INDIANAPOLIS — They say nothing good happens after midnight.
That was especially true for the Columbus East baseball team when the calendar flipped from Monday night to Tuesday morning.
The Olympians, who had played so valiantly for six innings, made a pair of uncharacteristic errors in the bottom of the seventh inning of the biggest game of their lives. That allowed Hamilton Southeastern to pull out a 3-2 win to capture the Class 4A state championship.
“It’s a tough way to lose, but that’s part of baseball,” East coach Jon Gratz said. “Our guys played their tails off. Like I told them, I’m just so proud of this group the way they battled all year long. They never gave up. It’s part of baseball when a couple things don’t go your way.”
For most of Monday night, things did not go the Olympians way. They left seven runners stranded over the first five innings.
Still, East managed to push across a pair of runs, twice rallying from one-run deficits to tie the game.
“You play the whole season, and for it to end like that, it’s going to hurt awhile,” junior catcher Dalton Back said. “It’s the same situation with football. We know we can make it. All it does is take a few people that actually buy into the program, and we can be right here again next year and hopefully walking away with the blue ring.”
Back was one of seven East starters who played key roles on the Olympians football team that reached the semistate in the fall. Six of those were key players, and four were starters, when East won the Class 5A state football title in 2017.
That winning experience helped this year’s baseball team come within a couple plays of winning its first state baseball title.
“This is the first time we’ve ever been to a state championship for baseball,” junior pitcher/quarterback Cole Gilley said. “We have to be happy about coming in second place, but the guys coming back can’t be satisfied with it. I want to win a state championship in two different sports — football and baseball.”
Gilley was effective Monday night, allowing only two runs and six hits in six innings before giving way to senior Juilan Greenwell in the seventh.
The Olympians should have a formidable pitching trio coming back next year with Gilley and juniors-to-be Kaden Wise and Clayton Taylor, who pitched brilliantly in the regular season and in the regional. Gilley and Taylor also were among the team’s top hitters, along with Back.
“We’re definitely going to put in a lot of hard work and try to get back here and win the game,” Taylor said.
East will miss its three seniors — Greenwell, first baseman Nash Murphy and shortstop Jonah Wichman. All three were two- or three-year starters in both football and baseball.
But along with Gilley, Back, Wise and Taylor, the Olympians will return sophomore outfielders Parker Harrison and T.J. Barkheimer, sophomore infielder Ben Major and freshman infielder Harry Major from this year’s starting lineup.
“They’re such a fun group to be around,” Gratz said. “They work hard, they accept coaching, they bust their tails every day. They’re a very light-hearted group. Like I told them at the end, this is a fun group to be around. It’s something these kids will remember forever. Hopefully, we can build off it and work our way back next year.”
Ted Schultz is sports editor for The Republic. He can be reached at tschultz@therepublic.com.
