Baseball roundup: Blazers win Pioneer Conference championship

The REPORTER

The University baseball team won its fourth consecutive Pioneer Conference championship on Friday, beating host Park Tudor 5-1 in the title game.

The Trailblazers scored their first run in the second inning when Charlie Ranek got home after Ryan Castetter hit a sacrifice fly. University got another run in the fifth inning; this time Castetter scored after Phillip Jacobs hit a right-field sacrifice fly.

University took further control of the game with three runs in the top of the sixth. Beckett Suh cracked a triple into right field to bring in Oliver Kingery and Ethan Cutsinger. Suh scored on the next at-bat, Cooper Cammack’s RBI groundout.

The Panthers scored their run in the sixth inning and hit a one-out double in the seventh. But the Blazers quickly got the next two outs to clinch the win.

Cam Rady pitched five innings for the win, striking out six. Cammack threw the last two innings, with two strikeouts.

University has now won the Pioneer Conference championship in six out of the last seven years. The Blazers improved to 15-11 and host Eastbrook this morning in their regular-season finale.

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Hamilton Southeastern broke through for its first Hoosier Crossroads Conference win of the season Friday, beating Franklin Central 3-2 in an away game.

The Flashes led 2-0 after four innings. The Royals got on the board in the top of the sixth inning when Michael Hoog doubled in Adam Wolf. Southeastern jumped ahead with two runs in the seventh inning: A sacrifice fly from Parker O’Steen turned into two runs; Wolf and Maddux Bach both got home. The Royals finished the game with a flyout in the bottom of the seventh.

Clark Bucher finished the game with two hits. Hoog pitched a complete game, with six strikeouts against two hits.

The Royals are 11-17 and host Franklin Central today to complete their HCC and regular seasons.

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Fishers dropped its regular season and HCC finale on Friday, falling at Brownsburg 4-1.

The Bulldogs scored their first run in the first inning. The Tigers tied the game in the fourth inning when Trevor Hall scored on an error after Mayo Fernandez hit a right field single. Brownsburg jumped ahead with three runs in the fifth and stayed in front after that.

Brady Carman had two hits for Fishers.

The Tigers completed conference play 12-2 and are 23-5 overall. Fishers plays Hamilton Southeastern Wednesday in the first round of Sectional 8 at Carmel’s Hartman Field.