NAPPANEE – Ironically, the dream season for the Bremen High School baseball team came to a close Saturday at the Field of Dreams Complex on the campus of NorthWood HS as Bluffton defeated the Lions, 9-0, in the Class 2A Regional 17 championship game.

Hard-throwing lefty Griffin Morgan held the Lions to just three hits while the Tigers’ offense had a dozen base knocks – including three triples – with eight different players getting hits against three Bremen pitchers.

Coming into the game, a couple of stats for Morgan stood out, but not in a good way: his record was just 5-5 and he had 45 walks in 46 innings. Part of the reason for the unspectacular record was pitching against stiff competition during the regular season, including losses against 3A No. 1 Andrean, regional winner Eastbrook (26-4), regional participant Huntington North (21-5), and other strong teams like Northwestern (20-6) and Wabash (22-7). 

As for the control problems, that was not an issue on this day. The Tiger senior was locked in from the start, not allowing a hit until the fifth inning and not walking a batter until one out in the 7th inning.

“He had an up and down season to be honest,” said Bluffton head coach Adam King. “We play a tough schedule, but he knows if he can stay in the zone, we have a good shot. We knew Bremen was athletic and had a loose style of play, with a lot of confidence with so many seniors in their lineup.”

Max Barnes had two of the Lions’ hits and Zack Rouch the other. Zach Buszkiewicz was called out on a close play that may have been reversed to an infield hit if replay was available, but other than that the Bremen bats were stymied. 

“Their ace pitched a great game,” said Bremen head coach Aaron Perch. “He was in the strike zone. Maybe we were too aggressive early, but he pitched a good game. A guy with a good fastball and around the zone makes it tough.”

Offensively, the Tigers had a triple in each of the first three innings and each time the runner eventually scored – once on a groundout, once by a sacrifice fly and the third by an RBI single. Those were the only hits the first two innings, but Bluffton had four in the third. Thanks to Rouch throwing out a runner on a steal attempt though, the Tigers were held to a single run during that frame and the Lions were down just 3-0, a score that held through the 4th.

Bremen’s own lefty pitcher, junior JJ Cencelewski, had three strikeouts and no walks while allowing the three runs on six hits during that stretch. Casey Ton came on to start the 5th, but plunked two of the first three batters. Bluffton also greeted Ton with four hits – including a double – a sacrifice fly and a walk to plate five runs before David Monesmith relieved with two outs.

“I may have overthought it when I took JJ out, but they were squaring the ball up,” admitted Perch.

The Tigers filled the bases with no outs to open the bottom of the 6th before Monesmith retired the next two batters. Easton Blair then poked a single to right to score one run, but the potential game-ending 10th run was snuffed out when Jack Wildauer made a perfect throw to home to cut off a sliding Aaron Streveler.

The Lions filled the bases in the top of the 7th on a walk, base hit and error, but with one out Morgan whiffed the next two batters for the complete-game shutout. He finished with six strikeouts and the lone walk.

Leadoff batter Axton Beste had three of the Tigers’ hits, while Morgan and Abram Gehrett had two apiece. Blair and Colton Arnold each had two RBIs as six different players knocked in runs.

“We only hit one home run last year,” added King. “We came into this season with the idea that we needed to take advantage of the size and strength we have. We went from 41 extra-base hits last year to almost 80 this year. We hit 25 home runs (ranked third in the state) so it’s worked out.”

The loss ends the prep careers of Rouch, Buszkiewicz, Wildauer, Landon Bates, Corban VanVuren, Maddux Hickman, Barnes and Braeden Corwin.

“It was a real special senior group,” concluded Perch. “Going into the offseason, not a lot of people were counting on them doing a whole lot, but I think the seniors took that personally. Being Bremen athletes they all recognized this was their final season in sports and took a lot of pride in representing the team. Every single one of those guys overachieved. Not just dedicating to having a good season themselves, but to the program and doing things the right way behind the scenes. 

“The seniors took on a coach role and our parents have been very supportive. Our underclassmen are already talking about next season. I’m already excited about it.”

(rharamia@thepilotnews.com)

Class 2A Regional 17 championship

Bremen 000 000 0 – 0  3  0

Bluffton 111 051 x – 9 12 2

JJ Cencelewski (L), Casey Ton (5), David Monesmith (5) and Zack Rouch; Griffin Morgan (W) and Axton Beste.

3B: Streveler (Bl), Gehrett (Bl), Lee (Bl)

Records: Bremen 20-8 (final), Bluffton 17-10