ST. LEON — Cole Gilley felt a little disrespected.
With one out and a runner on third in the bottom of the seventh inning of a tie game, Bloomington South intentionally walked both Dalton Back and Julian Greenwell to load the bases and set up a force at any base. Gilley then came through with a shot into the right-center field gap to score Ben Major with the winning run in a 2-1 victory in the East Central Sectional semifinals.
“I think everybody feels (disrespected) when someone puts them on,” Gilley said. “I think they were afraid of Dalton a little bit and afraid of Julian a little bit. I’d had one good hit before that, and I struck out, so I think they were doubting me a little bit.”
Major was hit by a pitch to lead off the seventh and went to second on a wild pitch. Jonah Wichman then lifted a fly ball to right that moved Major to third, setting up the intentional walks and Gilley’s hit.
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Gilley, who threw a one-hit shutout with 14 strikeouts in Wednesday’s opening-round win against Shelbyville and likely will pitch in Monday’s sectional final, feasted on a 2-2 pitch from Wil Stockton, who went the entire way for the Panthers (13-11).
“I was just looking for a fastball,” Gilley said. “The at bat before, he got me on a fastball, so I was just dead-red on a fastball. It was on the inside part of the plate, and I just turned on it.”
Meanwhile, sophomore Kaden Wise was nearly lights out on the mound for the Olympians. He threw a four-hitter with seven strikeouts.
Wise settled down after a walk to the leadoff batter in the first resulted in Bloomington South’s lone run. The Panthers loaded the bases with one out in the sixth, but Wise came up with back-to-back strikeouts to end the threat.
“This is probably the best outing I’ve had this year,” Wise said. “I struggled the first inning, but after that, I started throwing good pitches that I wanted to, and my defense made good plays behind me.”
East tied the game in the bottom of the first when Wichman led off by reaching on an error and then went to second on a single by Back and scored on a double down the left-field line by Greenwell.
But after that, the Olympians struggled to get runners home. They left runners at second and third in the first and had runners on either second or third with less than two outs in four of the next five innings before breaking through in the seventh.
“We were struggling to get that hit with runners on all game, and we got it when it counted,” East coach Jon Gratz said. “I’ll take what we can get. We squared the ball up a little bit better today. We just needed those hits early with guys on.”
Greenwell went 2 for 3, and Back went 2 for 4 to lead the Olympians’ seven-hit attack. East also had some sparkling plays in the field from Back at catcher, Wichman at shortstop and Parker Harrison in center field.
“There were some talented guys out there making plays on defense,” Gratz said. “They’ve been doing it all season.”
