Center Grove’s Noah Coy crouches following Saturday’s loss to Penn in the Class 4A state title game.
Chris Williams | For the Daily Journal
INDIANAPOLIS
The obligatory forced smiles deemed necessary for postgame photographs in time gave way to genuine emotion.
Players and coaches, part of a unique brotherhood, shed tears while embracing one teammate after the next in the left field grass of Victory Field.
Center Grove’s season was over, the desired result just barely out of its collective reach as Penn won the Class 4A state championship with a 2-0 victory on Saturday night.
And with that, a 29-4 season filled to the brim with countless memories and individual and team accomplishments was over.
Still, there was so much good on which to reflect.
“I told them they had the best season in school history,” Trojans coach Keith Hatfield said. “They’re the only group of Center Grove baseball players to ever play for a state title.
“It’s not fun losing this game, but they need to keep their heads up.”
Penn’s two-run burst in the top of the third inning after the Trojans had recorded two outs proved the difference as the Kingsmen claimed their second consecutive title and sixth overall.
Cooper Hums, the Penn leadoff hitter, laced a Jacob Murphy pitch into the corner in right field, allowing the senior to make it all the way to third base for a triple. Shortstop Cam Dombrowski followed with a hit to left that Trojans senior Bradley Gilliam just missed snagging with a diving attempt.
The game’s other run was scored one at-bat later when shortstop Evan Tuesley singled to center field.
Keeping Center Grove’s offensive capabilities at arm’s length was Kingsmen senior pitcher Adam Lehmann, a Western Michigan commit who put in six innings of work, allowing three hits and striking out 10.
“I have to give credit to him. He was a great pitcher,” Trojans junior leadoff hitter Noah Coy said. “He had a lot of spin on his fastball, which gave us some trouble up in the zone. It wasn’t anything that we did. He pitched really well. I give all the credit to him.”
Penn (27-8) flashed serious leather as well, particularly in the bottom of the fourth frame courtesy of Hums, the team’s center fielder.
With one out, Trojans senior catcher Grant Sawa looked as if he was about to deposit a Lehmann offering deep for nothing less than a double. Hums, however, made an unbelievable over-the-shoulder catch that required every bit of his fully extended 6-foot frame.
Following a somewhat shaky sixth inning by Lehmann in which he gave up a Sawa single with two out and walked Gilliam, Penn coach Greg Dikos opted to bring in sophomore Dawson French for the seventh.
Freshman second baseman Gannon Grant reached first for the Trojans when the Kingsmen misplayed a routine infield pop-up with one out. French walked Coy on four straight pitches to make things even more suspenseful, but Drew Culbertson struck out looking, and Garrison Barile popped out to shallow right field to end it.
Murphy pitched the first four innings for Center Grove, giving up five hits and both runs. Senior Caden Cornett then pitched three hitless innings of relief that included two walks and four strikeouts.
Hatfield, who has guided the Trojans to a 206-54-2 record in his 10 seasons, was the person least surprised when things got interesting at the end.
“That’s what we said all year. They’ve been resilient,” he said. “It’s one of the most resilient groups of kids I’ve ever been around, so it didn’t surprise me a whole lot.”
Center Grove’s nucleus of 12 senior players, a group robbed of a freshman campaign due to the pandemic-related cancelation of all spring sports in 2020, was 83-12-1 in its three springtimes of high school baseball.
It’s a group that sought to carve out a legacy — and did.
“I think that that freshman summer a lot of us played travel ball together,” Barile said. “I know me and Evan Zapp played together. Me and Tyler House were on the same team. We were all playing together, and it really helped build that camaraderie.
“I love this team. I love where we got to. I wish we were able to pull it out in the end, but everything this team has done, all my friends and all the coaches, I’m proud of everyone. And I know every single person on this team is going to do big things.”
