By RICH TORRES
NOBLESVILLE – It wasn’t the most ideal situation, but Hamilton Southeastern’s Cole Graverson didn’t need much convincing.
The Class 4A Royals were without both senior aces Michael Dillon, an Xavier commit, and Ball State recruit Tyler Schweitzer, who had his day cut short due to a rainout during the Sectional 8 championship on Memorial Day at Noblesville’s Don Dunker Field.
Graverson was up next, and the junior wasn’t turning down the opportunity despite the title game resuming tied 1-1 in the bottom of the fourth on Tuesday night.
A closer for the Royals this season, Graverson had the mentality and he proved it from the first pitch.
“That first at-bat, he was down in the zone,” HSE catcher Jack DeWolf said. “I knew, we were set.”
The lefthander slammed the door through the final three innings with six strikeouts and stymied Carmel’s potent lineup with one hit en route to HSE’s 7-1 sectional championship victory.
The Royals’ bats backed up Graverson with back-to-back three-run innings in the bottom of the fourth and fifth, and he retired six of the last seven he faced, including a strikeout in the top of the seventh to seal it.
The combination of Graverson and the Royals’ eight-hit performance were more than enough to push HSE’s winning streak to seven in a row and seize the program’s 15th sectional title all time.
“It’s so rewarding to me, the things we preach. The two-strike hitting. Hitting the ball the other way, and to see those things help you win ball games, and Cole’s big hit (in the bottom of the fourth),” Sassanella said. “We got guys disciplined at the plate, taking walks. It was a great thing to see.”
The Royals drew six walks and three batters were by pitch, but DeWael broke the deadlock with a two-out triple in the fourth, which Greyson Droste later followed up with a bases-loaded walk.
“You could tell the focus was ready early on for us hitting. Once the game started, and we had that runner on first, we knew what was at stake, and we were ready to go,” HSE senior Anthony Eggers said.
Eggers drove in two runs, including the game’s first to put HSE up 1-0 in the bottom of the third, and the last in the fifth as the Royals posted four straight singles after a two-out double by Jake Stout.
Eggers went 3-for-3, DeWael was 2-for-4 with three RBI, and Stout was 1-for-4 with two runs scored. Cam Bolling finished 2-for-3 with an RBI single in the fifth.
“I feel like we’re playing the best ball we have, and we just need to stay focused and continue to grow,” Sassanella said. “We get another step.”
Graverson made sure of it by allowing only one runner to advance into scoring position and striking out a batter to end each inning.
“My only concern was Cole the last half of the year has been more in a closer role. He comes in the sixth or seventh,” Sassanella said. “I had a little bit of trepidation today. We were trying to convince him that it’s the fourth inning, and he’s just coming out of the bullpen.”
Graverson was up for the challenge.
“(Coach) told me I would have a big time win today,” Graverson said. “I was trying to get ahead and throw strikes and do my thing.”
Now, the Royals get a chance to vie for the team’s fifth regional title in history and first since 2004.
“As a senior class, we’ve talked about this our whole high school career,” DeWolf remarked after the sectional win. “Every year our team would lose early in sectional. We weren’t going to let that happen to us. We wanted to make a difference. It’s all about legacy, really. What we leave behind for this program and our own memories. It’s really cool.”
Hamilton Southeastern 7, Carmel 1
Southeastern AB R H RBI
Cole DeWael 4 3 2 3
Anthony Eggers 3 0 3 2
Brayton Harrison 3 0 0 0
Greyson Droste 1 0 0 1
Jack DeWolf 3 0 0 0
Matt Iacobucci 1 0 0 0
Jake Huston 3 0 0 0
Matthew Buckingham 1 1 0 0
Jake Stout 2 1 0 0
Cam Bolling 3 1 2 1
Totals 26 7 8 7
3B: DeWael. 2B: Eggers, Stout.
Southeastern pitching IP R ER H
Tyler Schweitzer 4.0 1 1 3
Cole Graverson 3.0 0 0 1
Strikeouts: Schweitzer 4, Graverson 6. Walks: Schweitzer 1, Graverson 2.
Carmel AB R H RBI
Drew Olssen 3 0 1 0
Christian Williams 2 1 1 0
Alex Brooks 3 0 0 0
Brayden Lentz 2 0 0 0
Jackson Adams 2 0 1 0
J.D. Rogers 3 0 1 0
Dryden Schroeder 2 0 0 0
Drew Kelly 1 0 0 0
Logan Urbanowski 2 0 0 0
Jared Greene 3 0 0 0
Totals 23 1 4 0
2B: Williams. SAC: Lentz.
Carmel pitching IP R ER H
Aiden Bradbury 3.0 1 1 3
Alex Brooks 1.2 5 5 3
Mitchell Henneberry 0.0 1 1 2
Drew Harding 1.1 0 0 0
Strikeouts: Bradbury 6, Harding 4. Walks: Bradbury 1, Brooks 4, Harding 1.
Score by innings
Carmel 001 000 0 – 1 4 0
Southeastern 001 330 X – 7 8 0
Hamilton Southeastern won the Class 4A Sectional 8 baseball championship Tuesday at Noblesville’s Don Dunker Field. The game was interrupted for a day by rain, but the Royals came back on Tuesday to beat Carmel 7-1 for the title. (Kent Graham)
Carmel’s Brayden Lentz fields the ball. (Kent Graham)