SOUTH BEND — Bent at the waist in the Four Winds Field first-base dugout on the afternoon of Saturday, June 6, New Prairie senior baseball pitcher Sully Kress took both fists and pounded the back of the wooden seating section.
Once, twice, three times.
Bang … bang … bang!
Kress took a deep breath, sat for a moment to remove his white and blue adidas game spikes and then climbed the steps to the green playing surface. He banged the shoes together three times to remove any lingering dirt accumulated from that day’s Class 3A regional championship game against defending state champion and top-ranked Andrean (28-3).
The dirt flew off almost immediately after the first smack. The frustration over what might have been likely will linger a little longer for Kress and the Cougars (23-7) following a 9-6 loss.
“I’m not sad that we lost,” Kress said. “I’m sad I don’t get to play with my friends anymore. We played a heck of a season. I’m proud of everybody.”
One out — and twice one strike from getting out of the bottom of the sixth with a one-run lead — Kress couldn’t make that one last (perfect) pitch when needed before his tank completely ran dry.
One more pitch, one more strike earlier in the inning, and maybe the New Prairie season is extended another week into semi-state play. Instead, it was hugs and tears mixed with regret of what might have been. Maybe should have been the way the right-handed Kress bounced back from an opening inning that saw New Prairie slide into a 3-0 hole.
“Once I settled in, I found my spots, I found my rhythm,” Kress said. “Just a slow start, a crucial inning that I needed to be better.”
Kress had thrown 114 pitches to that point. He allowed only one hit — that to the third batter in the first inning, an inning where Kress and the Cougars were seemingly on shaky regional footing. Forget going six innings, he was at a risk of not lasting six hitters. Kress battled through it; New Prairie battled back, but it wasn’t enough.
Walks at the worst times — is there ever a good one? — and critical errors all over allowed Andrean to move on.
Down most of the steamy/dry day, New Prairie took a 4-3 lead in the top of the sixth. Kress then retired the first two hitters in the sixth before it all went south. He walked the next three hitters while his pitch count hit 114.
“Sully pitched a heck of game,” New Prairie coach Mark Schellinger said of the first team All-Northern Indiana Conference choice. “His stat line’s not going to look as good as it should. He just kind of ran out of gas and made things happen.”
“I was just tired, man,” Kress added. “I was trying my best, trying to put this team into position to win, but I couldn’t do it. I just couldn’t finish it. I just didn’t have anything left.”
He couldn’t throw No. 115. Nothing was left in his tank. He was done. Kress moved to right and Colton Griffiths went from first base to the mound while 59ers leadoff hitter Luke Goben stepped to the plate.
One pitch was all Goben saw as he flipped this game on its collective head. He swung at Griffith’s open offering before ripping a laser to right that Kress made a diving attempt but couldn’t snag. Like that, three runs on the board. New Prairie momentum gone.
“We felt he was going to put the ball in play,” Andrean coach Dave Pishkur said. “He’s had the most big hits on our team the whole year, so if you had to pick somebody, that’s the guy you pick. He luckily split the gap.”
Out in right after the swing and the scores that busted this one open, Kress tried to keep himself from turning over his shoulder and seeing the stadium scoreboard. He stared into the outfield grass. He walked in circles with his head down. Each time he looked at the scoreboard, you could almost see his shoulders sag.
Minutes earlier, it said New Prairie 4, Andrean 3. It would say 6-4, then 7-4, then eight and finally nine after an inning where the 59ers scored six runs on two hits and three Cougar errors.
“Tough to look at, but it is what it is,” Kress said. “Proud of my guys, but time to move on.”
For Kress and the Cougars, it was over before it was officially over.
Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact Noie at tnoie@sbtinfo.com
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: One big inning helped swing a Class 3A regional championship game
Reporting by Tom Noie, South Bend Tribune / South Bend Tribune
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By Tom Noie, South Bend Tribune | USA TODAY Network
