<p>They are light on experience, don’t score a lot of runs and seldom bunch together hits.</p>
<p>But no matter.</p>
<p>The Center Grove baseball team is well above .500, undefeated in conference play and positioned for a run at the Class 4A state championship.</p>
<p>That’s the Trojans’ main objective.</p>
<p>“What’s our goal? Win state,” senior pitcher Jacob Cantleberry said. “I think we have the team to do it.”</p>
<p>Tye Thixton, a senior center fielder, agreed.</p>
<p>“Our confidence is pretty high,” he said. “We’ve been playing some really good baseball.”</p>
<p>The Trojans have been doing so despite heavy graduation losses and so-so hitting that doesn’t produce tons of runs.</p>
<p>Yet they are 11-2 overall, 5-0 in the Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference and starting to resemble the team that won Johnson County, MIC and sectional championships last year.</p>
<p>Difference is, last year’s team was senior-heavy and packed an offensive punch.</p>
<p>This year’s team is minus six graduated seniors and hits just well enough to wear down most opponents.</p>
<p>For that, coach Keith Hatfield credits two areas: pitching and defense.</p>
<p>Center Grove executes both about as well as any Class 4A team in the state.</p>
<p>“We’re 11-2 because of pitching and defense,” Hatfield said. “We still haven’t scored double-digit runs (in a game) yet. We’ve got a couple of guys hitting over .400 and we’ve got a couple of guys hitting over .300, but we’ve left a lot of runners on base.</p>
<p>“We just haven’t had the big hit to break a game wide open. We’ve won a lot of games 3-1, 4-1, 5-1.”</p>
<p>When your pitching staff has an ERA of 1.33, plating a handful of runs a game is usually going to be enough. At least against most opponents.</p>
<p>But the Trojans know in the MIC, and in all stages of the state tournament, most opponents are something better than average.</p>
<p>That’s why shoring up their hitting, especially with runners on base, is a priority as they pursue goals of not only defending last year’s championships but for making a deep postseason run.</p>
<p>“We’ve been hitting a lot more solid lately and been a lot tougher outs,” Thixton said. “We’re putting up good numbers right now, but if we can start putting up double-digit (runs), we’re going to be really hard to beat.”</p>
<p>Thanks to pitching and defense, the Trojans already are a tall order.</p>
<p>One of the state’s top pitchers, Cantleberry is one of three returning pitchers in a deep rotation that includes senior Conner Cantrell and junior Jack Kellams. They are complemented by a defense that has limited five of its past seven opponents to one run.</p>
<p>By virtue of the pitching/defense combination, the Trojans — who returned only three starters in the field — have a somewhat better record at the season’s midpoint than coaches might have expected.</p>
<p>“It’s better than what I expected,” Hatfield said. “I knew we had good pitching coming back. I knew that was going to be what carried us, and it has, definitely, no question.”</p>
<p>Now, it’s a matter of the bats catching up — a process players insist already has begun.</p>
<p>“We’re heading in the right direction. Our bats are coming around,” Cantleberry said. “Our pitching and defense are great. Our bats are kind of iffy, but we’re coming around.</p>
<p>“As guys get more at-bats, it’ll come around. It’s already better than it was at the beginning of the season.”</p>
<p>If the offense does come around, Hatfield is confident the Trojans can, at the very least, successfully defend each of last year’s championships — county, conference and sectional.</p>
<p>“We talk about trophies a lot, about winning trophies,” Hatfield said. “There’s an opportunity to win three different trophies with the same season.</p>
<p>“I do like our chances because of our pitching, but what worries me is the lack of run production.”</p>
