Lone senior Loagan Stickler led the charge at the plate for CV, collecting a pair of doubles and a single, while junior Ayren Morgan and sophomore Dave Hess held SJN’s bats in check. 

Morgan started and earned the ‘W’, going four and two-third innings and allowing Neumann’s two runs (1 earned) on five base hits and a walk with five strikeouts. Hess got the save, throwing two and a third innings and not allowing a run or a hit while walking just one Knight.

CV Head Coach Jamie St. Peter was expectedly thrilled for his squad. 

“I’m so proud of them,” said St. Peter, “they’ve worked very hard for this. When Loagan was a sophomore in his first year with us and the current juniors were freshmen, they didn’t like how their season ended. We made a goal then that we wanted to win CV’s first District title in baseball .. and we did it.”

The Indians lost that 2022 District semifinal game 9-6 to Neumann, which followed a 4-3 loss to the Knights in the finals the previous season. CV hasn’t been back to the playoffs since ’22, missing out last year by finishing one game out at 9-11 .. which included five losses by one run. 

“When a whole team has the same goals and doesn’t care about the individual stuff, great things can happen,” says St. Peter, “these boys really gel .. they just love playing ball with their buddies.”

In Monday’s final, Stickler got the offense going after two and a half scoreless frames, stroking the first of his two doubles on the day and taking third on a botched relay throw. 

“Loagan is like having another coach on the field,” says St. Peter of his senior leader, “some college is going to get very lucky and get him to come play for them.”

Dave Hess laid a sacrifice bunt back to the pitcher and Stickler beat the throw at the plate to give the Indians the first run of the game. Hess would wind up on second and after Morgan singled to give CV runners at the corners, Lucas Hamilton delivered a base hit to score Hess and give the Indians a 2-0 lead. 

SJN answered in the top of the fourth and tied the game at 2-all. Morgan’s solid outing ended with two outs in the inning and Hess entered to shut SJN down the rest of the way.

In the home half of the fourth, Danny Smith led off with a walk and Gavin Churchill reached base on a dropped third strike. William Kies’ sacrifice groundout scored Smith and Hunter Simonds walked before Stickler again came through in the clutch, scoring Churchill with a single and giving the Indians a 4-2 lead they’d never relinquish.

The Indians added an insurance run in the sixth as Kies and Simonds both walked and Stickler doubled for the second time, scoring Kies and providing the 5-2 final.

Hess got into a small jam in Neumann’s last at-bat, hitting the leadoff batter and issuing a walk with no outs. But the sophomore calmly induced a grounder to Simonds at second base and the Indians turned their second double play of the game to get to within an out of the win. Another grounder to Simonds and the put-out gave Hess the save and the Indians the title.

“That kid (Hess) has ice in his veins,” says St. Peter, “he’s built for those situations.” 

Stickler added two RBI and a run scored to his three hits, while Morgan, Hamilton (1 rbi) and Levi Stahli each added a base hit in the win. 

Hess had an RBI, a stolen base and a run scored while Kies had an RBI and scored a run and Smith and Churchill each scored.

St. Peter and his assistants (Gage Gardner, Marty Stahli, Ryan Morgan, Tony Bruce and Mike Churchill) will have a week to prepare for their first-round opponent in the State playoffs, Mt. Calvary Christian. The Indians will host the game at their home field in Westfield.

“We’ve got a week to find some info on them and get ready,” says St. Peter, “but at the end of the day, we’re the NTL small school and District Champs and hosting a home State playoff game .. no matter what happens Monday these boys are winners.” 

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Tickets for Monday’s 4 p.m. State playoff game in Westfield must be purchased online, HERE.

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