By E. Shawn Aylsworth
Managing Editor

CHALMERS – Remarkable.

That’s how Rockville baseball coach Bob Kyle referred to the Class A Regional 27 marathon held June 3 between his No. 4 Rox and top-ranked host Frontier on a picture-perfect night in White County. Why, you ask?

Because, after seven regulation innings and then six more frames of extraordinary play, the sixth-year Rockville mentor and his traveling troops had, quite frankly, survived. Junior centerfielder Jarrod Clevenger’s three-run homer in the top of the 13th ended nearly three hours and 45 minutes of play as the Rox upset Frontier, 11-8.

Remarkable, indeed. This spectacular ballgame may have been the most entertaining I’ve seen in some 38 years of watching the sport.

Highlights were aplenty, as were heroes. And after a cruddy day weather-wise that saw no less than 18 other regional contests postponed, the fact that this classic played out in absolutely gorgeous conditions seemed oh-so-perfect.

That enough hyperbole for ya? Wait till you see the video!

Rockville (26-4) advances to semistate play Saturday at Kokomo’s Highland Park, where the Rox will face No. 6 Cowan (22-5) at 11 a.m. ET (the Blackhawks defeated host Monroe Central, 13-1, in six innings in one of the few other games played Tuesday). The winner of that clash will face either No. 7 North White (20-8), Whiting (18-11), Triton (13-15), or Fort Wayne Blackhawk Christian (8-14) at 8 p.m. for a berth to the state finals.

Frontier, meanwhile, finishes a splendid season at 30-2. The Falcons, who set a school record for victories and were coming off an impressive 3-0 sectional championship win at defending state champ No. 2 Lafayette Central Catholic, were felled this season by only Rockville and 3A Twin Lakes.


No one would have guessed that this fantastic affair was going to turn into a defensive struggle after the teams blasted out of the gate tied at 5-all through just two innings. But that’s exactly what happened as, over the course of the next six innings after the game entered overtime tied at 7, each team would manage only one run in the ninth before Clevenger’s game-winning bomb.

With Frontier sophomore co-ace Dylan Sterrett (10-0 with 78 strikeouts and a 1.99 earned run average in 63 1/3 innings entering the game) on the hill again the game after he tossed a two-hit gem at Central Catholic, the Rockville faithful must have felt pretty comfortable after their Rox plated four runners in the top of the second to take what seemed like a commanding 5-1 lead. But the Falcons answered with four of their own in the bottom of the inning, and from that point forward this game was as tight as your budget for vehicular petroleum.

More on the game’s early stages later – first, we simply must discuss the Big Brown-ian effort submitted by Sterrett the Younger. Try 11 innings pitched, 11 strikeouts, 11 hits, and an only-Dusty Baker-dream 175 pitches thrown. Older brother Dustin, a senior with nearly identically phenomenal pitching stats (9-0 with 77 Ks and a 1.30 ERA over 54 innings), came on in the 12th and would eventually pick up the loss.

Rockville, on the other hand, countered with a trio of hurlers. After No. 1 junior lefty Steven Ball surrendered seven runs on seven hits through his five innings of work, No. 2 junior Matt King and No. 3 senior Taylor Harper came on and slammed the door.

King, the quarterback for Rockville’s state runner-up football team and a point guard on the school’s standout basketball team, went five innings and allowed just one run on only two hits. That stint on the mound included an incredible double play in the 10th inning where the lefty stretched out all of his 6’3” frame to make a diving grab of an attempted sacrifice bunt, rolled over, waited a split second for second baseman Harper to run to first, then delivered a laser to double up the runner.

All Harper did, meanwhile, was go three-up/three down in his three innings of work. The righthander struck out five of the first six Falcons he faced and retired the other previously potent Frontier bats on a pair of groundouts and flyouts in picking up the win.

WAY, WAY MORE TO COME !!!

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