves’ probable starter on Saturday in A.J. Reed. The ace left-hander tossed a one-hitter with nine strikeouts to up his record to 6-2.

“He’s a big left-hander that throws pretty hard,” McIntyre said. “Once again, we’re going to see very good pitching. But at this point, you’re not going to see any bad pitching.”

Along with Reed, McIntyre was impressed with South’s defense and aggressive nature on offense.

“They’re a really good defensive team. They are very solid fundamentally,” McIntyre said. “Hitting-wise, it’s about what you expect from a team in the regional. They’re very aggressive and they like to run quite a bit. They’re not going to do anything we haven’t seen before.”

McIntyre will most likely start Phil Forbis against the Braves. The New Albany senior has a 9-0 record with a 1.56 earned-run average. But the Bulldog skipper also is leaving his options open to put either senior Jacob Jones (6-0, 1.95 ERA) or junior Jeremy Juliot (7-2, 2.77 ERA) on the mound.

“I think we’ll probably go with Phil, but we’ve still got Juliot,” McIntyre said. “We didn’t throw Juliot in the sectional, and we could throw him out there if we need him. He’s done a good job this year.”

One thing McIntyre hopes will continue is that his bats stay hot. During the second half of the season, the Bulldogs’ team batting average has improved 54 points from .290 to .344.

In their two sectional wins over Seymour and Jeffersonville, they scored 20 runs on 20 hits and smacked six home runs. Four of those homers came in the sectional final, which was a 13-4 win over the Red Devils. New Albany became only the second team in Hoosier Hills Conference history to win both the conference tournament and sectional in the same season.

“We’ve just got to continue what we’ve been doing,” McIntyre said. “Early in the year, we struggled offensively because we wanted to hit any ball that was thrown towards the plate, whether it bounced or rolled. We swung at bad pitches. At the midpoint of the year, we started to get better. Now, we’ve got everybody swinging at good pitches, so that’s got to continue.”

Forbis and teammate Sean Godfrey are the top two hitters on the squad. Forbis has a .481 batting average with 21 RBIs, while Godfrey is hitting .418. Brown is the Bulldogs’ best power hitter with seven homers and 39 RBIs along with a .368 batting average. New Albany freshman Eric Burnett has driven in 27 runs.

McIntyre hopes his team’s defense will return to normal to support his solid pitching staff. The Bulldogs committed six errors during the Seymour Sectional after entering the tournament averaging one miscue per game.

“We’ve got to play better defense,” McIntyre said. “We really did not play well defensively. It gets kind of overshadowed when you score 20 runs in two games. But if it’s a one-run game, it will stand out a little bit more.”



EVANSVILLE NORTH REGIONAL

• DATE: Saturday

• SEMIFINALS: New Albany (25-4) vs. Terre Haute South (19-11-1), noon EDT; Castle (24-4) vs. Bloomington North (20-6), 2:30 p.m.

• CHAMPIONSHIP: Semifinal winners, 8 p.m.