The Press-Dispatch
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The Press-Dispatch Sports Wednesday, April 22, 2020 A- 9 Looking back: 1989 sectional champions Pike Central had a big spring on the ball fields in 1989. Both the girls' softball team and the boys' baseball teams were sectional champions. It was the first sectional championship in Pike Central history for the boys. The girls were in the midst of a long run of sectional champion- ships in softball. Pike Central takes baseball sectional crown in 1989 Thursday, June 8, 1989 For the first time in history Pike Central has a boys team sectional champion. The Chargers blew out the Jasper Wildcats 8 -2 Tuesday night, avenging the 17-1 loss in last year's championship. The Chargers were clicking on all cylin- ders in the championship game. With Jason Garland on the mound the team has all the confidence they needed to mug the Wild- cats in their own backyard. "Last year I knew that in the back of their minds they thought they couldn't win. This time I felt like there was still some doubt in their minds, but once we got ahead all the question marks were eliminated. Espe- cially playing behind Garland- they have a lot of confidence in him," said Coach Steve Barret. The chargers jumped ahead to stay in the top of the third inning with the score tied at one. Jeremy Whitehead led off the inning by jumping on Jason Ahlbrand's first pitch and sending it into right field for a double. That brought up the heart of the Charger lineup- Greg Barrett, Steve Enoch and Kev- in Brown. The Charger coach knew he had the right men at the plate. "When Greg and Kevin came up in the third I turned to Coach (Brian) Wahl and said 'You couldn't ask for two better kids to come up when we needed a hit.' . . . Brown and Barret have done it for us all year," said Barret. The younger Barrett followed White- head's hit with a double to center just a few feet from the 370 -foot fence. That scored Whitehead and brought up Enoch, who walked, setting the table for Brown. The Charger catcher fouled two pitches high above the backstop and out of play. "If he's straighten those out he's have a three- run homer," said Jason Russell from the Charger dugout. Sure enough, Brown sent the next pitch over the center field fence, scoring Barrett, Enoch and himself for a 5 -1 Charger lead. It was the second home run of the evening for Brown, who put the Chargers ahead 1-0 with a solo shot in the second. The Chargers played long ball again in the next inning when Russell hit a 370 -foot double to center off Wildcat reliever Kris Bishop. It cost the home team a run when Whitehead crossed the plate. Brought in after Ahlbrand walked White- head and wild-pitched him to second, Bish- op couldn't put out the Charger fire. His balk brought Jeff Taylor home from third and ad- vanced Whitehead, and he escaped further damage only when Brown's high fly to right didn't quite make it over the fence. Bishop robbed Chad Julian of a two-run homer in the fifth when he picked Jarrod Shoultz off first base on a late call from the umpire. Batting in the fifth spot of the Charger order, Shoultz had led off the in- ning with a walk. Julian settled for a solo home run over the cozy 325 -foot wall in left. That was Pike Central's final score of the game. However, it wasn't quite that easy. Gar- land struggled with this control at the end of the game, throwing eight consecutive balls in the fifth. He gave up six walks in the fi- nal three innings. Although Barrett had reliever Craig Wil- liams warming up in the final inning, he in- tended to stick with Garland all the way. "People don't realize this but Garland quite often pitched 9 -10 innings of Legion ball over the summer. he has the strength.. It was do or die with Jason- he's been the guy who's done it for us all season," said Barrett. Garland pitched out of trouble several times. In the fourth the Wildcats put men on first and second when Brian Seibert and Alex Simmer singled. Todd Hurst worked Garland for a 3-2 count, but struck out on an inside fastball. The Chargers' errorless defense kept them in control. In the final innings, Gar- land could have the confidence that if he could put the ball in play, his fielders would get to it. "We didn't hurt ourselves... When you look at our losses you look at games where we've made six or seven errors and we abso- lutely beat ourselves," said Barrett. "I told the team before the game that we would have to play as close to making no mistakes in any part of the game as we could," said Barrett. The Chargers hope to take that error- less play with them again to Jasper Satur- day morning for their 11 a.m. game with the Loogootee Lions. "I look for a good game.. I hope we play as well as we did tonight," said Barrett. Vincennes is probably the regional favor- ite, said Barrett. Vincennes play Springs Valley in the second game at Jasper. The Chargers hope for a springs Valley win, be- cause they beat the Blackhawks May 3 this year using their number two starter. Barrett will pitch Garland, the number one starter, against Loogootee. An error cost the Chargers a win against the Lions earlier this year, said Barrett. "We feel like we can win a few ball games this weekend. The hard part was winning the sectional. If we win two games we win the regional," noted Barrett. The sectional win earns Pike Central a measure of respect in southern Indiana's baseball world. "Nobody's going to look at Pike Central and say 'Who are they? ' any more. They'll be ready to play us," said Bar- rett. Chargers breeze though sectional Thursday, June 1, 1989 When the Switz City public address an- nouncer told the crowd what they had seen Friday night, he said the Pike Central "Cou- gar" were the 1989 sectional winners. A fter watching what Pike Central did to its three opponents, he should have known that their school nickname is "Chargers" not "Cou- gars." The Pike Central Chargers crushed the North Daviess Cougars 11-0 Friday night, capping off a six-game series of shutouts dating back to the first game of last year's sectional. The Chargers blew out L and M 19 -0 Thursday night and Linton-Stockon 10 - 0 Wednesday night. With Stacey Ferguson pitching two of three games and the Chargers pounding out 31 hits, none went past the fifth inning. Against North Daviess, the Charger defense made sure that no runners went past first base. Tricia Deffendoll nearly matched that feat Thursday night against L & M. Deffendoll went the distance on the mound, giving up just one hit and striking out seven. She also made her only hit count, driving in two runs with a triple in the crushing third inning. The Chargers padded their stats against the L and M Braves with a nine-run third in- ning, a five-second inning and a three-run first inning. Even the reserves put some offense together with Jamie Wilhite, Mi- chelle Martin and Kristy Knight each earn- ing RBIs. The opening game Wednesday against Linton-Stockton wasn't quite the blowout that Thursday night's game was. However, Ferguson controlled the Miners even bet- ter than she would control the Cougars. She allowed just three hits and struck out nine without a walk. Back on the mound Friday night against North Daviess, Ferguson scattered four hits, the first from the Cougars' second bet- ter, Jenny Crew. Ferguson made sure Crew didn't go anywhere by striking out of the next two batters for the second and third outs. The Cougars almost got their second hit when Melanie Dyal opened the second with a hard liner right at Charger third baseman Amy Potter. Potter speared the ball on the fly for the first out. "That was self-defense, but she's a gutsy kid," said Coach Dwayne Austin. Amy Lagenour opened the third with a fly ball that fell near the right field foul line just beyond right fielder Stephanie Cox's reach. Ferguson popped up the next two batters and Cox made a great running catch on a hard-hit ball in the corner that would have scored a run. Ferguson escaped injury in the fourth when Melanie Austin,Deffendoll and Tara McAllister turned a double play. "Stacy has a good defense behind her. They make the plays, and they're an excellent group of kids to work with," said Austin. They can also hit. Offensively, the Charger game plan was to get ahead early to keep the Cougars out of the game. They followed that plan pret- ty closely, scoring six runs in the first two innings. Pacing the scoring from the leadoff posi- tion, catcher Rachelle Johns made four hits and scored both her two runs in the first inning. She led off the game with a single to center and came home on Jenny Boyd's line-drive to left field. Both Boyd and Def- fendoll, who bunted safely to first base raced home on Cox's double just over the center- fielder's head. Johns struck again in the second when she doubled down the left-field line. Deffen- doll walked and Austin lined to left just be- yond the third baseman's glove. The bas- es were loaded for Boyd, who found a ball almost into the parking lot before walking home Johns. The Chargers bought home two more runs with a bases-loaded walk to Cox and Christy Weisman's sacrifice fly to left field. Designated hitter Amber Shoultz batting for Ferguson popped up to end the first. Ferguson didn't bat because the coaches thought the game might go seven innings and they didn't want her to wear herself out running the bases. "We wanted her to con- centrate on pitching. That's her job. Also, Amber is a pretty good hitter," said Austin. Shoultz displayed her hitting skills in the fourth when she singled to center with two outs, scoring Boyd from third. The Char- gers scored five runs in that inning thanks to some aggressive base running and a Cou- gar error. "We told the team that (the Cougars) were hanging close and we had to put them away. We tried to force them into making a bad throw - when you have the lead you can do that," said Austin. The bad throw came on Potter's come- back to pitcher Jennifer Lease. With bas- es loaded, Lease fielded Potter's ball and threw it towards first, where Melanie Dyal let it get past her, scoring Weisman. Shoul- tz beat the throw home and Potter took sec- ond on the same play. The Cougars made their final scoring threat in the fifth inning when Christy Dean singled to center with one out. Fer- guson struck out the next batter, and Aus- tin fielded Raina Lee's grounder to short for the final out and the second sectional win for Pike Central. Austin found it hard to say which cham- pionship was the sweetest "The first was better for the school because it had never won one. But they're all great. We feel like we've started something out there, maybe given the younger girls something to shoot at," he said. Chargers! Remember the name. North Daviess game-Johns 4 2 4 2; Def- fendoll 2 2 1 0 ; Austin 4 1 1 0 ; Boyd 2 2 2 2; Cox 2 0 1 3; Weisman 1 1 0 1; Shoultz 2 1 1 2; McAllister 2 1 0 0 ; Potter 1 1 0 0 L and M game- Johns 2 3 2 0 ; Martin 2 1 1 1; Deffendoll 4 2 1 3; Austin 3 2 1 1; Boyd 2 3 2 2; Shoultz 1 0 1 0 ; Cox 3 2 1 2; Weis- man 3 2 2 1; McAllister 2 0 0 0 ; Willis 1 0 0 0 ; Potter 2 1 1 0 ; Knight 1 1 0 1; Ferguson 2 1 1 0 ; Wihite 1 1 0 0. Linton-Stockton game-Johns 3 2 2 0 ; Def- fendoll 1 1 1 0 ; Austin 3 2 1 2; Boyd 4 0 1 1; Cox 2 1 0 1; Weisman 1 1 1 2; McAllister 0 1 0 0 ; Shoultz 0 0 0 0 ; Potter 3 0 0 1; Fergu- son 3 2 2 0. North Daviess catcher, Cami Bell, does the splits at home plate to avoid the incoming Amber Shoultz during the fourth inning of Pike Central's sectional championship game at Switz City. Pike Central's baseball sectional champions are (front row, l to r) Steve Gaines, Chad Julian, Jason Garland, Steve Enoch, Greg Barrett, Jeremy Whitehead, Chris Johnson and Brooks Young; second row, Coach Steve Barrett, Craig Shoobridge, Chris Whann, Kevin Brown, Jason Russell, Chris McKinney, Derek Horrall, Jarrod Shoultz, Craig Wil- liams, Jeff Taylor, Coach Mike Whitten and Coach Brian Wahl. Kevin Brown's Pike Central teammates rush to congratulate him after his three-run home run in the championship game of the Jasper sectional. net edition yeah, it's that fast! 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