Another important challenger, Class AAA No. 1 PikeView, rolled into town and the Patriots were up to task this time.
Indy sent 10 batters to the plate in the opening frame, putting six runs up in an 8-5 victory over the Panthers Monday in Coal City.
Facing PikeView ace and first team all-stater Eli Hilling, the Patriots swung from the start, putting pressure on the Panthers and putting them in a hole too deep to climb out of.
“To be honest it’s been unusual for us here lately,” Indy head coach Scott Cuthbert said. “We’ve very much really struggled offensively. To our kids’ credit we’ve face some really good arms the last two weeks. Elis a really good pitcher, but we’ve been seeing arm after arm like him. Maybe it’s helping, I don’t know – to take some of the beatings we’ve took to some people the last couple of weeks. We battled through and I thought Levi (Barnett) pitched a heck of a game once he settled in. We haven’t extended him a whole lot this year. That’s the first time he went past about 50 pitches.”
Before Indy even took to the plate, PikeView had the momentum, putting five runners on and scoring in the top of the first but the momentum quickly soured once Hilling issued the ominous leadoff walk to Barnett on the other side.
Degan Williams followed with a hit and all-stater Cole Cunningham ripped one of Hilling pitches for an RBI single to knot the game. A strikeout put the sophomore hurler back on track before an error derailed the inning, loading the bases for Reid Warden.
It took Warden just two pitches to wreck the frame, lining a bases-clearing double into the gap for a 4-1 lead.
Hunter Milam and Justin Williams followed with RBI hits for the fifth and sixth runs of the frame.
For PikeView head coach Josh Wyatt it was the continuation of an unsettling trend. PikeView’s last two games featured an early 3-0 and 4-0 deficit.
“We’ve got to figure out a way to get off the bus and be ready,” PikeView head coach Josh Wyatt said. “That’s on the coaching staff to figure out – we’ve got to change that. They did a great job of putting balls where they were pitched. Not really getting tremendous barrels on them, but just hitting balls and we’re not making plays. We had three or four hits there in the first inning where we dropped the ball at first base, we misjudged a pop up on the infield and were out of position. We told them these guys like to hit the ball the other way, and their four big hits in the first inning are the other way, and we’re out of position.
“Ultimately that’s on us, and I feel like once we made that change, once we talk to the guys it settled them down. We were playing a blame game early, you know, feeling sorry for ourselves and that’s what happens in this game. You feel sorry for yourself, you find yourself down, so, those two games that that we’ve lost, we’ve given up big first innings and that’s on us to make a change.”
The Panthers battled back with a run in the second inning but left a trio of runners on in the third and fourth frames. That gave Indy time to add insurance with Barnett and Williams adding an RBI each. PikeView’s next charge came in the fifth inning where it plated three on the backs of Landon Bolen and Drew Damewood but still left a pair of runners on base in what proved to be its last gasp.
Williams. who came on in relief of Barnett for the final two innings, allowed just one base runner to make the three-run lead stand.
“(Williams’) last two outing he’s struggled to throw strikes a little bit,” Cuthbert said. “We’ve had a a lot of kid struggle to throw strikes so why I warmed tow up. We were down on our pitch because Cole was on the shelf today and so was Chance (Moore) so were were throwing threes and fours so to win and beat them with their on and our threes and fours, that’s a good win for us.”
Degan Williams led Indy at the plate with three hits while Warden finished with three RBI.
Bolen led PikeView with two hits and two RBI
