By RICH TORRES
CARMEL – The game plan was simple for the Hamilton Southeastern Royals on Tuesday night. Don’t overlook anyone and generate some offense.
The Royals (14-9) accomplished both with a dominating 10-0 run-rule victory over the North Central Panthers in five inning during the Sectional 8 semifinals at the Cherry Tree Softball Complex.
HSE sophomore Ava Aguilar led the way going in 2-for-4 with a double and four RBI, while junior Jaylah Guilliam struck out 10 and allowed one hit over 4 1/3 innings to setup a Mudsock rematch with Fishers for the sectional title.
The Fishers Tigers ousted defending sectional champion Noblesville 10-2 in the evening’s first semifinal matchup, and the Royals did their part with a decisive 12-hit performance.
The two will play at 6 p.m. on Wednesday night with Fishers eyeing its first title since 2015-16 and HSE seeking its 15th championship all time and second in three years.
“We didn’t overlook (North Central), and I liked that,” HSE coach David Cook said. “We knew we could play Fishers, so there could be a chance of overlooking them, and we didn’t.”
Instead, the Royals went to work early as Guilliam established the tone.
The right-hander retired the first 12 batters she faced and improved to 6-6 on the season. Guilliam struck out three in a row to open the top of the first and had a stretch of four straight strikeouts through the third and fourth innings.
She walked none and only allowed a single to Carly Page in the fifth before striking out Megan Maher. Olivia Bucher relieved Guilliam in the fifth and kept the trend going with a walk and two strikeouts.
“It was a great effort by Jaylah,” Cook said. “We wanted to give Olivia Bucher some time, and it’s tough to take somebody out there, you know, but (Jaylah) did a great job. Out of the 15 outs tonight, the two combined for 12 strikeouts.”
The Royals’ bats were just as efficient, driving in three runs in the second and six more in the third as HSE sent 10 batters to the plate.
“We had some solid at-bats. Even some outs were really balls that were hit hard,” Cook said. “The girl made a running catch against Ava. I thought it was heading for the gap and going, and Kaelin Wincek’s ball hit to the third baseman, I think the ball was caught behind her head. She didn’t know she had it. We hit the ball hard.”
HSE’s hitters were aggressively looking for hard contact, and it created opportunities, including three bases-loaded scenarios in the third inning.
Abby Taylor drove in the game’s first run with a two-out fielder’s choice hit and Aguilar muscled a two-run single to right field to put HSE up 3-0.
Aguilar added a two-run double in the third after Taylor connected for an RBI single and one runner on base.
The Royals loaded the bases with no outs in the third, which Libby Ratliff nearly cleared with a two-run single. Nicole Lang increased HSE’s lead 9-0 with an RBI single.
“We didn’t have any big hits, extra base hits, they were solid singles, and that’s good,” Cook said. “I talked to them about it. If you get double-digit hits, you got a chance. If you get double digits, you can compete.”
Jordan Rager drove in the game-winning run in the bottom of the fifth with an RBI pop out to right field that scored Reece Massey from third base.
Taylor finished the game 3-for-4, Olivia Capuano went 2-for-3 and Ratliff was 2-for-3 with three RBI.
The Royals are hitting .362 as a team and have 156 runs driven in through 23 games and 170 runs scored, which will come in handy against Fishers.
In two postseason games, the Tigers (15-9) have 23 hits, 20 runs scored and 230 runs overall this season in 24 games. Fishers beat HSE 5-4 to win the Mudsock on April 23.
“We’re going to have to play a great ball game tomorrow night,” Cook said. “We’re going to need some runs. We don’t talk about playing Fishers. We talk about winning a sectional championship, so we just have to come out and play.”
Hamilton Southeastern 10, North Central 0
(5 innings)
Southeastern AB R H RBI
Abby Taylor 4 1 3 2
Ava Aguilar 4 1 2 4
Jordan Rager 3 0 0 1
Nicole Lang 3 0 1 1
Lillian Leiner 3 1 1 0
Kaelin Wincek 3 1 1 0
Olivia Capuano 2 0 2 0
Ella Lewis 1 0 0 0
Libby Ratliff 3 2 2 2
Reece Massey 1 2 0 0
Madi Smith 0 1 0 0
Kennedy Morgan 0 1 0 0
Totals 27 10 12 10
Score by innings
North Central 000 00 – 0 1 0
Southeastern 036 01 – 10 12 0
SB: Taylor 2, Aguilar.
Southeastern pitching IP R ER H
Jaylah Guilliam (W) 4.1 0 0 1
Olivia Bucher 0.2 0 0 0
Strikeouts: Guilliam 10, Bucher 2. Walks: Guilliam 1, Bucher 1.