The Clinton Prairie Gophers won their first-ever baseball Regional Championship on Saturday, defeating Riverton Parke 8-7.
The magical year for Clinton Prairie continued on Saturday. After trailing by four early, the Gophers scored runs in each of the final five innings to win the Regional Championship.
“All year these guys have been loose,” Clinton Prairie coach Matt Scott said. “Nothing really bothers them. We can get up in a game, we can get behind in a game and nothing bothers them. So the message to them was ‘we’ve been here before, we’ve been behind, and we’ve won games.'”
No lead is insurmountable against the Gophers, who average 8.67 runs per game. Clinton Prairie’s offense got to work in the third, and the momentum continued to swing the Gophers’ way.
By the top of the seventh, the lead has switched hands three times, and the Gophers found themselves down 6-5.
After tying it up at six, Malachi Corbin stepped to the plate with a chance to give the Gophers the lead. Corbin, the nine-hitter in the order, had the full confidence of the Gophers as he took the box.
“We feel pretty comfortable when our six through nine hitters are up,” Scott said. “We feel like no matter who is up, we have a lot of kids that can put a decent swing on the ball.”
Corbin delivered. A two-out single brought in Wyatt Harshbarger to give the Gophers an 8-7 lead.
There were still three outs needed for Clinton Prairie to claim the Regional title, and they sent out Alex King to close the door on the Panthers.
No words were needed between King and Coach Scott. One look told Scott that King was ready for the moment.
“I came off the field from coaching third base, and I was kind of in a euphoria because we scored two runs and we’d taken the lead,” Scott said. “I thought ‘we have to get three outs to secure this’ and I looked at (Alex King) and I didn’t say anything, I just looked at him and you could see that he was like ‘okay we have a lead now’. He’s been our closer all year, but I didn’t need to say anything to him. I think a lot of it had to do with the boys in the dugout. That’s the culture that we’ve built, I didn’t have to say anything; the boys themselves knew what to say and how to go about it.”
The first batter blooped a ball into shallow centerfield, a ball that usually finds the grass. But this one found the glove of Kye Jacobs, who sprinted from his position at shortstop to make the over-the-shoulder grab for out number one.
“I’m not sure there are many kids in high school baseball that make that play,” Scott said. “He read it right off the bat, drop step, straight sprint, and caught it over the shoulder, that’s a play that some college kids don’t make.”
The next two batters went down with groundouts, and the Gophers held on to win the Regional Championship.
It’s the first ever Regional title for the Gophers, who waited 32 years in-between regional appearances.
The Gophers will take on Fort Wayne Canterbury in the Semi-State semifinal next Saturday at Loeb Stadium.
The game will be broadcast on WILO with pregame coverage beginning at 1:45 p.m. before the first pitch at 2:00.