Tipp baseball wins District Title over Batavia
The ten year drought is over for the Tippecanoe baseball team.
As the Red Devils were celebrating a 3-2 victory over Batavia on Friday night, it brought to an end a 10-year absence since Tipp last won a district title.
Coach Cam Dickens and the team celebrated when they arrived back at the middle school field. The Red Devils coach showed relief at the standards this program has shown tonight in their district championship.
“One of the reasons I was so excited to take this job was the tradition this program has is so great,” Dickens said. “Bruce Cahill and Jim Johnson have built this up over the years, and it has been on my mind to get the program back to the place where it belongs. It has fueled the kids to get over that hump.”
“This time of the year, it comes down to great pitching and defense, and we got that tonight. Second game in a row we were error-free, and Carson Jackson did an outstanding job filling it up with a bunch of strikes. We got timely hits, and even though we were down at times, it felt like we were the aggressor the entire time.”
Batavia scored first in the opening inning, and it remained 1-0 until Tipp batted in the third.
With one out, James Merry, who reached base four times in the game, walked and Ethan Harney was hit by a pitch. A walk to Jackson loaded the bases and a walk to Brady Liskey brought home the tying run for Tipp. The Red Devils could not capitalize on any more runs in the inning, and the game remained tied.
In the fourth, Tipp struck again. Eli Kettel was hit by a pitch, and Noah Fox singled to bring Kettel home to give Tipp their first lead of the game.
Two innings later, Tipp added to their lead when Merry singled in Kettel, who reached on a walk, to put the Red Devils up 3-1 late in the game. Batavia scored another run to close the gap, but Tipp survived and advanced into the Sweet 16.
“There was a key play where they could have tied the game with a runner at third, but Cayden McKinney made a huge backhand play where he threw the runner out at the plate for the tying run. It was a critical play.”
“CJ has been a bulldog all season long on the mound. It is always going to be tight at this point of the season.”
Tipp played in the regional finals last night (Tuesday) against Hamilton Badin at Miami University.
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