Columbus North shortstop Dillon James tags Columbus East’s Bige Asher during a steal attempt at second base Friday at Southside Elementary School.
Tommy Walker | For The Republic
For 10 innings Friday night, Columbus North and Columbus East pitchers kept putting up zeroes after zeroes on the baseball scoreboard at Southside Elementary.
Finally, in the bottom of the 11th, the Class 4A co-No. 5 Bull Dogs broke through. They took advantage of four walks, the last coming with the bases loaded, to pull out a 1-0 walkoff win in the longest game in the history of their 10-year-old field.
“That was interesting,” North coach Mike Bodart said. “That’s what I told (East) coach (Jon) Gratz as we were going through the handshake line. That was weird. Neither team wanted to lose, and pitchers were great. There were some good defensive plays. It was one of those epic North-East games that will go down, and these guys will remember this for a long time.”
Bull Dog senior Connor Hensley and Olympian sophomore Stone Myers matched each other with gooseggs for the regulation seven innings. Hensley pitched two more scoreless innings and finished allowing six hits and no walks and striking out 11 in nine innings.
“I was just trying to do my job, trust my defense, throw strikes and get ahead in the count,” Hensley said. “I had command of all five (pitches). They had good movement, so that was really good to see. The defense was great, as well.”
Myers allowed only two hits over 7 1/3 innings before giving way to freshman JD Rotert. Rotert pitched out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the 10th by coming through with back-to-back strikeouts to send it to the 11th.
East (6-14) put two runners on with one out in the top of the 11th when Chase Niese reached on an infield single, and Jackson Watkins sacrificed and reached on an error. But Ryan Rayburn induced a popup and got a strikeout to end the threat.
Rotert picked up a strikeout to begin the bottom of the 11th, but then walked Rayburn, Sam Perry and Dillon James to load the bases. Rotert got Blake Osbourne to pop out for the second out, but then walked Brock Kintner on five pitches to force in the winning run.
“The first two, I was looking for a pitch to hit,” Kintner said. “I saw they were a little wild, so I was ready to watch the third one. Luckily, it was a ball. I got the take sign from coach at 3-0, so I let that one go. The next pitch, I was looking to hit, but it wasn’t there, so I let it go.”
Rayburn allowed one hit and struck out three over the final two innings to pick up the win for North (14-3).
“(Hensley and Rayburn) did exactly what we would expect them to do,” Bodart said. “We had a couple plays when we needed plays made defensively.”
Hensley had two of the Bull Dogs’ three hits, going 2 for 3. Kintner had the other hit for North, which left 11 on base the first 10 innings.
Niese went 2 for 5 for the Olympians, who managed seven hits.
“We had guys on, and we didn’t get a hit when we needed it,” Gratz said. “We have to string them together, which we didn’t do tonight. Hensley threw a heck of a game. He’s a great competitor. But I’m extremely proud of how hard the guys played tonight and how much they competed.”
Gratz was especially pleased with his young pitchers.
“(Myers) competed his tail off,” Gratz said. “We finally got him healthy, and when he’s out there, he gives us a chance. JD did a great job. We had a sophomore out there and a freshman in relief. Our starting catcher (Logan Warren) dislocated his thumb right before the first pitch, so we had to go to a sophomore (Kaden Arnholt) for the first time (catching) in a varsity game.”
“Their relief pitcher did a heck of a job coming in with the pressure and everything,” Bodart added. “He’s going to be good one day. East played their hearts out, and they’re going to be a good ballclub here before long.”
The win snapped a brief two-game losing streak for North, which previosuly had won nine in a row.
“That’s a big win,” Hensley said. “Two losses is never a good thing, and crosstown rival, that was a close game. But we really needed that win.”
“We talked about that (after Thursday’s loss to Bedford North Lawrence),” Bodart added. “It’s not anything where we needed to have any knockdown, dragout-type of meetings or anyting like that. We were tired, and it showed and we weren’t focusing the way we needed to focus. One of our guys said it, that it takes a gritty team to play as many games as we’ve played in a row, bounce back after two losses and still be able to compete for an 11-inning game.”
East opens Hoosier Hills Conference Tournament play Monday at Floyd Central, while the Bull Dogs head to Southport looking to remain unbeaten in Conference Indiana.
“It’s definitely a morale booster for us,” Kintner said. “We needed this really bad. After two losses, sometimes it’s hard to get back on track, but after tonight, on Monday, hopefully we can keep up the same energy and get a win at Southport.”
