Center Grove’s Andrew Krupa, left, gets set to slide into home as Franklin catcher Lane McElyea prepares to apply the tag during Saturday’s county championship game. Krupa was safe on the play.
Chris Williams | For the Daily Journal
Center Grove coach Keith Hatfield talked during the preseason about his inexperienced pitching staff and the untapped potential it possessed.
This week has certainly done wonders for that group’s confidence.
Kobe Cherry hurled five sparkling innings of one-hit ball and the Trojans held off a late rally for a 5-1 win over a young Franklin squad in the championship game of the Johnson County tournament on Saturday afternoon.
The victory capped a week that saw Class 4A No. 4 Center Grove (8-0) get through 25 straight scoreless innings before the Grizzly Cubs picked up an unearned run in the bottom of the seventh.
“Pitching was the one thing I really wasn’t worried about,” Trojans coach Keith Hatfield said. “As long as they threw to their abilities, I felt pretty comfortable with where we were at.”
Cherry was pretty comfortable throughout, striking out the side in the first inning and fanning five in a row over the third and fourth. Franklin (2-2) only hit two balls to the outfield against him all day, and the lone hit allowed by Cherry came when Landen Basey beat out an infield single in the third inning. The Grizzly Cubs’ only scoring threat against him came in the fifth, when a pair of walks and a flyout put runners on the corners with two out, but Cherry struck out Carsten Bland on a full count to end the frame.
The big sophomore struck out 10 overall, issuing three free passes and hitting a batter.
“Just really working on that command and being in control of the game is what I’ve been working on,” Cherry said. “I felt good out there.”
Offensively, Center Grove cobbled together enough to get Cherry the win.
The Trojans scraped together a single run in the top of the first. Tristan Yerman walked on four pitches with one out, and courtesy runner Patrick Smith moved to second on a base hit by Gannon Grant. A wild pitch advanced the runners to second and third, with Smith scoring on a groundout by Easton Smith. Center Grove had a chance to pad its lead when it loaded the bases in the second inning, but Franklin starter Greyson Betts came up with a big strikeout of Yerman to get away unharmed.
Andrew Krupa scored the Trojans’ second run in the fourth with some more small ball. The junior drew a leadoff walk, stole second and took third on a balk, then darted home on a Drake McClurg fielder’s choice that drew a throw to the plate. Grizzly Cub catcher Lane McElyea made a tag on time but the ball was dislodged from his mitt while doing so.
Center Grove made it 3-0 in the fifth when Reed Sawa reached on a two-base error and scored when Carson Bush dropped an RBI single into shallow right field. Sawa scored again during the seventh, ripping a one-out double down the line in left field and coming around on a two-bagger by Bush. A base hit by Cayden Jones put runners on the corners, and Bush trotted home on Cal Schembra’s sacrifice fly to center field for the Trojans’ final run.
It wasn’t a double-digit run output with multiple home runs like Center Grove often produced in recent seasons, but it was enough.
“This isn’t the team of the past,” Hatfield said. “We’re not as strong physically — and that’s nothing against these guys; it’s because we’re a lot younger — so yeah, we’re going to have to find different ways to win than what we had the past four or five years. But that doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing.”
Franklin fell short but managed to make things pretty interesting in the seventh. Leadoff batter Wyatt Mitchell got to second on a throwing error, took third on a wild pitch and scored on Basey’s second infield hit of the day. Two-out walks to Trevor Launonen and Blake Smythe loaded the bases to bring the tying run to the plate for the Grizzly Cubs, but Trojan senior reliever Leo McEnulty struck out McElyea for the final out.
Bush finished with three of Center Grove’s seven hits.
Both finalists advanced to the title game with shutout wins in the early afternoon semifinal games. The Trojans got five scoreless innings from Kellen Thomson in a 9-0 win over Indian Creek, while the Grizzly Cubs defeated Greenwood, 6-0, behind a complete game one-hitter from Smythe.
Though his team couldn’t complete its comeback bid in the final, Franklin coach Jeremy McKinney was pleased with the day overall.
“I’m really impressed with our group,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of young guys, a lot of young talent, but they battled with a lot of maturity. … Obviously, we could have put a lot more balls on the bat, and I think a couple of those errors killed us. (But) without those errors and a few more hits, I think it’s a 1-1 game going into the seventh and we’ve got bases loaded, I think it’s a lot closer of a game. But I’m not disappointed whatsoever — I think our guys battled to the very end.”
Center Grove, meanwhile, kept its perfect season rolling.
“I feel like we got something off our chest today and kind of showed everyone what we’re about,” Cherry said. “Last year, losing a lot of seniors, a lot of veteran players, but I think we have the same amount of talent this year and enough to make a deep run through the tournament.”
Kind of like the Trojans did through this one.
