Good bye, Bison: Paulik gets 4th win of postseason, adds 2-run triple in Zebra win over Benton Central

Rochester wins first regional baseball title

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

The Rochester Zebras celebrate the school's first ever regional championship in baseball at Loeb Stadium in Lafayette on Saturday. Photo provided By Paula Beehler

LAFAYETTE — “Nerve-wracking.”

These were not words that friends, fans and family members were saying about the seventh inning of the Rochester baseball team’s Class 2A regional against Benton Central at Loeb Stadium as they could only watch helplessly.

These were the words from the Rochester players on the field.

Benton Central had runners on first and second with nobody out. They had cut a six-run deficit down to three.

Tanner Reinartz was trying to close on the mound amid an insistent rain on the field and an insistent Benton Central offense.

But in the end, this was just history delayed and not history denied. The Zebras are regional champions for the first time.

Carson Paulik shook off a temporary injury to his non-throwing shoulder to win his fourth game in as many appearances in the postseason, and he also added a two-run triple at the plate, and Reinartz got the final three outs for the save as Rochester beat Benton Central 7-4.

Brady Beck had two hits and an RBI, and Brady Coleman, Colton Ferverda and Brant Beck each had a hit and an RBI.

Rochester improved to 20-10 and will play either Eastbrook or Westview in the semistate semifinals. The IHSAA will announce Sunday where the semistate will be played and when it will start. Possible semistate sites include LaPorte, Oak Hill, Kokomo Municipal Stadium or another return trip to Loeb Stadium.

Rochester coach Cory Good credited everybody involved with the program.

“It feels amazing,” Good said. “I’m super proud of this team, the coaches, community, administration, our families for sticking with us and pouring everything they can into this program to do what they can to make us better. Just an awesome moment for everybody involved. To be the first ever is pretty cool.”

Senior outfielder Colton Ferverda said Good used the opportunity to win the first regional as a motivator.

“He told us tonight we could make history if we win regional, and we did it, and we’re all excited for that one,” Ferverda said.

Said freshman Parker Casper: “It feels great.”

Dylan Musser had two hits, two RBIs and two runs scored for Benton Central, who finished 15-14. Adrian Torres had two hits and an RBI. Eight of Benton Central’s starters had at least one hit.

All 18 players in both lineups got on base at least once either via a hit or a walk.

Tyler Klemme, who came in with a .548 batting average and a team-high 46 hits, was the only Benton Central starter without a hit.

But he did walk against Reinartz, who came in to start the seventh. Torres then lofted a fly to shallow left-center. Both Ferverda in left and Drew Bowers in center looked to have a chance at catching it, but the ball dropped harmlessly, evading a diving Ferverda effort.

Klemme advanced to second.

Baylon Holmes fell behind 1-2 as nerves wracked. Holmes then hit a liner to Brant Beck, who had started at second base but was now playing right field. Beck came in and made a waist-high catch and made a one-hop throw to Parker Casper at first to double off Torres, a senior who thought the ball was going to drop.

Brant Beck admitted he works much more often at second base than right field in practice.

“Before the ball got to me, I had seen the guy run to second because he thought it was down, so I caught it, and I just told myself nice, easy throw to first, and it was gone,” he said.

Casper described the double play as “very big.”

“It saved the game,” Casper said.

Asked what it was like in the field in the final innings, Brant Beck replied “nerve wracking, very nerve wracking.”

Reinartz then struck out Grant Weise looking for the final out and took off his cap and flung his glove in the air as the players stormed out onto the field in celebration.

They jumped up and down in unison with the regional trophy, and Reinartz and Casper eventually emptied a bucket of icy sports drink on Good.

“That was absolutely huge,” Reinartz said of the seventh-inning double play. “I couldn’t have asked for a better play. You’re in a situation (with) no outs, runners on first and second, and I mean, all you can ask for is a double play or something to get two outs with two runners on.”

Rochester trailed 1-0 after three innings but scored two runs in the fourth and five in the fifth off Bison ace Klemme and reliever Caleb Kawlewski to take a 7-1 lead.

Paulik walked to lead off the fourth and stole second. He appeared to hurt his left (non-throwing) shoulder and left for courtesy runner Kaleb Lutz.

Paulik later said his arm “locked” and “went numb” for a moment but felt better later, and he was back on the mound the next half-inning. 

Ferverda’s hot grounder down the third baseline went for an RBI double and Brady Beck singled him to third. Brant Beck then hit a hot grounder into the hole between shortstop and third base to give Rochester their first lead at 2-1.

“I mean, he wasn’t that fast of a pitcher,” Ferverda said of Klemme. “Curve ball was pretty nice. Kept it inside, jammed me on that one, got out on that one. But other than that, he did alright. We just saw him pretty good.”

Klemme stranded two to keep the deficit at one, but Rochester kept pinging him around.

Gavin Young singled, and Reinartz beat out a slowly hit grounder to short for an infield single. Paulik then cracked a fly ball to deep center. 

Center fielder Dylan Musser tried to track it going back, but it was over his head and bounced to the ball on the Loeb Stadium turf. The center field fence is 414 feet away from home plate.

“He’s been throwing curve balls down the middle to me, and other than that, he’s thrown a couple fastballs out of the zone, so I was sitting curve ball in the zone,” Paulik said. “And I hammered it to center.”

Young and Reinartz scored to make it 4-1.

“Massive,” Ferverda said of Paulik’s big hit. “We all just went crazy after that. It was that massive.”

Benton Central coach Jarrett Hammel then summoned Kawlewski.

Lutz, running for Paulik, then scored on a passed ball, just beating the tag at the plate.

Kawlewski then issued consecutive walks to Jake Seuferer and Ferverda.

Brady Beck singled to center to bring home Seuferer and move Ferverda to third.

Brant Beck struck out looking, and catcher Brylan Hedden threw out replacement runner Drew Bowers trying to steal second.

But Coleman then lined a single to left to make it 7-1.

As they had in multiple previous occasions during their postseason run, the Zebras had adjusted to the opposing pitcher with each successive look. Klemme was coming off a nine-strikeout game against Seeger in Benton Central’s sectional final win, but he had only one strikeout in this game.

“Had to sit on the curve ball really,” Reinartz said. “That was it.”

Benton Central cut the lead to 7-2 against Paulik in the bottom of the fifth. Musser reached on a bloop single and scored from first on Ryan Foster’s double to deep left. 

But Paulik got Klemme on a grounder to second and walked Torres to bring up Holmes, who hit a routine grounder to Coleman at short, who flipped to Brant Beck at second, who relayed to Reinartz at first for an inning-ending double play.

“That got us out of the inning, and I was really hyped,” Paulik said.

With nobody on and two out in the sixth, Dylan Ford singled and went to third on Corbin Cooley’s line double to right. Musser then dropped a bloop single to shallow left that scored two runs to make it 7-4.

“We knew they were going to be tough,” Good said of the Benton Central lineup. “We were really focused on that one through four, one through five, and then thought we could just kind of go at them and get some groundballs a little bit. But they’re scrappy. That’s a good team.”

The teams avoided the forecasted rain to start on time at 11 a.m.

Young roped an RBI double to deep left with one out in the first, but that was Rochester’s lone hit through the first three innings.

Benton Central scored first when Paulik hit Musser with a pitch to lead off the game. Foster’s sacrifice moved him to second, and he scored when Torres grounded a hard single just inside the third baseline.

The momentum would soon change.

“We talked about history today,” Good said. “I didn’t want to talk a bunch about it and just add more pressure to these guys. I thought we were pretty calm and confident this week, but we did talk about it today and were just soaking this moment in, looking up in the stands, seeing everybody that’s here to support us and just going out and giving it our best for five innings, seven innings, 10 innings, whatever it’s going to be. Just bring your best.

“I thought we did that well today.”

Rochester 7, Benton Central 4

Rochester 000 250 0 – 7 9 0

Benton Central 100 012 0 – 4 10 1

WP – Carson Paulik (6 IP, 9 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 2 HBP, 4 K)

LP – Tyler Klemme (4 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 2 BB, 1 K)

S – Tanner Reinartz (1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K)

2B – Gavin Young (RHS), Colton Ferverda (RHS), Grant Weise (BC), Ryan Foster (BC), Corbin Cooley (BC)

3B – Carson Paulik (RHS)

Rochester lineup

1. Brady Coleman (SS/2B) – 1-3, RBI

2. Gavin Young (3B) – 2-4, R

3. Tanner Reinartz (1B/P) – 1-4, R

4. Carson Paulik (P/SS) – 1-2, 2 RBI

– Kaleb Lutz (CR) – 2 R

5. Jake Seuferer (Catcher) – 0-3, R

6. Colton Ferverda (RF/LF) – 1-3, RBI, 2 R

7. Brady Beck (DH) – 2-3, RBI

– Drew Bowers (FLEX/CF/LF) – 0-1

8. Brant Beck (2B/RF) – 1-3, RBI

9. Parker Casper (CF/1B) – 0-3

Rochester pitching

Carson Paulik (6 IP, 9 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 2 HBP, 4 K)

Tanner Reinartz (1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K)

Benton Central lineup

1. Dylan Musser (CF) – 2-3, 2 RBI, 2 R

2. Ryan Foster (SS/LF) – 1-3, RBI

3. Tyler Klemmer (P/SS) – 0-3

4. Aiden Torres (3B/P) – 2-3, RBI

5. Baylon Holmes (1B) – 1-4

6. Grant Weise (DH) – 1-4

– Grady Rudolph (PR)

7. Brylan Hedden (Catcher) – 1-2

– Liam Reed (CR)

8. Dylan Ford (2B) – 1-3, R

9. Corbin Cooley (RF/3B) – 1-2, R

Caleb Kawlewski (LF) (FLEX)

Carter Ford (LF) (FLEX)

Benton Central pitching

Tyler Klemme (4 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 2 BB, 1 K)

Caleb Kawlewski (1 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 2 K)

Adrian Torres (2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 HBP, 2 K)