MORRISTOWN
Greenwood Christian’s first baseball regional title came in such dominating fashion, it was hard to remember that the game’s outcome looked much more tenuous in the early innings.
But Cougars pitcher Trey Harney and coach Doug Hagist agreed that the first two innings, when Harney struggled the most, set the stage for the rest of Saturday’s game, which Harney and his teammates dominated.
Harney worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the first inning and stranded two runners in the second, then settled down from there. He struck out seven out of the final nine batters he faced, while his teammates parlayed 12 hits, five North Decatur errors and a pair of stolen bases into a 10-0 victory to win the Class A Morristown Regional title.
GCA (15-12-1) advances to a semistate game next Saturday against top-ranked Barr-Reeve (27-3), which defeated Evansville Christian by an identical 10-0 score at the Castle Regional. North Decatur’s season ended at 10-16.
Harney loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the first inning Saturday and the Cougars leading 1-0 after an error, walk and hit batsmen. He then induced a strikeout and a groundout to end the threat.
In the second inning, the Chargers had runners on first and second with two out, but Harney struck out Nolan Burkhart to stymie that challenge.
“It started us off on the right foot,” Harney said of his ability to escape those situations. “Getting up one run and then coming out and shutting them down in a crucial time really gave us the momentum, and we took advantage of it.”
During one stretch that spanned the third, fourth and fifth innings, Harney struck out five straight batters. All but two North Decatur batters struck out against him at least once.
“I think it changed the whole dynamics of the game,” Hagist said of those early-inning escapes. “They took their shot at getting back in it right from the start, and we shut them down, and then we did it again in the second inning. It made a huge difference.”
After the first two innings, Harney and Jacob Potter, who pitched the final two innings, combined to allow just two baserunners the rest of the game, and neither made it beyond second base. Harney finished with 12 strikeouts in just five innings while allowing just one hit. And three walks, two of which came in those first two innings. Potter, meanwhile, struck out four Chargers and allowed only one hit in his two innings of work.
Despite Harney’s efforts, GCA only led 2-0 when he was pulled, but the offense took over from there. The Cougars batted around and scored three runs in the sixth inning, and batted around again in the seventh while tacking on five more runs. Those five North Decatur errors led to six unearned runs, including five of the eight runs GCA scored in the final two innings.
“When we got on base, I thought we put pretty good pressure on them,” Hagist said. “I think we forced some of those errors, but that’s part of it. We took care of ourselves, played our own game, and when Trey has confidence, he can pitch lights-out.”
Potter led the Cougars’ offensive attack, going 3 for 4 with a double and an RBI. Charlie Overton, Eli Ellis and Cole Muhlhauser also had multi-hit games. Ten of GCA’s 12 hits were singles; Potter and Ellis had the game’s lone doubles.
“These seniors lost their freshman year to COVID, so they’ve only been playing three years, and they had to work through that,” Hagist said. “Knowing we’re only 11 years old as a program and they had a chance to really do something for the program that hasn’t been done before … they’re not ready to be done yet.”
