Center Grove coach Alyssa Coleman would rather not walk the high wire almost every time out, but her team seems to be getting pretty comfortable when it’s up there.
Monday’s trip to Whiteland marked the ninth time this season that the Class 4A No. 10 Trojans have been in a game that was decided by one or two runs. After holding on for a 4-3 triumph over the Warriors, they’ve now won the last eight of those contests.
“Our team is really big on having trust in each other, and I think that in closer games we can depend on every single one of us,” said junior outfielder Mae Munson, who had two of Center Grove’s seven hits and score a pair of runs. “We’re paying attention to every little detail and just trusting each other, especially our pitchers.”
Whiteland (9-9) made the Trojans earn it, all the way down to the last out.
Kiley Sullivan led off the bottom of the seventh with a double to left field, and Josslynn Harbert was then hit by a pitch. A passed ball moved the runners to second and third, and a wild pitch allowed Sullivan to score and put the tying run just 60 feet away. But after a two-out walk to Kaelyn Putnam, freshman relief pitcher Taylor Barrett fielded a Kylie Matthews bunt and threw to first to end it just as Harbert crossed the plate with the would-be tying run.
”We’re not going to care about the runs, as long as we’re on the right side of victory,” Coleman said.
Barrett was the third pitcher of the evening for the Trojans (14-6), who have been cobbling together a makeshift staff with ace Riley Henson — who was unavailable Monday due to illness — on a pitch limit thus far this spring as she works her way back from injury.
Sophomore starter Riley Fuhr has done much of the heavy lifting, and that includes wiggling her way out of some dangerous situations in her four-plus innings against the Warriors.
Fuhr ran into immediate trouble when Whiteland opened the game with two singles and a walk to load the bases with nobody out. She retired the next two hitters without incident, but a missed tag on an infield dribbler allowed Sullivan to score from third for the first run of the game.
The home team scored once more when two fourth-inning errors led to Makenna Reed scoring on a Sullivan groundout, but the Trojans didn’t spring any major leaks otherwise. Fuhr escaped another bases-loaded jam in the third inning, and relievers Abby Reed and Barrett kept the Warriors off the board over the final three frames.
Coleman praised Fuhr’s ability to lead Center Grove’s committee in the pitching circle this season.
“We put so much on her, and she is in such a tough pickle at times,” she said. “There’s never an excuse, there’s never any waver. She just bears down and gives us everything she has.”
The Trojans’ only real offensive burst came in the top of the third inning, when they small-balled their way to three runs on just one hit. Down 1-0, Center Grove put runners on the corners before a pair of botched pickoff attempts enabled both Kynadee Warner and Munson to score. Hannah Haberstroh then walked, stole second, took third on Brynn Meyer’s infield single and came home on a sacrifice fly to right by Ariana Powell.
Center Grove’s speed allowed it to stretch the lead to 4-1 in the fourth. Munson reached on a two-out bunt single, stole second and came all the way home when a Haberstroh grounder drew an errant throw to first.
But the Trojans were never able to pull away, and the Warriors had a lot to do with that. Left fielder Josslynn Harbert kept the Trojans off the board in the first inning, making a pair of tough catches near the foul line and throwing Meyer out at the plate to end the frame, and freshman pitcher Jordyn Crouch held her own in just her fifth complete game as a high schooler.
“Her composure on the mound for a freshman says a lot,” Whiteland coach Harley Roller said. “The ability to stand up against some of the best hitters in the state and go right at them, not throw around them — she wasn’t scared.”
Likewise, Center Grove — which improved to 5-1 in one-run games — isn’t afraid when it gets into nail-biting affairs. But that doesn’t mean they want to keep living on the edge.
“We know that we can finish games,” Munson said, “but I think we need to come out stronger and not wait until the end to pull through.”
