Published: June 20, 2009 11:33 pm      

Crown eludes Kings

Familiar nemesis beats Cass in state baseball final

INDIANAPOLIS — After just one-third of an inning in the championship game of the IHSAA Class 2A Baseball State Finals, it was apparent that Saturday wasn’t going to be Lewis Cass’ day.

In that third of an inning, No. 9-ranked Heritage Christian had put five of its first six batters on base, scoring three runs, and Damon Foreman was on in relief of starting pitcher Andrew Troutman (6-2).

And while Foreman was able to thwart the Eagles for no more runs in the first, they came back with three more off of him in the top of the second inning and defeated the Kings 11-3 going away for the title of Class 2A state champions.

Heritage Christian (25-6) out-hit Cass 15-7 and took advantage of three Kings errors for four unearned runs.

“It was a tough day, and as a coach you don’t want to see that day come,” said veteran Cass mentor Greg Marschand. “If you’re going to play like that, you want it to come at the beginning of the year instead of at the end. It was just the wrong day to play that way.

“I’m still very proud of [the players]. We’re here and it’s a foundation to build on for the future.”

Saturday’s contest between the two schools was a rematch of the Class 2A football state finals in November. The Eagles won that one, too, 17-14.

Keith Lee, a member of both squads who was presented the L.V. Phillips Mental Attitude Award after the game, said it was a privilege to play at Victory Field but that the outcome was a bitter pill to swallow.

“We didn’t play up to our full potential,” Lee said. “We’ve usually been ripping the ball but we didn’t do that [Saturday]. And our pitching kind of fell through in the beginning. It’s just a tough loss.”

Trailing 6-0, Cass (20-9) mounted its first real offensive against Eagles starter David Ledbetter in the second when designated hitter/rightfielder David Diedrick drew a two-out walk and Drew Fowler singled.

Cam Cummings then walked to load the bases before Lee also drew a base on balls, forcing in Diedrick with the first run for the Kings.

Enter Heritage Christian ace Joey Perrott, who only days ago had a cast on his pitching hand, to face No. 2 hitter Colton Zeck. The right-hander struck out Zeck on four pitches.

One inning later, Cass again loaded the bases with two out, and again Perrott wiggled off the hook, enticing Fowler to fly out to shallow center field.

“In the second and third inning, we had bases loaded and got nothing out of it,” Marschand said. “To win games you can’t do that. Unfortunately, we didn’t hit the ball like we usually hit the ball, and maybe the credit needs to go to Heritage Christian. They hit the ball and their pitching was excellent. Hats off to them.”

Perrott (5-1) earned the win with 5 1/3 innings of relief pitching. He allowed five hits and three walks, including two of each in the seventh when Brody Edgerly singled to drive in Lee and Zeck with runs. Perrott struck out seven.

“He’s been that type of a guy,” said Eagles skipper Dan Ambrose of the side-winding Perrott, who was hit by a pitch batting May 15 and returned in time to throw in the Park Tudor Regional June 6.

“We give him the ball, bases loaded — no outs or two outs — he wants it and he usually gets out of it,” Ambrose said.

“Once [opposing batters] see him three times, it gets a little easier to hit, as you saw in the last inning, but that philosophy has worked to come in with him in the second, third or even fourth inning if we get real greedy. That way the best hitters don’t see him too much.”

After retiring Fowler with the bases loaded, Perrott set down nine Kings in a row before pinch hitter Nate Dowden singled with two outs in the sixth. Lee felt like he had a pretty good read on Perrott but that others were struggling.

“Some of the players commented they couldn’t pick up the rotation on his curve,” said Lee, who had a single, an RBI and a run scored. “We couldn’t capitalize on the first-pitch fastball strikes and that came back to haunt us.”

Perrott, who taped his right thumb to bat after relieving Ledbetter, also had a big day at the plate with three hits and two RBIs. He was aided by an error-free Heritage defense.

“You look at the scoreboard and see zero errors,” said Ambrose. “That’s key for high-school baseball. We’ve preached that all year, we knew we had to be a good defensive team, and I thought we could be good but we’ve been great.”

Marschand thanked Cass fans for their support of the team, which at one point was only 14-8 before its postseason run.

“I don’t know where there’s better fans in the state of Indiana than what we have,” he said. “We got on the bus after batting practice this morning, and every crossroad until we got clear out of town was full of people, supporting and waving, and that really means a lot to us.”