By Ben Grossberg 
PBR Indiana

FLOYD KNOBS – In the opening round of the Hoosier Hills Conference tournament No. 1 Floyd Central faced off against No. 21 Jeffersonville. The rivalry saw the Red Devils jump out to an early lead with Floyd coming back before losing on a clutch hit in the seventh.

The Red Devil's offense jumped on the board early in the top of the first. Starting pitcher Chandler Dale doubled bringing in the first two runs. After a strikeout, Jeffersonville came through with four consecutive RBI hits from Ian Ellis, Josh Burke, Nolan Fertig and Joe Burke. 

Floyd answered in the bottom half with two runs of their own. Three straight singles loaded the bases with no outs. Brandon Smith worked a walk to bring in the first run while Kyle Beach hit a sacrifice fly to cut the deficit to 6-2 after one inning.

Dale and Floyd starter Beach settled in after a high scoring first inning. Beach allowed just three hits over the next five innings keeping the Red Devil offense off the board.

In the fourth Floyd Central's Beach led off the inning with a double and eventually scored on Evan Jewell's single cutting the deficit to 6-3.

In the fifth Floyd was able to get three more runs to tie the game. Floyd’s offense loaded the bases with one out.  Dale got a strikeout for the second out of the inning, but then a passed ball brought around the first run. Still holding the 6-4 lead, Dale got a high pop up in the infield off the bat of Jewell that looked to be the final out, but Jeffersonville shortstop Drew Ellis lost the ball in the lights and two runs would score to tie the game.

After both Dale and Beach set the opposing offenses down in order in the sixth, they moved to the seventh knotted at six.

Dale led off the top of the seventh with a walk and moved to second on a balk. After a groundout moved Dale to third, Ellis came through with the clutch hit of the game. Ellis lined a ball to right field bringing in the winning run. Jeff would load the bases in the inning with one out, but were not able to add any insurance runs.

In the bottom of the seventh Dale came out to finish off his complete game. Dale struck out the first batter, but a single from Brandon Smith put the tying run on base. Dale got a fly out to right and then Ross Lundy hit a ball hard that looked like it might get down in the right center gap, however, Hayden Robb made a nice play to end the game and preserve the 7-6 win for Jeffersonville.