INDIANAPOLIS — Heartbreak.
Class 4A No. 3 Columbus East was clean defensively for most of the night, but a couple of defensive miscues happened at the worst time, and the Olympians quest for their first state baseball championship ended with a 3-2 loss to Hamilton Southeastern in the Class 4A title game.
“We definitely left our mark in East history,” senior shortstop Jonah Wichman said. “These guys are resilient, and they’re a special group of guys to me. We played our hearts out tonight, but didn’t come out on top. But that’s baseball. A couple plays here and there, and we could have won the game.”
East (25-5) missed a golden opportunity in the top of the first inning when Dalton Back hit a one-out triple to the center-field fence. But Royals starter Michael Dillon induced a grounder to second and a flyout to right to end the inning.
HSE (23-8) took advantage of its opportunity in the bottom of the inning. Cole DeWael led off with a double and went to third on a wild pitch. A one-out walk put runners at the corners. After Cole Gilley came up with a strikeout for the second out, Jack DeWolf hit a single down the left-field line to score DeWael.
The Olympians tied it in the top of the third. Clayton Taylor led off with a single. After the Royals retired the next two batters, Back walked and then Julian Greenwell slapped a single to score Taylor to tie the game at 1-1. With runners at the corners, Gilley walked to load the bases, but a pop fly to left left the three East baserunners stranded.
“All tournament, we’ve had some big hits,” East coach Jon Gratz said. “We didn’t get a lot tonight. They have two excellent pitchers on the mound.”
The Royals answered right back in the bottom of the third. Brayton Harrison singled and stole second. After a strikeout, DeWolf hit a single to right to score Harrison.
It wasn’t until the top of the fifth inning when the East fought back to tie it again. Wichman reached on a bunt single to lead off the inning. A balk put Wichman on second, and Back walked to put runners at the corners after a wild pitch on ball four. With nobody out, HSE made a pitching change, bringing on left-hander Tyler Schweitzer to relive Dillon.
After Schweitzer recorded the first two outs, Parker Harrison treached an infield single to score Wichman with the tying run. That was the only hit allowed in three innings by Schweitzer, who shut down the Olympian bats the rest of the game to earn the win.
Greenwell relieved Gilley to begin the seventh. He allowed one hit, and the Royals then took advantage of two East errors. They scored the winning run on an errant throw to first that would have resulted in an inning-ending double play.
Gilley went six innings on the mound allowing two runs on six hits, while striking out six and walking three.
“It wasn’t my best,” Gilley said. “I just battled and competed for the team. My curveball wasn’t working the first inning, and they got that run. Both times they got the runs, my curveball just wasn’t working as well as it has been in the past.”
Greenwell took the loss despite allowing just one hit and an unearned run in the seventh.
“(Gilley) threw great,” Gratz said. “Julian threw great, too. Just a couple balls take a couple hops that don’t help us. It’s part of the game.”
East left seven runners on base in the first five innings.
“When you leave that many guys on base, and you don’t captialize on that, it’s going to be hard to win,” Gilley said. “You just have to do whatever you have to do to score that run.”
It was an historic season for the the Olympians, who were able reach the state championship game for the first time in school history.
“It’s been one of the best season since I’ve been here,” Gratz said. “These guys have battled through injury, battled through adversity all year long, all throughout the tournament. It just didn’t go our way in the end.”
East loses seniors Wichman, Greenwell and Nash Murphy, but still have six starters returning.
“We’ll definitely miss those three seniors we have. They’ve meant a ton for this program,” Gratz said. “We have some talented young players, also. Hopefully, they can step up into those leadership roles and really work their tails off in the offseason and keep getting better.”
It wasn’t the way the Olympians wanted to go out, but Greenwell, who won the L.V. Phillips Mental Attitude Award, said it was a great season.
“I couldn’t be any prouder of this team,” Greenwell said. “They put so much work into this season in the offseason, during the season. We all bought in, and it goes to show when you believe that good things can happen.”
