PREP BASEBALL: Reed rules from the mound in regional championship win over reigning 3A champion New Prairie

NAPPANEE — NorthWood has expressed its confidence in its pitching staff all season.

Without any loss of talent level, the Panthers have a clear top two, but a strong group as well right behind.

But on Saturday evening and with a regional championship on the line, there was no need for a second mound manager. Senior starter Connor Reed was on point.

“Connor really settles in,” NorthWood head coach Zach Benko said. “He’s an emotional player; he feeds on what is going around him. I can tell today he definitely had a look about him that he was blocking out some of the noise from the outside. He had a presence on the mound that was unaffected by all the other things going on. Even when they put some baserunners on, Connor was locked in.”

Reed powered NorthWood to its first regional title since 2017 with a 3-2 win over reigning Class 3A state champion New Prairie. The Panthers (20-12) pushed the Cougars (21-10) out of the tournament at home inside the NorthWood Field of Dreams Complex.

One year ago, the dugout was filled with tears after a rainy regional loss to Fort Wayne Bishop Dwenger. Now, the senior-heavy Panthers partied on the turf with family and friends.

“Last year, I felt like we should have won it and I think this group of guys wanted it more than ever,” Reed said. “We just came out and played our game and did what we do next.”

Reed sharpened his skills as he went to shut down a New Prairie lineup. In the final three innings, he struck out six of nine batters, six of seven at one point.

“That’s remarkable,” Benko said after hearing the strikeout stretch his senior starter endured. “In the last three innings he found his changeup a little bit and started throwing that more. The first three I don’t think he threw it at all.”

Reed struck out the side in the sixth.

“I felt pretty fresh,” he said about entering the sixth. “I was definitely starting to feel it but I mean, when you’re just going out there and doing what you love, you’re going to give it all a hundred percent of the time.”

His final stat line showed seven innings pitched with nine hits and two earned runs allowed. He struck out nine and walked none on 100 pitches. He’s now 6-2 this season with an ERA just over two.

Senior Mason Warren was perplexed about how hitters are able to hit off his teammate.

“He goes out there and competes,” Warren said. “I don’t understand how some of the kids hit him. I see that curveball move from first base and I’m like ‘Wow.’”

Does he bat against him in practice?

“Yeah, and I look stupid every time,” Warren said.

NorthWood had beaten New Prairie 4-2 during the regular season, also in Nappanee. The hosts, playing as the away team this time, captured the lead in the first. Mason Bogan ran home on a wild pitch after walking to lead off the game.

Warren singled him over to third. Warren was 3-of-3 during the game and drove in two runs.

New Prairie tied the game in the first with a two-out rally. A double steal caught NorthWood throwing late to home for the squeeze. The game was even 1-1 at that point.

NorthWood brought up six batters in the second. Warren’s two-out double drove in both runners for a 3-1 lead. The ball was lofted high to left field and the Cougar fielder didn’t play back enough. As soon as he started pedaling backward, the ball fell and bounced into the fence. Soon enough, Warren stood on second.

“Not a chance,” Warren said about his hit and whether he thought it’d drop. “I hit that ball and I was like ‘Wow, I hit that ball well,’ but I thought it was right to him. It just kept carrying and went over his head and was able to hit a double.”

“I saw him turn around and start running so I was like ‘That’s definitely going to get down,’ and when it got down I was pumped.”

NorthWood never had more than three batters in an inning the rest of the way. A 6-4-3 double play turned by the visitors made sure to eliminate any insurance runs for the Panthers.

Reed Robinson hit a double to get New Prairie within one run in the fifth. Reed followed that up by striking out the No. 3 hitter in the lineup to strand the Cougars tying run at third.

This is NorthWood’s fourth regional title ever. The Panthers snapped the Cougars nine-game win streak and moved their own to four games.

NorthWood started five seniors on Saturday. There are seven on the team.

“It’s huge; we’ve been playing together ever since we were 8-years-old,” Warren said of the benefit to the senior experience. “Some of us played together at tee ball and little league. The chemistry is there; I don’t think you can find more chemistry on a baseball field.”

“We battled a lot,” Warren said. “Benko’s talked about it before. In the winter, we do a lot of conditioning as a team to fail together and I feel like that plays a role in it. We’ve bonded a lot more this year too.”

NorthWood will now play Norwell at a location to be determined. The Knights are 18-11 and beat Dwenger 2-1 for the regional title at Fort Wayne Carroll. The other side of the northern 3A semistate is Delta and Andrean. The semistate round begins Saturday and will feature two semifinal games and the championship later that day.

“I think we’re in a great spot,” Benko said about his team and their pitching. “Like I’ve said all year, we’ve got six guys that I can put on the mound and really feel confident about. Three of them have hardly seen the mound at all because the first three, we have so much trust in them and they do their job when they get out there so we don’t need to go to the next three. That’s something we’re going to need.”

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PREP BASEBALL

3A Regional hosted at NorthWood

NorthWood – 1; 2; 0; 0; 0; 0; 0 – 3; 4; 0

New Prairie – 1; 0; 0; 0; 1; 0; 0 – 2; 9; 1

NorthWood will advance to the Class 3A northern semistate round