Kennedy, Stone lead No. 1 Central Catholic to share of Hoosier Conference baseball title

Written by
JEFF WASHBURN
OXFORD — Thanks to sophomore designated hitter Evan Kennedy and senior right-handed pitcher Nick Stone, Class A’s top-ranked Central Catholic eliminated any mystery about the Hoosier Conference baseball championship’s outcome Wednesday night at Benton Central.

Kennedy had a run-scoring single in the top of the first at Snodgrass Field and added a two-run, second-inning single to establish the early momentum in the Knights’ 8-2 victory against the Bison. Benton Central was limited to five hits by the hard-throwing Stone (6-1).

Coupled with Class 3A West Lafayette’s victory against Twin Lakes, Central Catholic and WL share the league crown, each at 11-1. The Tippecanoe County rivals split their two-game series in April.

In this week’s two-game sweep of Benton Central (13-11, 7-5), Kennedy was 5-for-7 with three runs and six RBIs from the cleanup spot. CC was 24-for-56 with 20 runs in 14 innings against the Bison.

Kennedy’s early offense staked Stone to a 5-2 lead, and the pitcher tossed six shutout innings, allowing three singles, the rest of the way for CC’s 11th consecutive victory.

“We were trying not to hit pop flys,” Kennedy said. “Anybody can catch pop flys. We were trying to hit line drives and groundballs. That worked out for us. It was important to get those early runs for Nick so that he could just go out there and pitch with the lead.

“It’s great to win the conference when people were calling us 1A. We can compete with Class 3A teams. It’s really significant to win the conference. It was a good series for me.”

CC coach Tim Bordenet, whose team was a member of the Hoosier Heartland Conference until this school year, looks forward to coaching Kennedy for two more seasons.

“I might just want to stay away,” Bordenet said. “I don’t want to mess him up. He takes a good approach and doesn’t overswing. He hits the ball where it’s pitched. He has great balance in there. He is an extremely hard worker.

“Of anybody we had in the offseason, no one outworked Evan in the weight room or in the batting cage. He is just coming into his own. He had a great series and is one of the big reasons we were able to win the conference this year.”

The Knights (23-2) had five successful sacrifice bunts, helping them score in five of the seven innings.