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By Ben Grossberg

Bloomington – Lawrence Central and Bloomington North faced off in a battle for the Conference Indiana championship on Tuesday, both teams entered the game 5-1 in conference. Sophomore Jarrett Montgomery got the ball for LC and Junior Dylan Stutsman took the mound for Bloomington North.

Bloomington North got on the board first with two runs in the bottom of the first inning. With one out Junior Blake Richardson and Senior Baron Ryan (Franklin commit) singled and Junior Bryce Aldridge drew a walk to load the bases. Montgomery would strike out the next batter and looked like he was going to get out of the inning when he induced a ground ball to the second baseman. The throw to first on the ground ball pulled the first baseman from the bag and it allowed two runs to score on the play.

In the third North again took advantage of Lawrence Central’s fielding errors. With two runners on and two outs Montgomery got a pop up that was dropped allowing run to score. A passed ball gave North another run and a 4-0 lead. With the bases loaded Stutsman drew a bases loaded walk to bring in the fifth run.

Stutsman cruised through the first three innings facing just ten hitters and allowing no hits, but got into a little trouble in the fourth inning. LC loaded the bases with no outs off of three straight singles from Seniors Scott Swingle, Matt Greenwell (Manchester commit), and Jacob Lane. After the next batter struck out, Deandre’ Davis drove in a run with a fielder’s choice. With two out now a ground ball to the shortstop looked like the end of LC's runs, but the throw was a little off and when the first baseman went for the tag the ball popped loose allowing another run to cross the plate.

Sophomore Ernie Harshman came on in the bottom of the fourth for Lawrence Central to throw the final three innings allowing just two hits and no runs.

In the fifth Senior Adam Cornwell (U Indy commit) relieved Stutsman on the mound. With two runners on and two outs Greenwell picked up his second hit of the game, a RBI single. Lane followed with a RBI single of his own to cut the deficit to 5-4.

The runs in the fifth would be all that Cornwell would allow, setting down LC in order in both the sixth and the seventh inning, picking up three strikeouts in the process. The win gave Bloomington North the Conference Indiana title and they improved their record to 20-4 on the year.