By Lewis Bagley, Special to IHSAA.org
INDIANAPOLIS – Thanks to a five-run seventh inning, Boone Grove completed its mission.
The Wolves of second-year coach Sean Riley broke from a 1-1 tie with that five-run outburst and claimed the Class 2A state championship with a 6-1 triumph over Evansville Mater Dei at Victory Field.
Senior pitcher Seth Pitcock drove in the tiebreaking run and second baseman Tristan Wilson followed with a two-run double to the left field fence to key the inning.
Pitcock then put down Mater Dei in order in the bottom of the seventh the clinch the game.
“Mission complete!” Wilson said, in a team huddle while clutching the state championship trophy.
“We’ve had it posted in our team room,” Boone Grove coach Sean Riley said. “We wanted to do what it takes to play in June. That was our goal last December and we stuck to it.”
The win gives the Wolves their second state title, with the first coming in 2018. Boone Grove (25-7) also finishes the season on a 17-game winning streak and winners of 23 of their last 24. The only loss came to Class 4A champion Valparaiso by a 1-0 count in early May.
Pitcock (9-1) tossed the complete game, allowing only three hits and three walks, while striking out six.
“I didn’t know until Friday who would start,” Riley said. “Our scouting reports told us Mater Dei struggled more with off-speed stuff, so we went with that. We thought he was done after the sixth inning, but he talked us into staying in.”
“I knew I could stay in the whole time,” Pitcock said. “The coaches were talking, but I told them I wanted it.”
Pitcock completed the game played in, sunbaked, sweltering heat, with temperatures in the 90s.
“There was a cold area in the dugout and I saw with a cold-water towel over my head,” Pitcock said. “Once I got locked into the game, I was OK.”
“I give a lot of credit to Boone Grove,” Mater Dei coach Adam Schiff said. “(Pitcock) pitched a really good game and we made three errors and had three baserunning mistakes that hurt us.
“That’s not a good formula to compete against a very good team.”
Mater Dei (23-8) broke through with its only run in the third inning as shortstop Brayden Caldemeyer doubled in Palmer Schiff with two out. Caldemeyer had two of the Wildcats’ three hits.
It stayed tied until the fifth inning when Davion Carrera singled in Pitcock, who earlier reached on an error.
Boone Grove finally broke the game open in the seventh, scoring four times before Mater Dei could get the first out.
After Wilson’s double, he scored on Javy Carrera’s RBI single for a 5-1 advantage. Andrew Balesole added a sacrifice fly to close the scoring.
Wilson and Davian Carrera each had two hits for the winners.
Mater Dei had previously won a state championship in 1999, with coach Schiff playing shortstop on that squad. The Wildcats were also runners-up in 1998, 2012 and 2014 in 2A and 2007 in 3A.
Class 2A State Championship Records
None
Mater Dei’s Brayden Caldemeyer named Mental Attitude recipient
Following the game, members of the IHSAA Executive Committee announced Brayden Caldemeyer of Evansville Mater Dei High School as the recipient of this year’s L.V. Phillips Mental Attitude Award in Class 2A Baseball.
Brayden graduated a part of the National Honor Society, Students for Life, and Prosecuting Attorney (a Student Council Student-Run Court). As a part of Student Council, he has chaired food drives that donated to St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry and Ozanum Family Shelter and chaired the Thanksgiving Basket project that donated baskets to the Evansville Rescue Mission.
Brayden was named First Team All-Southern Indiana Conference and First Team All-Metro during his time as a Wildcat. He was a four-year varsity letterman and four-time Academic All-City. Brayden was also a two-year participant in basketball at Mater Dei.
Brayden is the son of Bryan and Stephanie Caldemeyer of Mt. Vernon, Indiana and will attend Spaulding University to play baseball and major in accounting.
The L.V. Phillips Award is annually presented to an outstanding senior participant in each state championship game who has best demonstrated excellence in mental attitude, scholarship, leadership, and athletic ability in baseball. The award is named in honor of the late L.V. Phillips, who served as the second commissioner of the IHSAA from 1945-62.
Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance, the IHSAA’s corporate partner, presented $1,000 to the general scholarship fund at Evansville Mater Dei High School in the name of Brayden Caldemeyer.