BEDFORD — Rob Davis left the third-base coach’s box and walked directly to the Pendleton Heights on-deck circle across the way. That’s where senior Cassie Hayes stood, bat on her shoulder, tears streaming down her cheeks as the finality of her high school career began setting in. The Arabians weren’t giving up, by any means, but down seven to No. 7 Terre Haute North in the Class 4A semistate semifinal, they also recognized the likelihood of this being their final inning together.
You have another chance. Make this your best one, Hayes recalled Davis telling her. “We want you to put the ball in play. Give it your best shot.”
Cassie grew up practicing every day at Davis’ barn with her sister, the two brought there by their late grandfather. She was four or five years old at the time, the longtime coach smiled, “not even big enough to pick up a bat.”
“I love her like my own,” he continued, a quiver undermining his booming baritone. “Her grandfather passed away during COVID, so our relationship has been pretty special.”
Did Rob talking with you help calm you down?
“It kind of made it worse,” Cassie replied. A smile swept across her face as teammates Avry Miller and Aubrey Fox giggled on either side of her. “It made me cry more, but it’s OK. … I got a hit.”
Few, if any, outside the Arabians’ dugout believed this — the team’s third regional championship since 2022 — was possible. Crippled by numerous injuries and bogged down by a congested schedule, they limped into the final week of April at 6-10.
But Davis saw what few others could: Potential. And he remained steadfast in his belief that this team could compete for a spot at semistate.
“It was next man up and those girls stepped up every time,” he said. “I’m proud of them. … This is a special group of girls that came together and that liked each other — and sometimes that’s hard to find.”
Davis got the girls believing they could make it to semistate and helped get them there, an emotional Fox reflected. Added Miller: “We 100% deserve to be here. We deserve to be proud.”
At the forefront of Pendleton’s late-season surge — an 8-1 run that included regular-season wins over Noblesville and New Palestine, plus four straight postseason shutouts — were the seniors: Teagan Bordenkircher, Morgan Bricker, Harley Coleman, Erin Davis, Grace Fisher, Hayes and Miller.
Asked to qualify their significance to her and this program, Fox was overcome with emotion.
“All seven of them contributed so much to this team. I’m gonna miss them so much,” she said. “I’ve looked up to them for so long and it’s gonna be hard to say goodbye. They helped us so much this season.”
Saturday was a run-in with a buzzsaw.
Terre Haute North (29-1) generated four runs in the first, three more in the second and another in the third. Eight of those runs were against the previously unflappable Bricker, whose return from an early-season knee injury helped spark PH’s May surge.
“There was something off early, but she’d been so good getting us here that I wasn’t ready to pull the trigger,” Davis said of his senior hurler, who finished the season 5-3 with a 1.87 ERA, 51 strikeouts and a .214 OBA in 52.1 innings (12 appearances). “But then (sophomore) Josie Statzer came in and did a phenomenal job, hitting her spots and throwing them off.”
The Pendleton bats were slower to find traction, mustering two base runners through the first three innings and two hits through four.
They began settling in against senior Jaleigh Lindley in the latter innings, laying off her rise ball and forcing her to come to them. A fifth-inning home run by freshman Macy Hufford cut the deficit to seven, and they threatened once more with two on and two outs in the sixth.
“People realized once you lay off, she’s going to start throwing strikes and balls you can actually make good contact against,” Fox said. “So it was just laying off the first few balls and getting your pitch.”
The Arabians scored twice in the seventh, a last-stand rally initiated by the Butler-bound Miller, who ripped her first career triple in her final high school at-bat. A four-year starter, she was one of two four-year varsity letterwinners on this year’s roster (Fisher), Davis observed. “And when she got to third and I grabbed her hand — I didn’t want to let go of it. I’m going to miss her.”
“I’m going to miss all of them,” he continued. “All these girls are fun to be around. I’m going to miss the hell out of them.”
Asked what it’s meant to be an Arabian, Miller replied: “It’s changed me for the better every moment, every error I made, it’s part of it, and I love it. This program made me a better person, not only in softball but outside of it too. I’m just so thankful for it and the people and everything.”
Looking ahead
Pendleton Heights finishes the season 17-14 and is set to return four of its top six hitters, including Fox (.528, 6 home runs, 35 RBIs) and Hufford (.315, 20 RBIs, five homers), plus the majority of its pitching staff.
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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Pendleton Heights’ late-season charge ends at semistate: ‘We deserve to be proud’
Reporting by Brian Haenchen, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Brian Haenchen, Indianapolis Star | USA TODAY Network
