‘You’re putting it all together:’ Baserunning, defensive miscues cost Valley in sectional loss to W. Noble
- Val T.
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
NAPPANEE — From program culture to the fundamentals of hitting, catching, running and throwing, first-year Tippecanoe Valley baseball coach Clayton Adamson and his coaching staff started over this year.
A 4-2 loss to West Noble in a Class 3A, Sectional 20 semifinal at NorthWood Saturday showed that there is more work to be done. Only so much can be accomplished in a year.
Braxton Alderfer and Preston Prater had the RBIs for the Vikings, and each of the first six hitters in Valley’s lineup had one hit.
But Valley also had three runners thrown out on the bases.
There were also miscues on defense. Valley committed four errors as compared to West Noble’s one, and all four West Noble runs were unearned against Valley sophomore hurler Hunter Paxton.
“We just couldn’t make some plays,” Adamson said. “Hunter just threw his heart out. I asked for seven innings and got it out of him and just couldn’t make some timely plays.”
Jordan Eash allowed two runs over six innings for the win, and Brooks Ruisard pitched a 1-2-3 seventh for the save for the Chargers, who improved to 11-15.
Valley finished 3-21. They have not won a sectional title since 2012.
Valley trailed 4-1 going into the bottom of the sixth, but Gage Hileman led off with a walk against Eash, and Luke Tucker singled him to third.
That brought Prater, Valley’s freshman designated hitter, to the plate representing the tying run. But Eash picked Tucker off first. Tucker dashed to second as first baseman Mason Taylor accepted Eash’s throw, and Taylor’s throw to Trey Shisler covering second retired Tucker for a caught stealing with Hileman staying at third.
Prater lofted a sacrifice fly to left to score Hileman and cut the gap to 4-2.
Wes Haines then walked, and Hayden Stookey came in to pinch-run. But Eash picked Stookey off too to retire the side.
“We had some baserunning errors,” Adamson said. “We had some guys that came into the game. I gave them the opportunity to do it. They tried. We just had some moments there. We learn from that for next year and stuff like that, but I’d put them right back in the same spot if I had to do it over again.”
West Noble coach Waylon Richardson said Eash works on his pickoff move “quite a bit” in practice. That was key to combat a Valley team that Richardson noted had “a lot of speed.”
“Those were huge,” Richardson said of the pickoffs. “Those are daggers for opposing teams. It saves pitches. … And you don’t have to be on the edge if you’re going to get a bloop here or a double here, but those pickoffs, it’s always nice to be able to hold runners.”
Another baserunning mistake led to another chance slipping away in the second inning of a scoreless game. Alderfer led off by hitting a sky-high pop-up that the shortstop missed for an error. Max Harsh entered as a courtesy runner for Alderfer, Valley’s catcher. Hileman walked to move runners to first and second.
Harsh then started too quickly on his jump trying to steal third, and Eash stepped off the rubber and fired to third to nab him. Hileman stole second on the play, but Eash struck out Tucker and Prater to end the inning.
West Noble then took a 3-0 lead in the third. Andrew Deel’s grounder to third was booted for an error, and Eash was hit by a pitch to put runners on first and second.
Alderfer pounced on Trevor Martin’s tapper in front of the plate and threw to third for a forceout. Paxton fanned Shisler for the second out, but Taylor singled to center to score Eash from second, and when the throw from center to third base was late trying to Martin, Taylor advanced to second on the throw.
Ruisard then singled to center to score Martin and Taylor.
West Noble made it 4-0 in the fourth when McKale Bottles reached second on a dropped pop-up near the right field line and later scored when Deel’s grounder went under the shortstop’s glove and into shallow left field.
That was all West Noble got against Paxton, who stranded nine baserunners.
Valley got their first run in the bottom of the fourth. Parker Adamson reached on an infield single with one out, and Alderfer muscled an opposite-field double to deep right over Martin’s head to make it 4-1.
Hileman singled to move courtesy runner Harsh to third, but Eash fanned Tucker and got Prater on a pop to second.
Eash got the first two batters in the fifth, but Paxton reached on an infield single, and Jamison Phillips floated a single to right to move Paxton to third. Eash then nailed Parker Adamson with a pitch to load the bases.
That brought up Alderfer, Valley’s team leader in RBIs, but he hit a chopper down the first baseline that Taylor made sure to field before it bounced foul. He stepped on first for the out that retired the side.
“That was huge,” Richardson said of getting Alderfer out with the bases loaded. “That’s what changed the game. I thought if they would have gotten a few there, it would have changed my game plans a little bit, and it would have got a little questionable. But we made the play behind Jordan when we had to. That was for sure probably the biggest out of the game.”
Afterwards, coach Adamson spoke of the task of building the program. He complimented the players saying that no player missed a practice for any reason the entire season. He also noted that the outfield – Phillips in left, Parker Adamson in center and Ian Cooksey in right – stayed intact the entire season.
“You’re putting it all together, foundation and stuff like that,” coach Adamson said. “Going back to the basics and fundamentals. Ground balls and stuff like that … pop flies. Our three outfielders remained the same all year. It was really nice to have those three. Pitching is going to come along. I think we’re just going to grow as a unit and stuff like that. We’ve got some freshmen coming up as pitchers.
“We’re going to grow. Keep on growing. … Looking at our record, people could fold. But every single one of them showed up at practice on time and ready to go. So they love it. They love being together, and they love playing for Valley.”
West Noble earned a spot in the sectional final against NorthWood, who beat Fairfield 5-2 in the first semifinal. NorthWood then went on to beat West Noble 8-3 in the sectional final Monday.
West Noble 4, Tippecanoe Valley 2
West Noble 003 100 0 – 4 6 1
Valley 000 101 0 – 2 6 4
WP – Eash (6 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 1 HBP, 8 K)
LP – Hunter Paxton (7 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 1 HBP, 4 K)
S – Brooks Ruisard (1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K)
2B – Braxton Alderfer (TV), Cameron Eash (WN)
