Berries win NCC baseball title

May 17—LAFAYETTE — The last time the Logansport baseball team competed in a tournament, the Berries added to their sectional title haul two years ago, ending a 17-year drought.

On Saturday they picked up where they left off, winning the North Central Conference Tournament, ending a 17-year league championship drought.

These Next Generation athletes for the Berries have a chance to gain more special accomplishments. Many of the athletes helped the Berries end a 16-year sectional title drought in football last fall.

With a talented group of young baseball players, it could be somewhat of a renaissance for a program that is the second most successful Class 4A program in state history behind only LaPorte. The Slicers have eight state championships to the Berries' four.

The Berries won their 14th NCC title in baseball on Saturday. They've actually won more regional titles in baseball (15) than conference titles, showing the difficulty of the accomplishment historically. With the addition of the three biggest Lafayette area schools, it's still quite an accomplishment for Logansport.

The Berries scored five runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to beat Lafayette Jeff 9-8 in the morning game. They knocked off Class 4A No. 5 McCutcheon 7-6 in the championship game, holding off a five-run seventh-inning rally by the Mavericks.

Two years ago in sectional play, the Berries defeated Jeff 11-8 in 11 innings on Saturday night in a game they erased a 6-0 deficit after two innings of play. They then rallied from an 8-0 deficit against McCutcheon, scoring nine runs in the top of the sixth inning on Memorial Day.

They just about got a taste of their own medicine against the Mavericks on Saturday night. Calryan Parmeter held the Mavs at bay but he also got the win in relief earlier in the day when he threw 24 pitches against Jeff. So he reached his pitch-count limit with two on and two outs in the bottom of the sixth. Gavin Smith entered on the mound and allowed an RBI bloop single to snap the shutout and make it a 6-1 game but he got a strikeout to end the threat.

The Berries tacked on what turned out to be the winning run in the top of the seventh when Tristan Kitchel tripled to right and scored on a pinch-hit RBI single to right by Kian Harris.

Smith started out the seventh by getting a groundout to third. But he hit a batter and walked a batter with one out. Leadoff hitter Payton Fulk singled to load the bases. Drew Loy followed with a two-run double and another run scored on a throwing error to make it 7-4. Brayden Raeke followed with an RBI groundout to second as the Berries were happy to trade a run for the second out of the inning.

Berries fans thought they had the third and final out on a Smith 1-2 offering to Keaton Crum but the pitch was called for a ball. Crum followed with an infield single to keep the Mavericks alive. The next batter, Jayden All, drew a walk a borderline 3-2 pitch that also drew the ire of Berries fans when it was called for a ball. Kameron Pelfree followed with a line drive single off of Smith that scored a pair of runs to make it 7-6. With the tying run on second and the winning run on first, Smith struck out Eli Swank swinging to finally end the game and start the celebration for the Berries.

The Berries opened the game by hitting line drives all over the ball park at McCutcheon. Brennan Goforth hit a one-out single followed by a double to deep center by Smith. Ethan Denny's RBI groundout opened the scoring. Kaiden Lucero followed with an RBI single to left. Kitchel was hit by a pitch. Grayson Long followed with an RBI double down the left field line to make it 3-0.

The Berries chased McCutcheon starter Caleb Hess when Denny drew a walk with one out in the third. All was brought in to pitch and he finished the rest of the game. He got a strikeout and groundout to leave Denny stranded at third.

The Berries struck for three more runs in the sixth. Long had an infield single to start the rally. He moved to second on a groundout to the hole at second by Isaac Russell. John Scott and Parmeter drew back-to-back walks to load the bases. Goforth popped up to short for the second out to bring up Smith, who hit a bloop RBI double that just got past the right fielder to clear the bases and make it 6-0.

Parmeter allowed one run on three hits and two walks, striking out five in 5 2/3 innings. Earlier in the year he held the Mavs to one run on three hits with one walk and eight strikeouts in an 8-1 win on April 14.

He said the key was to keep the speedy Mavericks off the bases.

"The curveball I was struggling with at the start. Then I started to get it. The fastball, I was locating it pretty well. The changeup was all right, not the best," he said.

He also credited his defense.

"There were definitely some incredible plays today," he said.

Shortstop Smith and first baseman Long in particular made some plays that kept the Mavs at bay. Denny also had a good day behind the dish.

Denny and Scott both added singles in the win.

"It was a fun game all the way through," Smith said. "They're a good team, Jeff's a good team. I thought we came to play today. Usually Saturday games sometimes it's tough to get up in the mornings. But I thought one through 14 or 15 or however many guys are on the team, we all came out to play."

As for the last-inning drama, Smith said, "I was messing around with TK saying we always make it interesting but not that interesting."

The Bronchos had some wildness in the seventh in the morning game that helped the Berries as the first four batters of the inning reached. Logan coach Dan Frye gave Kitchel the green light on a 2-0 pitch and Kitchel crushed a ground-rule double to center to make it 8-6. Goforth reached on an error by the third baseman to make it 8-7. Long drew a walk to load the bases. Scott hit a sac fly to left to score Kitchel and tie the game. The hit was deep enough to allow Goforth to reach third. Freshman Russell, who made a game-saving catch in left the previous half inning, hit a fly ball to right that was plenty deep enough to score Goforth as the Berries celebrated a walkoff win.

"We brought Isaac Russell in and he gets a sacrifice fly there to come back and win the first game or we would have never been in this position," Frye said. "He makes a good defensive play in the first game as well, ranging over and catching a fly ball that saves some runs. Then gets a sacrifice fly and that's the winning run. And then Kian's big winning hit in the seventh.

Barron got the start in the first game and allowed six runs (four earned) on six hits in 5 2/3 innings, striking out five. Parmeter pitched the final 1 1/3 getting the win allowing two runs on three hits and striking out two. The offense was led by Lucero who went 2-for-3 with a double and three RBIs. Izak Mock scored three times as the courtesy runner for Denny who had an RBI triple in the seventh. Smith added a hit and scored twice. Goforth had an RBI double. Caleb Miller added a hit.

The Berries overcame some mistakes in the first game and Frye was proud of how they stuck together and worked through it. They played a cleaner game in the second game.

"Back on top is the first thought. The kids are well-deserving of this," Frye said. "The last few games we've had some letdowns. Not to take anything away from Lewis Cass but we were due to be beat. This just shows our kids what I've been saying all along is that we can compete with anybody. Cal threw a very good game the second game. Garrett [Barron] threw a very good game the first game. Gavin came in and finished. We still had guys left to throw. We had a timely hit in the seventh inning that was a huge run. I tried to tell Kian Harris that. That was a huge at-bat. To answer the run that they got in the sixth inning and we needed them all.

"I hand it to the McCutcheon team. That is a very well coached baseball team. They were nothing but class today. They didn't hand it to us. They came out and battled right through. We had to get the 21st out. The 20th and 21st outs became a little bit difficult there but Gavin beared down there and finished it. I'm happy for all of them. This is something that I got to experience in my playing days under Jim Turner. We just can't be happier. We had a common goal. Our kids played for Logansport Berries baseball today. It wasn't individual stats. We made some mistakes, the kids picked each other up all day long. The energy in our dugout was something that we need to continue to build on."

Logansport has won NCC titles in baseball in 1961, '65, '66, '73, '77, '83, '86, '88, '89, '90, 2000, '02, '04 and now '21.

McCutcheon beat Logan's first-round sectional opponent Harrison 6-2 in the afternoon game. The Raiders (16-6) beat Jeff 9-7 in the consolation game. The Mavericks' (20-4) only other losses this year are splits with Jeff (15-10) and Zionsville and they're 1-2 against Logan this year.

Logan (19-7) hosts Marion on Tuesday.