Columbus North’s Will Baker, left, slides to score a run after an errant throw gets past Columbus East catcher Alex McComb in a baseball game at Southside Elementary School in Columbus, Ind., Saturday, May, 7, 2022.
Mike Wolanin | The Republic
When Pat Antone took over the Columbus North baseball program, he brought with him a two-foot-long dog bone to be locked up and opened once a year if the Bull Dogs won their designated “Bone Game.”
In asking his players which game they wanted to be the Bone Game, the rivalry game against Columbus East was their overwhelming response. Saturday morning, North had a chance to play the Olympians, and the host Bull Dogs unlocked the bone with a 6-2 victory.
Antone brought the idea for the Bone Game from northwest Indiana, where he played and coached before coming to Columbus. He used it at Boone Grove, when he led it to the Class 2A state title in 2018.
“Every year, the seniors would pick before the season started a game that they would designate as the bone game, and when they get that game, they would unlock it, take it out of the cage, get their picture taken with it, and it gets put up on the wall at the school,” Antone said. “But if we don’t get the win, it stays locked up, and they don’t get their picture taken. The thing is, nobody wants to be the forgotten ones.”
Will Baker and his North teammates made sure they weren’t forgotten on Saturday. After allowing a pair of unearned runs in the second inning, Baker retired the last 16 Olympians he faced. He finished with 14 strikeouts in a two-hitter.
“I started off kind of slow in the first two innings,” Baker said. “They got a couple hits and obviously scored two runs, but as the game started to go on, I started to warm up more and get more in the groove. I started to locate pitches better. It’s a little colder out here than usual, so it took my body a little while to get my body all warmed up and my arm ready to go. But once that happened, I got on a roll and just started striking guys out.”
Baker allowed only a single to Harry Major leading off the game and a one-out double by Alex McComb in the second. After Ethan Ianni walked — the only free pass Baker allowed — Baker recorded a strikeout for the second out. Pinch-hitter Tyler Bumbalough reached on an error, and then McComb scored on a wild pitch and Ianni scored when the throw back to the plate to try to get McComb rolled down the first base line.
The Bull Dogs (13-3-2) took advantage of a couple East errors to score four runs of their own in the bottom of the second. Baker reached on an error, Tyler Blythe walked and the runners moved up on a double-steal. With one out, Trent Bodart hit a grounder, and the throw to the plate to try to get Baker was errant, and he and Blythe both scored. Bodart came home on another error. Zach Wager walked, stole second and scored on a bad-hop single by Dyllan Redmon.
“Neither team started out great defensively,” East coach Jon Gratz said. “They ended up getting a couple more than us in the second there. We just have to clean things up defensively, and obviously, we need more than two hits.”
North added to its lead in the fourth. Luke Harmon led off with a walk, went to second on a double by Bodart and scored when Redmon grounded into a fielder’s choice to make it 5-2. The final run came in the sixth when Bodart led off with a single, went to second on an error, took third on a wild pitch and scored on a sacrifice fly by Dillon James.
“We talk about all the time, one of our goals is to win the ‘Freebie’ war,” Antone said. “We want to earn nine freebies offensively, and we want to give the other team no more than four and just find a way to win the freebie war every game and take advantage of any mistakes that are made and whenever we get opportunities, make the most of them.”
Bodart finished 2 for 3 for the Bull Dogs, who managed four hits off two Olympians’ pitchers. Parker Harris allowed two hits over the first four innings, and Rolan Ryan gave up two hits over the fifth and sixth for East (7-11-1).
Baker, meanwhile, was lights-out for North the final five innings.
“After the first inning or two, he really settled in and got comfortable,” Antone said. “He did a really good job pounding the zone, blowing it by guys and letting his defense work a little bit.”
“Will Baker is a heck of a pitcher,” Gratz said. “He has great stuff. Hat’s off to him. He’s a heck of a competitor.”
Winning the Bone Game is a tradition the Bull Dogs are hoping to start.
“It feels good to be the first seniors under coach Antone at North to win the Bone Game,” Baker said. “It’s a pretty big deal now. We’ll get a picture of ourselves and hang it up on the wall, and it will be up there for a long time.”
