Columbus North’s Ben McDaniel and Martinsville’s Jeff Scott are friends and have coached against each other in travel baseball for the past 12 years.
Saturday morning, they’ll put that friendship aside for a couple hours while their high school teams battle in the Evansville Regional semifinals.
The Bull Dogs (15-12) will face the Artesians (12-15) about 12:30 p.m. CST (1:30 p.m. EST) at Bosse Field in Evansville. Bedford North Lawrence (20-4) and Evansville Central (20-8) will meet in the opener at 10 a.m. CST (11 a.m. EST).
The regional title game will be at 6 p.m. CST (7 p.m. EST) Saturday.
Martinsville lost 4-2 to the Bloomington South team that Columbus North beat 11-1 in five innings in Monday’s Bloomington North Sectional final. The Artesians also lost twice to a Franklin team that the Bull Dogs swept in a doubleheader.
Martinsville is led both on the mound and at the plate by a freshman. Brandon Dodson is 5-1 with a 1.40 ERA and is batting .347 with two homers and nine RBIs.
“I think we match up well,” McDaniel said. “They have some young pitchers, just like we do. They’re pretty solid defensively, and they have some scrappy hitters. Their record is very similar to ours, but they’re playing some good baseball right now.”
North jumper seeded third
Columbus North senior Mitchell Burton is seeded third based on his regional performance, going into Friday’s IHSAA Boys Track and Field State Finals.
Senior Coleman Tennyson is seeded sixth in the shot put. The Bull Dogs are 12th in the 4×100-meter relay, junior Brigham Kleinhenz is tied for 13th in the pole vault, Burton is tied for 13th in the 100 and junior Charlie Allen is 25th in the 3,200.
Columbus East senior T.C. O’Neal is tied for the No. 7 seed in the high jump and is tied for 15th in the long jump. Jennings County junior Dalton Craig is 23rd in the 1,600.
Brown County is seeded 16th in the 4×800 relay. Eagles junior Wyatt Wyman is 22nd in the 800.
Panther thrower seeded 11th
Jennings County sophomore Kayla Truesdell is the highest-seeded local athlete entering Saturday’s IHSAA Girls Track and Field State Finals. She is tied for the No. 11 seed in the discus and also is 17th in the shot.
Trinity Lutheran senior Hailley Peters is tied for the No. 14 seed in the pole vault. Brown County senior Maddy Fields is tied for No. 20 in the pole vault.
Columbus North freshman Olivia Morlok is seeded 21st in the 3,200.
Lancers start times moved
Edinburgh’s baseball regional and softball semistate game times have been moved up to accommodate the Lancers’ graduation, which is at 2 p.m. Saturday.
The softball team now will play Indianapolis Lutheran at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at North Daviess. Lanesville and Tecumseh will meet in the second semifinal at 1 p.m., and the championship game will be at 7 p.m.
The Edinburgh baseball team will play Indianapolis Lutheran at 10 a.m. Saturday at Morristown. Rising Sun and White River Valley will meet in the second semifinal at around noon, and the title game will be at 7 p.m.
Jets named All-Sectional
Five players from the Hauser softball team that won last week’s Rising Sun Sectional were named to the All-Sectional team.
Junior pitcher Tessa Sims was named the tournament’s MVP. Also selected to the team were seniors Hailey Lange and Ali Hoover and juniors Sydney Schoen and Lauryn Starnes.
South Decatur’s Sierra Deppe and Chloee Smith also were named to the All-Sectional team.
