Playing in a semi-state game is business as usual for the Bloomington South football team of late, making it to the final four three years in a row.
Baseball? That’s been more of an uphill struggle since 2015, year of the last regional title and one of only two dating back to 1988. Senior Luke Arnett, a defensive end in the fall, is of the few Panthers to experience semi-state twice in the same school year.
Jonathan Winstead, the defensive hero on Saturday, Connor Parker, Hayden Clark and TJ Wilson were also on South’s football team that played New Palestine at semi-state. Arnett also suffered through the heartbreaking 2024 loss to Decatur Central, so he was ready to crack the semi-state code, which the Panthers did in a 1-0 win over Evansville North last Saturday.
South is now one win away from a state title, which they will go for at 8 p.m. this Saturday, June 20, against Lake Central at Victory Field in Indianapolis.
“For football, it’s something that we’re always after there,” Arnett said. “We’ve kind of been there a few times, so we know what that’s like. But baseball terms, we’ve all been after that … the coaches talk about it, they’ve been after it longer than we have.
“The four years that I’ve been here, me and my teammates, we’ve all had that in the back of our minds for a few years. I knew we’ve come up short but to finally break through this year has been special to all of us.”
There is one similarity in how both programs operate.
“The way we practice,” Arnett said. “Coach (Gabe) Johnson, the way we go about things on the football field, is really similar to how we do things at practice here. We don’t waste time; we don’t waste any reps.”
Another neat thing for Arnett will be going from a team playing for a state title to a program that played for an NAIA national championship this season in Taylor.
“That’s going to be awesome,” Arnett said. “The coaches, we’ve kept in touch all throughout their season, and they’ve been wishing me luck throughout our postseason run … It’s pretty cool to share the winning tradition. They understand what it means and so do I.”
Team of destiny?
Looking at the way South has won three of its last four games during a nine-game streak, ‘team of destiny’ comes to mind with how the Panthers have found a way to escape close calls.
But the Panthers are 10-2 this season in games decided by two runs or fewer, 14-4 when the margin is three runs or under.
“I guess you can kind of say that,” Arnett said. “But if you look at what we’ve done all year, we’ve done that multiple times, even outside the playoffs.”
In the playoffs, it helps a lot when the opposition has scored just six runs in 40 innings.
“We expected to do this,” South coach Phil Kluesner said. “There’s no destiny to it from our standpoint. These guys from last year, coming into the offseason, they expected to do this. We were not full strength because of some of the injuries, but these guys believed in it.”
Belief became reality — and Kluesner’s phone blew up because of it.
“A lot of people expressed appreciation. A lot of people,” Kluesner said. “I’ve had almost 300 text messages from a lot of different people. I’ve got to go back and look at some of those numbers because I’m sure I know them.”
Coaching stability big deal for South
Stability is a hallmark of South baseball. The program has had two head baseball coaches since 1981 when Grier Werner took over and passed the program along to former Panther Kluesner in 2009. Marvin Groh won 352 games from 1948-72, Werner 419 and Kluesner is closing in on 400 after winning No. 300 in 2022.
Having a staff completely made up of ex-Panthers is also a calling card. It includes two old hands in Eric Dodds (a holdover from the Werner years) and Mike Vaughn and a younger one in Dylan Gann.
“You’re only as good as what your surrounding staff is,” Kluesner said. “I’m aware of that and appreciative of that. They’re really, really good at what they do. There’s a lot of autonomy with that as far as allowing them to do their thing.
“And if you look at our staff, it’s all people who wore the uniform before. So it’s personal and it’s meaningful to them. It’s important to me, it’s important to (Dodds). He’s pretty much a head coach, too. We’re kind of two of the same person. When we bring people into the fold, it’s people that we know and have known for a while but also bleed the purple that we bleed.”
Tickets, fan bus available
Game time is 8 p.m. at Indianapolis’ Victory Field.
Tickets are $17.30 (which includes fees) and are available at https://www.gofevo.com/event/2026ihsaabloomingtonsouth. Tickets are good for both games on Saturday, as Evansville Mater Dei plays Bluffton at 4:30 p.m. for the 2A state title. Children 5 and under are free. All seats are general admission. South is the visiting team for the game and will be in the first base dugout.
Students can sign up for a fanbase the school’s athletic office on Wednesday and Thursday mornings.
Streaming is available at ihsaatv.org for $15 per game or $20 for all four. WWZN 98.7FM/1370AM will also carry the IHSAA radio broadcast of both state title games on Saturday.
Those wanting to send the Panthers off, the team bus will be getting an escort from the city fire department when they depart between 4:30-5 Saturday.
A look at Lake Central
Lake Central, located west of Merrillville, is a two-time state champ. The Indians won in 2012 and then under current coach Mike Swartzentruber in 2024, outlasting Mooresville in 12 innings, 2-1.
Swartzentruber, who has been coaching for 30 years, was inducted into the Indiana Baseball Hall of Fame in 2024.
Lake Central is looking to copy Penn’s rare 4A softball-baseball sweep in 2023. New Palestine (3A in 2004) is the only other program to pull off the feat. It is also looking to extend northwest Indiana’s recent dominance in the 4A title game as Valparaiso, LC and Penn (twice) have won the last four titles.
LC was unranked when the postseason began and had to get through three top-10 teams to make it to state.
During the regular season, the Indiana went 0-2 against No. 4 Chesterton, 0-2 vs. No. 5 Valparaiso, split with No. 6 Munster and No. 7 Penn and beat 3A No. 7 Hanover Central and No. 8 Cathedral by one run each.
LC then dusted Munster 13-3 in five innings and Hammond Morton by the same count before a 4-3 win over No. 2 Crown Point in the sectional final. The Indians pounded out 17 hits in the 11-1 regional win over Goshen.
LC needed two runs in the bottom of the seventh to top Zionsville 7-6 in the semi-state opener, a game that was tied 4-4 after the first inning, before a 6-2 win over Penn as Justin Makowski (3⅔) and Marc Passo pitched the win.
Sophomore lefty Owen Kopercinski, who pitched in the sectional final, regional and went five innings in the Zionsville game, is 6-0 with a 2.59 ERA.
Brayden Walls is LC’s top hitter at .433 with 12 doubles, two homers and 29 RBIs while Jacob Forystek is hitting .372 with 41 RBIs and Keegan O’Bryan has 28 of LC’s 99 stolen bases. LC has two players back from its 2024 champ, Parker Robinson (.305, 22 RBIs) and Victory Villegas (.303, 21 RBIs).
LC has committed 61 errors to South’s 29.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: After football success, Bloomington South now getting it with baseball
Reporting by Jim Gordillo, The Herald-Times / The Herald-Times
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Jim Gordillo, The Herald-Times | USA TODAY Network
