Friday, May 1, 2009

COWAN -- Excellent pitching. Airtight defense. Small-ball offense.

JConline
Second-ranked Central Catholic's baseball team finds itself two victories from its third Class A state championship in six seasons because of the aforementioned strengths.

# Pitchers Taylor Glaze, Brett Haan, Chas Bobillo and Austin Munn have a collective 0.70 ERA in sectional and regional action, including Saturday night's 8-2 victory in 11 innings over No. 3 Cowan.

Tournament opponents Rossville, Tri-Central, Monroe Central and Cowan combined for 17 hits in 103 official at-bats, a .165 batting average.

# Once Cowan ace Justin O'Conner left Saturday night after striking out 17 in nine innings, the Knights began to bunt against the Blackhawks' suspect defense.

Three throwing errors by Cowan relievers Skyler Toomey and Kirby Campbell on well-placed bunts from Scott Windler, Cole Hruskovich and Ben Wiley set up CC's six-run 11th.

# Through four tournament games, CC has made three errors, and only one led to a run.

Glaze, 2-0 in the tourney and 7-0 overall, was the key against Cowan, limiting the Blackhawks to five hits and two runs, one earned, in 10 innings.

He and fellow junior O'Conner battled to a 1-1 tie through nine innings. O'Conner allowed four hits.

"Have I ever played in a more exciting game?" Glaze said. "No, no, no, no, no and no. This was by far the most exciting game. I pitched 10 innings and pushed myself to the limit."

Glaze said it was a thrill to pitch against O'Conner, who consistently was throwing 91-to-95 miles an hour.

"O'Conner is a very, very good pitcher," Glaze said. "He throws heat. He is dominating.

"It was a tough battle, but we put our hearts into it and pulled it out."

Glaze said he felt like his heart was in his throat during his final three innings on the mound.

"It was there every time once we got past the seventh inning," Glaze said. "I was praying that I wouldn't mess it up. Luckily, I didn't. We got the job done.

"My curveball was working, and so was my fastball. I threw it high and away and got them chasing it."
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The bottom four batters in the Cowan order were a collective 0-for-18 with six strikeouts, hitting into a pair of double plays.
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Bordenet, who won his 300th game Saturday night, anticipated Cowan would be vulnerable against CC's bunts.

"We knew that in order for us to be successful, we had to make them make some plays," Bordenet said. "We had to put the ball in play ... had to shorten our swings.

"O'Conner is a heck of a pitcher. We battled him and had several scoring opportunities. We waited him out. And we played great defense. I can't say enough about Taylor. He matched O'Conner pitch for pitch for 10 innings. That was a whale of a ballgame."

In retrospect, senior Dru Anthrop made the play of the game, stealing home with two outs in the top of the 10th for a 2-1 Knights' lead. The steal was magnified when Cowan scored in the bottom of the 10th.

"Dru got to third, and he said, 'Coach, I can get it,' " Bordenet said. "(The pitcher) has his back to me. We kind of rolled the dice, and Dru had a heck of a jump at third with a left-hander on the mound. That kind of turned the tide.

"Then, he came back in the 11th and got that two-run single. Our kids showed so much perseverance. Cowan got the hit to tie it with two outs in the 10th, and we came right back with the big inning in the 11th. I'm proud of our guys."

CC, which will play Fort Wayne Canterbury in Saturday's Kokomo Semistate, probably will be without second baseman and cleanup hitter Reed Drysdale, who was ejected for failing to slide at the plate in the top of the 10th.

According to IHSAA rules, the ejection carries a one-game suspension.

"He started to slide 12-to-15 feet in front of the plate," Bordenet said. "It was a hard slide. It is what it is, and we will move on.

"We've got a long way to go. We've got to get healthy. We've got a lot of kids banged up. The week off will do us good, but I know our kids will play hard and battle."

Hruskovich, Haan and Drysdale each is suffering from a finger injury.

Anthrop, who drove in four runs in the two-game regional, wondered what might have happened has CC not won in the 11th. Cowan does not have lights, and the game ended at 8:31 p.m.

"It was such a suspenseful game," Anthrop said. "Baseball is such a slow-paced game. There's no clock, so anything can happen.

"But actually, there was a clock today. Had the sun gone down, I don't know what would have happened. But it was fun."

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