PORTLAND, Ind. — As the Delta Eagles baseball team gathered at home plate to accept the sectional trophy, every player was echoing the same thing.
“Give it to Maddox!”
“Grab that trophy, Maddox!”
“Take it Maddox!”
Maddox Huffman, the senior relief pitcher, had just pitched the last three innings of the Sectional 24 championship, closing out a 4-3 victory over Connersville with a pair of strikeouts in the bottom of the seventh to clinch a sectional championship three-peat for Delta baseball on Monday, June 1.
Huffman has made a name for himself in the biggest moments during his multi-sport Delta career, and Monday’s game was no different.
“I step out there, and every pitch, I try to do my best,” Huffman said. “I just know that, if I can stick to my stuff, I can do what we need to do. I can get the win.”
Huffman pitched the final three innings and surrendered three hits and one walk with two unearned runs while striking out four. Junior Kye Berger earned the win on the mound after pitching the first four innings, giving up one earned run on two hits and one walk with two strikeouts.
Offensively, the Eagles attacked early with three runs in the top half of the first inning. A single by senior Everrett Linn loaded the bases, allowing junior Aven Thomas, Huffman, and senior Brady Williams to drive in runs on the next three at-bats.
“Something we preach to these guys is to get on early,” Delta coach Jacob Van Pelt said. “Get on them early, don’t let up. Felt like there might have been a little bit of a let up, but we held on at the end.”
Connersville added one run in response in the bottom of the first. The Spartans finally crossed another run in the bottom of the fifth to make it a one-run game, but the Eagles got an insurance run to go up 4-2 thanks to an RBI single from sophomore left fielder Eli Overholt in the top of the seventh.
That hit proved to be a clutch one, as Connersville got another run in the bottom of the seventh. They left the tying run stranded at second base as Huffman finished it off with a strikeout.
“My past at-bats throughout the day, I’d been a little passive and got late into counts where I had to put something in,” Overholt said. “With that at-bat, I was looking to hunt and then do some damage with it. It means a lot, because the seniors count on me to pull through, and so that moment just felt amazing. The team was all brought together, going crazy in the dugout, it was just an awesome one.”
With three-peats in both Delaware County and sectional championships clinched this season, Delta will go for a third three-peat as it seeks a third consecutive regional championship on Saturday, June 6. The Eagles will take on Sectional 22 champion Norwell at a site to be announced by the IHSAA on Wednesday, June 3.
Delta dominates Hamilton Heights in sectional semifinal
Delta’s pitching staff as a whole had a consistent day. The Eagles beat Hamilton Heights, 11-2, in the sectional semifinal earlier in the day behind a strong six innings from senior Ayden Mitchell, who struck out 10 batters and walked none while allowing two runs (one unearned) on six hits. Senior Sebastian Gillum pitched the final inning and struck out two batters as he returned to the mound for the first time in nearly a month after dealing with an injury.
Rain delays earlier in the week forced Delta to play two games in an eight-hour span to keep their sectional dominance going, and the depth and experience of the pitching staff allowed them to do just that.
“Command the zone,” Van Pelt said. “Command multiple pitches in the zone. Ayden does a good job of that, Sebastian does a good job of that, so we felt total confidence in both of those guys. Usually, when Ayden’s on the mound, he’s giving us a chance to win, and that’s all you can ask for out of a starting pitcher.
“It was good to see (Sebastian). It’s tough when you’ve been banged up a little bit to say, ‘Okay, go in the big moment of this action,’ so it’s nice that our offense gave us some support so we could get him in the game. Sebastian’s one of those guys, you root for that kid, and he did an awesome job.”
On offense, the Eagles got on top of their opponent early, just as they would do later that evening in the championship. Linn, Huffman and Thomas each finished the game with two hits and two RBIs apiece, but the highlight of Delta’s semifinal came from senior catcher Kaden Crist, who smashed a ball over the left field fence for a three-run homer in the fifth inning — his first home run of the season.
“It felt good,” Crist said. “I actually almost had one at Alexandria, and I left it short, but it felt good. It was a big-time hit. I had missed the bunt twice, failed to get the bunt down and just knew I had to do a job.”
Yorktown rally falls short against Connersville in semifinals
The Eagles’ archrival nearly set up a fourth matchup this season with a sixth-inning rally, but Yorktown’s late comeback attempt against Connersville came up short in a 5-2 loss.
Both teams started hot with solo home runs in the first inning — Shearer for Connersville and junior Kaden Crumes for Yorktown — but the score stayed knotted at 1-1 until the top of the fourth when senior Gavin Brannon hit a sacrifice fly and junior Noah Patterson drove in an RBI-single to put the Spartans up 3-1.
Meanwhile, Yorktown went down in order in the third, fourth and fifth innings. The Tigers nearly rallied back in the sixth inning as Crumes scored another run via a Sam Tokar sacrifice fly. After a single and a hit-by-pitch, Yorktown had the bases loaded with one out, but Connersville pulled off a double play to maintain its lead.
The Spartans padded their lead in the seventh with a run scored via wild pitch and another on an RBI-double from Shearer, then held Yorktown scoreless in the home half of the inning to create the 5-2 final score.
“It’s unfortunate. I still would have taken that opportunity with Ethan (Hellems) up, bases loaded,” Yorktown coach Austin Stout said. “The one place on the field you can’t hit it is right there. It was literally the perfect place for them, and we had a ton of that. It seemed like all year, we never had anything like that go our way on the flip end of it, but at the end of the day, the middle of their order could swing it, and they did damage right there.”
Stout’s debut season as the Tigers’ head coach came to an end with a record of 11-16. Yorktown graduates just four seniors and will see the return of some of its most productive players — including most of its pitching staff — next season, and Stout had a clear message for those expected returners postgame.
“There’s always growing pains, you know, you feel like when you go into the season, you have everything figured out. That lasted about one day for me,” Stout said. “I hope they understand what our goals are and what we’re trying to do as a program. For me, speaking to them like, ‘You see your results, and they need to bother you. If you didn’t have the season you wanted, you need to go into the offseason and work your tail off.'”
Contact Cade Hampton via email at cbhampton@usatodayco.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @CadeHamp10.
This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: Delta baseball tops Connersville for sectional championship three-peat
Reporting by Cade Hampton, Muncie Star Press / Muncie Star Press
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