It does not get much more exciting than this.
For now there is only one more victory separating the North State AAA champion Indianola Academy baseball team from a State AAA Championship, a feat not achieved by an IA baseball team since the 2001 season.
After claiming a 10-4 series-opening road win over 24-13 Central Private School (La.) on Tuesday, the 25-8 Colonels will now attempt to put the issue to rest this Friday on their home field.
First pitch of this potential doubleheader will be thrown at 4 p.m.
However, according to IA Head Coach Clete Putnam, earning this final victory over the team from East Baton Rouge Parish in Louisiana will be a tall task.
“It is not going to be easy,” he said. “Central Private has gone on the road and faced elimination a couple of times this year (most recently last week against Central Hinds Academy). They are a very good baseball team and we know they are going to come in here Friday and get after us. We definitely still have our work cut out for us, but we are excited about the opportunity.”
The Rebels, chasing their 14th baseball state championship, will no doubt be bringing their ace right-hander, and University of New Orleans commit, Jace Pendarvis to the mound to challenge IA hitters and attempt to keep the season alive for another game.
As for the large and loud IA fan support, which has been appearing for the recent playoff games, Coach Putnam noted, “The atmosphere at our place has been phenomenal the last two weeks. We have great fans and we can’t wait to see how our students and our community show up again this Friday.”
In their recent victory over Central Private School, the Colonels brought their own ace to the mound and Josh Hill answered the call with a four hit, 10 strikeout performance in his 6 1/3 innings of work.
Coming to the mound in the seventh to register the final two outs of the game for his cousin and earn the save was James Hill.
The Colonels provided early run support for their pitcher as they opened this game with a five run first inning.
Pounding out six hits among the 10 batters which came to the plate in this inning, the Colonels received an RBI double from Josh Hill as well as RBI singles by Logan White, Spencer Roberson, and Thomas Putnam.
While IA totaled 11 hits in the contest to continue to plate runs in the final three innings of the game, Josh Hill’s pair of doubles paced this attack while Will Davis added a triple to go along with Sebastian Harris and Roberson contributing a pair of singles.
Meanwhile, another milestone was reached last Thursday when the Colonels captured the North State AAA championship with their 7-1 victory over visiting Heritage Academy of Columbus, a feat not reached by an IA baseball team since the 2002 campaign.
In the Colonels’ championship victory over Heritage Academy last Thursday, the large and supportive crowd of fans saw the Colonels hit on all cylinders as they used good pitching, solid defense, timely hitting, and the long ball to help claim the game over the Patriots.
While junior Will Davis was spinning a complete game six hitter from the mound, the Colonels expanded on their 1-0 lead in the fourth inning by plating three runs to take what proved to be the game-clinching advantage.
After White and Roberson opened the inning by reaching base via a hit by pitcher and a base on balls respectively, Putnam then delivered an RBI single which essentially gave IA all the runs they would need to claim the game.
However, Harris then crushed a two out double to the left center field gap to plate Roberson and Putnam and increase the Colonels’ lead to a 4-0 margin.
The offensive fireworks were not complete for IA, however, as in the fifth frame a leadoff double by Wesley Lester was followed two batters later by a left-field fence clearing home run off White’s bat.
It would only take two more pitches for the Colonels to score again as Roberson lifted a solo blast over the 365 foot sign in center to take the score to a 7-0 margin.
Although Davis’ shutout bid was spoiled in the sixth frame by an RBI double, the game would end with IA up by six runs and the Colonels accepting their North State AAA championship trophy.
Davis’ solid performance on the mound included striking out six Patriots while issuing only two walks.
At the plate, the Colonels’ eight hit attack was led by Harris’ double and single to go along with Lester’s double and the homers by Roberson and White.
