By Pete Cava
PBR Indiana Correspondent

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ZIONSVILLE – After five hours and 23 minutes Saturday at the Zionsville Community High School Athletic Complex, nothing was decided in 4A Sectional 8 competition. 

Rain played havoc with the Westfield-Zionsville game, which was suspended after five full innings.  The second semifinal between the Hamilton Southeastern Royals (14-16) and the Fishers Tigers (13-18) was washed out. 

The HSE-Fishers game has been rescheduled for 11:00 a.m. Monday, with the game between 4A No. 5 Zionsville (22-8) and No. 5 Westfield (21-8) resuming afterwards. 

The championship game will take place at 7:00 p.m. 

Saturday’s contest, originally set for 4:00 p.m., had been moved up to noon in hope of avoiding rainstorms.  There had already been one lengthy delay when play halted for good in the top of the sixth with Zionsville leading 6-1.  

The game, which began at 11:57 a.m., wasn’t officially postponed until 5:20 p.m.   

The first break in the action came in the top of the third.  Westfield had a man on first, one out, and Brian Skelton at the plate with a full count when lightning flashed nearby.  The game was halted at 12:25 p.m. and the infield was covered.  The rains came shortly after.  

When the deluge stopped, Zionsville’s grounds crew got the field in shape and play resumed after a two-hour, 40-minute interlude. 

Zionsville put up four runs in the bottom of the third against Shamrocks starter Chris Ayers.  Stephen Damm led off and was hit by a pitch.  Damm took second on an infield out, and Jake Hurd followed with an opposite-field hit to right that scored courtesy runner Duke Schillaci.  After singles by Jack Pilcher and Nick Prather, the Eagles had the bases loaded and designated hitter Grant Sloan batting.  A wild pitch brought in Hurd, and Pilcher scored when Sloan lifted a single to left-center.  Prather came home when Chad Garisek grounded to short with the infield playing back. 

The Eagles chased Ayers, Westfield’s senior right-hander, when they made it 6-0 in the fourth.  Leading off, Riley Bertram was safe on an error and took third on a wild pitch.  When Stephen Damm grounded to first, Bertram got hung up between second and third and was tagged out.  Duke Schillaci, running for Damm again, took second on Jacob Hurtubise’s sacrifice bunt.  Schillaci scored on a base hit by Jake Hurd, who stole second and scored on Pilcher's double to right. 

Westfield coach Ryan Bunnell brought in Julian Lytle, a 5-foot-7, 150-pound senior, to get the final out. 

The Shamrocks got their run in the fifth.  Ryan Pepiot led off with a single and moved up on a throwing error.  Jacob Robinson, a 6-4, 230 defensive end on Westfield's football squad, pulled a 3-2 delivery from Zionsville starter RJ Wagner into left to score Pepiot.  Wagner, a junior righty, had parsed out three hits prior to the fifth, giving up one walk and striking out seven.   

Wagner retired the next batter, but after Robinson went to second on a wild pitch, Zionsville coach Jered Moore summoned Kellan Elsbury from the pen.  The senior left-hander got Milo Beam on a grounder to second for the final out. 

More rain clouds appeared in the top of the sixth with a 1-1 count on Westfield's Nick Rhodes.   Play halted again at 4:09 p.m., and once again the field was covered.   Seventy-one minutes later, with no one left in the stands, dugouts emptied and all that was left standing on the diamond was water.  

Notes: Zionsville's team in the field Saturday consisted entirely of underclassmen. DH Grant Sloan was the lone senior in the Eagles lineup. 

Westfield will send one player to the college ranks next year, infielder Caleb Graff (Defiance). Outfielder Milo Beam (Purdue) and Ryan Pepiot (Butler) have committed as juniors.  Still undecided is Shamrocks catcher/infielder Bailey Partlow, who just graduated. 

Two more Westfield players are headed to college for football – Jacob Robinson (Indiana) and Elvin Caldwell (Olivet Nazarene). 

The national anthem Saturday was sung by Alec Hurtubise, brother of Zionsville center fielder Jacob Hurtubise. Alec is a member of the Indy Twisters hockey club, a program for special needs players.  The Hurtubise brothers, whose father Francois hails from the Province of Quebec, have dual Canadian-American citizenship.  

Pete Cava is the author of Indiana-Born Major League Baseball Players:  A Biographical Dictionary, 1871-2014, coming soon from McFarland Publishers.