EVANSVILLE — Columbus East tried to make a late rally against Castle in the last two innings of the Evansville baseball Regional, but saw its season come to an end on Saturday.
The Olympians had multiple runners in scoring position in the sixth and seventh innings and scored two runs in the seventh, but still fell short in the 7-3 defeat.
“I felt like we squared the ball up pretty well today,” East coach Jon Gratz said. “We just kept going and kept going, but just couldn’t get anything going until late there.”
The Olympians (20-8) entered the sixth inning with a 7-1 deficit. With one out, Cole Gilley walked and went to third on a Nash Murphy single. Murphy ended up stealing second base to put runners on third and second with one out, but East couldn’t score.
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Julian Greenwell retired all three Knights batters to prevent any damage at the bottom of the sixth.
The Olympians continued to battle in the top of the seventh by threatening by loading the bases with one out. Greenwell walked with the bases loaded to give East its second run. Gilley had an RBI-sacrifice fly that cut the deficit to four runs with two out with runners on first and third. But that was all they could manage.
Gratz said he was proud of what his team was able to accomplished this year.
“I’ve said all year I’m proud of the way these guys battled and fought,” Gratz said. “They didn’t give up until the end there. We just dug ourselves in a little bit of a hole early and credit to (Castle) — they hit the crap out of the ball.”
The Knights (21-8) got the early lead by scoring four runs in the first inning and one more in the second to go up 5-0. East didn’t get its first run until Dalton Back hit an RBI-triple in the third.
Gratz made multiple changes in the defense to try and slow Castle’s hitting down. He started the game with Alec Burnett on the mound but switched to Cole Gilley before the end of the opening inning.
Gilley got the final out of the first and continued into the fourth before Jonah Wichman took over. Wichman pitched for three at bats, and Greenwell closed the game after taking over in the fourth.
“We wanted to get Julian in there a little early, but we didn’t time it well,” Gratz said. “… In this hot day, our pitchers were kind of running out of gas, but that’s part of it. He did a really nice job battling through. He was in pain out there, he got hit in the foot the inning before. He’s a heck of a competitor.”
Castle had 10 hits with three walks and was struck out 10 times between the four East pitchers. The Olympians had five hits, with Back going 2 for 4. Other hits for East came from Drew Hasson, Murphy and Parker Harrison.
The Olympians will be losing five seniors from this year’s varsity roster in Hasson, Burnett, Josh Major, Klayton Brummett and Conner Barkes.
“I just told them, ‘Thank you,’” Gratz said of his seniors. “The leadership that class showed all year long really taught these younger guys how to be leaders. I can’t be more proud of how this senior class led all year long.”
