Big Second Inning Leads to Rout for Terre Haute North

By Ben Grossberg

Terre Haute – Ranked rivals No. 17 Terre Haute North and No. 14 Terre Haute South faced off in the opening round of sectionals on Wednesday. South jumped up early, but North’s offense delivered throughout the game.

South jumped on the board early with a run in the top of the first. Justin Jenkins led off the game with a single to center and after moving to second on a sacrifice bunt and a hit batter, Peter Lannoo drove him in with a single to center.

South added to their lead with another run in the top of the second. With two outs Jenkins doubled into the right center field gap scoring Conner Shipley, who had singled in the previous at bat.

Then North’s offense opened the game up. North started the bottom of the second with two infield singles and then two outs on fielder’s choices. With two outs North’s starting pitcher Austin Hicks hit a ball in the hole at short that was ruled an error, but would have been a tough play to make. The error brought in North’s first run. Gabe Sevigny then gave North the lead with a two run double to left center. Zach Milam followed that with a single scoring Sevingy and TJ Collett followed with a two run homerun to right center. A Sam Wolf double knocked out South starter Cody Brock. Nathan Will greeted South’s new pitcherwith a RBI single scoring Wolf for North’s seventh run of the inning.

That would be all the offense Hicks would need. After giving up two runs and four hits in the first two innings he only allowed two hits in the final three innings. He finished the day with a stat line of five innings pitched, two runs, six hits, and four strikeouts.

North’s offense wasn’t done though after its big second inning. In the third they added a run when a bases loaded passed ball brought in Sevigny. In the fourth Milam picked up his fourth hit of the game with a two run single and Collett followed that with a RBI single of his own. North ended it in the fifth when Lane Dransfield reached base and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt. With two outs pinch hitter Nich Norton hit a grounder behind second base and there was no play to be made at first once it was fielded. Dransfield never stopped running, scoring from second without the ball leaving the infield to end the game in a 12-2 win for North.

Zach Milam finished the day 4-4 with three RBI, Sevingy was 2-3 with two RBI, Collett was 2-4 with three RBI, and Nathan Will was 3-4 with a RBI.