The Press-Dispatch
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The Press-Dispatch Wednesday, June 1, 2022 B-1 SPORTS Submit sports items: Call: 812-354-8500 Email: sports@pressdispatch.net or bring in a hard copy: 820 E. Poplar Street, Petersburg See SECTIONAL on page 3 See REGIONAL on page 5 See CHAMPIONS on page 2 www.UebelhorGM.com Jasper • 1-800-937-8721 CHEVROLET Chargers edge Washington in 6-5 sectional win By Mike Sandifar Throughout the 2022 baseball season, the Pike Central Chargers would get a lead over a team, but could not hold it, or they would lead going into the last inning of a game, only to lose it in the final frame of the outing. Throughout the 2022 diamond campaign, Coach Dustin Powell said the young Chargers were learning. They were getting bet- ter, and things would get better for the team in diamond encounters. Throughout the hard-luck out- comes, the Chargers and their coach kept the faith, and they put forth all out efforts each time they took the field, despite continuing to watch losses mount up, ma- ny of them in heart-wrenching, gut-wrenching fashion to fin- ish the regular season with a 3- 18 mark that included an 0 -12 re- cord in Pocket Athletic Confer- ence (PAC) play. Those efforts, positive atti- tudes, and believing in themselves and their coach all paid off last Wednesday in the opening round of the Indiana High School Athlet- ic Association (IHSA A) Princeton 3A Sectional #31. Trailing 5 -4 heading into the top of the seventh inning, Pike Central scored two runs in the top of the seventh to take a 6 -5 lead over Washington, then held off the Hatchets in the bottom of the seventh to take a 6 -5 victory and move into the sectional semi-fi- nals against Vincennes Lincoln, 9 -3 winners over host Princeton in the nightcap on Wednesday. Wednesday's tournament opener was a tight, heart-stop- ping contest from start to finish, as neither team could push a run across home plate in the first two innings, but the Chargers plated a pair of runs in the top of the third frame to take a short-lived 2-0 ad- vantage over the Hatchets. In the bottom of the third, Washington scored four runs to take a 4-2 lead after three full in- nings of baseball. Both teams hit a run home in the fourth inning to make the Weisman and Howald place at track regional By Andy Heuring Pike Central's Xavery Weisman and Bra- den Howald both placed in the boys and girls track regional. Weisman, a freshman, on Tuesday night ran a near-school record time in the 1600 and placed fourth at the regional. She ran 5:22.74, which is one second off her school record of 5:21.74. Senior Quinlan Bailey also competed in the event and placed 11th with a time of Celebrating teammates await Karley Kavanaugh at home plate as she rounds third base after her second home run of the game. Kavanaugh scored three runs and made two diving catches that prevented runs, to help Pike Central beat Gibson Southern 4-0 in the Washington softball sectional championship. Pike Central Junior Jagar Dent slaps a two run single to right field, with the Chargers trailing 5-4, with two outs, to give PCHS a 6-5 lead over Washington. The Chargers held the Hatchets without a run in the bottom of the 7th inning to give the Chargers a 6-5 triumph to advance to the semi-finals of the sectional tournament. Xavery Weisman grimaces as she out-sprints another competitor to the line in the 1600 run. She placed fourth in the 1600 and fifth in the 3200. By Andy Heuring Karly Kavanaugh's career day led Pike Central to a 4-0 upset of Gibson Southern on Saturday in the Wash- ington sectional championship. It was the Chargers' second consecu- tive sectional title. Few people outside the fences of the Washington softball complex believed it was possible, except the ones who really mattered. Gibson Southern was rolling into the game on a 21-game win streak. They had won six of the last seven 4A section- als, averaging 11 runs per game and scoring 14 or more in nine of their last 21. Their first three batters' av- erages were .501, .525 and .632 and they had 40 home runs as a team this year. Exactly two weeks to the day, Gib- son Southern had run over Pike Cen- tral, 9 -0 in a game where everything went the Titans' way. "Honestly, I knew we could total- ly do it," said Charger pitcher Chloe Williams, who threw a five-hit shut- out at the big bats of Gibson South- ern. She is the first pitcher to shut- out Gibson Southern since March of 2020 when they were beaten in a tournament by an Alabama team. "I had that no-hitter (on Tuesday against Washington) and I think ev- eryone built on it," said Williams. And if that wasn't enough, just in case, she revealed the Chargers' good luck charm. "And we wore these uniforms again for good luck. Actually, I didn't wash it since last week," said Williams. First-year coach Dustin Traylor al- so believed his Chargers could get the job done. "We were kind of hap- py when we got the visitors' spot. We wanted to get out and set the tone. . .Karley definitely did that," said Traylor. It took just two at-bats for the Char- gers to show it was going to be a dif- ferent game than two weeks before. Pike Central's second batter, Kar- ley Kavanaugh, watched a first strike go by, then fouled off two pitches to fall behind 0 -2 in the count. She lined up the fourth pitch and sent it over the center field fence, and the Char- ger crowd into a frenzy. Williams went to the mound in the bottom of the first inning. A fter throwing the first pitch for a strike she threw four straight balls ,walk- ing the Titans' Sydney Long. Long, who has stolen 40 bases this season, promptly claimed second base. Ti- tan Lauryn Adamson then ripped a screaming grounder up the middle. Charger shortstop Kavanaugh made a diving grab, stopping the ball in the infield. She wasn't able to make the throw to first in time, but she kept Long at third. Breena Blume came to the plate sporting a .632 batting average with 12 home runs and 52 RBIs. Titan Coach Gary May has repeatedly said in the all his years of coaching there is no one he would rather have at the plate in a clutch situation. Williams quickly fell behind 3-0 to Blume. Williams zipped a strike across the plate for a 3-1 count. Blume fouled off the next two pitch- Lady Chargers upset delivers sectional championship