FRANKTON — Micromanagement can rear its head in all kinds of places.
In sports, nowhere is micromanagement as prevalent as when it pertains to baseball and specifically when it comes to a starting pitcher and the pitch count.
ANDERSON — Fate did no favors for four area teams Thursday as the IHSAA announced the pairings for the girls state softball tournament.
Four teams, Anderson, Lapel, Liberty Christian and Madison-Grant drew ranked teams in the very first round. Sectional play opens on May 19 and runs through May 24.
ANDERSON — In such elite company, the first-ever winners of The Herald Bulletin Johnny Wilson Award weren’t expecting to get the honor. On Wednesday afternoon, Anderson High School’s Justin Fuller and Highland High School’s Stormy Holder were selected as the first winners in what is planned to be an annual event.
ANDERSON — Dan Eichhorn was watching Saturday’s Kentucky Derby on television when his admiration of one gifted thoroughbred race horse immediately gave way to sorrow for another.
By winning in impressive fashion, Big Brown strode across the finish line as a legitimate threat to become horse racing’s first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978.
Alexandria’s girls tennis team claimed at least a share of the Central Indiana Conference title Tuesday with a 5-0 victory over Madison-Grant.
FRANKTON — Like most high school softball coaches, Madison-Grant’s Jay Dunlap has been in situations where both ends of a pencil came in handy.
Case in point: Monday’s crucial Central Indiana Conference game at Frankton.
ANDERSON — Two days removed from picking up its first Madison County Tournament title in five years, the Highland boys golf team maintained its momentum with a 322-361 victory over city rival Anderson on Monday.
ANDERSON — To set the scene of Highland’s Olympic Athletic Conference doubleheader softball tilt at Connersville on Saturday was as simple as it could get if the Scots wanted to add another OAC championship trophy to the display case: Sweep the Spartans and the title was theirs for the ninth consecutive season.
ANDERSON — Somewhere between the flag-straightening winds and plummeting temperatures invading Killbuck Golf Club on Saturday, there was focus.
On an afternoon better suited for raking leaves than bunkers, such concentration proved vital to every one of the 44 golfers involved in the ninth annual Madison County Boys Golf Tournament.
ANDERSON — Right now is not a good time to get Anderson University catcher Brad Lantz to talk about himself.
The Ravens are in a stretch drive to grab a spot in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament. They needed three wins this weekend against Bluffton and then for Rose-Hulman to defeat Transylvania at least two of three games to get in.
Pendleton Heights graduate Wayne Bond has helped power the Ball State baseball team to a 25-17 record.
CONNERSVILLE — Junior pitcher Lauren Williamson pitched a perfect game for the Highland softball team Saturday as the Scots swept a doubleheader from Connersville to wrap up the Olympic Athletic Conference title.
Regular divisions return to Anderson Speedway today with appearances from Ed Martin Chevrolet SuperTrucks, ImmediaDent Figure 8’s, Newco Metals Legends and the recently-added Quick Auto Front Wheel Drive Pro division.
ANDERSON — There was no way Highland’s Krista Davis was going to miss Thursday afternoon’s grudge match with city rival Anderson.
“I begged the trainer to let me play,” said the senior first baseman, who had been sidelined the past week with a sprained elbow. “I really wanted to play.”
Take nine blades of grass and send them skyward on a breezy day. Where they’ll land is anyone’s guess.
Such is the case with Saturday’s Madison County Golf Tournament. The absence of a truly dominant program makes this year’s venue as open as a tree-free par-5.
ALEXANDRIA — Seven innings weren’t enough for Alexandria and Frankton softball teams.
Instead, both Central Indiana Conference rivals needed nine complete with visiting Frankton, winning 4-3 on Thursday afternoon.
ELWOOD — Leading 12-1 after the top of the fourth inning, the Pendleton Heights Arabians (12-3) appeared to have Wednesday evening’s game against the Class 2A No. 7 Elwood Panthers (9-3) under control.
MUNCIE — Highland’s Kolin Jarrett tied the game with a seventh-inning double and Chandler Sidwell put the Scots baseball team ahead for good in the eighth in a 6-2 Olympic Conference victory over Muncie South Tuesday.
PENDLETON — Obviously, the Frankton softball team’s strategy Tuesday was to not let Pendleton Heights slugger Erin Falkenberry damage the Eagles’ chances to win.
So Falkenberry was walked each of the three times she came to the plate. She scored each time, as the Clss 4A No. 10 Arabians defeated Class 2A No. 13 Frankton, 10-3.
ANDERSON — A proposal to change the current four-class high school state tournament system for basketball, baseball, softball and volleyball to three classes has its supporters and detractors locally.
The plan, made by the Indiana Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association, is in the preliminary stages. Athletic directors throughout Indiana are being surveyed on the idea. They, in turn, are polling their coaches.
ANDERSON — Bob Stecher pays $14.99 a month for live Internet access to Major League Baseball competition, but it’s the Toronto Blue Jays he specifically targets.
The wonders of modern technology enable Stecher, the baseball coach at Highland High School from 1968-2001, the opportunity to study the progress of former Scots standout Adam Lind, Toronto’s left fielder.
Jake Groninger and Blake Stephenson were part of a three-way medalist logjam and it was enough to push the Arabians past Anderson 163-184 Monday at Edgewood Golf Course.
ANDERSON — Anderson Speedway’s twice-annual Night of Thrills has delivered its share of collisions and near misses through the years. Saturday night’s action, according to School Bus Figure-8 winner Danny Stanley Jr., did a little better.
Even when there was no need for a pitcher, Liberty Christian’s Karon Earley gravitated to the circle and slab.
Now, as the Lions develop as a team, they are in dire need of a pitcher, and Earley is more than happy to step into that void.
ANDERSON — One of Anderson Speedway’s many long-standing traditions is delivering Night of Thrills in eyedropper proportions.
Two per racing season. No more, no less.
PENDLETON — Customarily, sophomore pitchers require a period of adjustment before realizing their talent.
True for some, but not Hamilton Southeastern ace Taylor Rager.
Friday night, the left-hander scattered two hits for a complete game victory as the Class 4A No. 4 Hamilton Southeastern Royals blanked the Class 4A No. 9 Pendleton Heights Arabians 4-0 at Legends Field.
The New Castle baseball team erupted for seven runs in the top of the seventh inning on Friday to rally for a 12-9 victory over the host Highland Scots.
FRANKTON — If ever Lauren Williamson needed to incorporate softball as a diversionary mechanism, Thursday was it.
Highland’s ace pitcher, home again after spending the early part of the week in North Carolina following the passing of her paternal grandfather, took some rust with her to the mound against Class 2A No. 10 Frankton.
The area’s high school football landscape has experienced a shakeup in recent days.
Monday, Shenandoah promoted assistant Scott Widner to fill its head coaching vacancy, while Madison-Grant appears on the verge of losing Randy Sehy.
ANDERSON — When winning conference championships becomes the routine, preparation is anything but, especially when your program holds the “paramount” label.
“We try to focus on the daily process, and the results will follow,” Anderson University track and field coach Scott Wilson remarked shortly after his team wrapped up practice Thursday at Macholtz Stadium.
Senior Erin Falkenberry closed the book on a 15-inning softball marathon on Thursday for Class 4A No. 9 Pendleton Heights, driving in Shonda Garringer for a 3-2 victory over visiting Noblesville.
ANDERSON — The Highland Scots really had only one of two choices on Wednesday. Either they could sit quietly and willingly take the lumps city baseball rival Anderson was more than happy to supply or they could ban together and dish out a few of their own.
ANDERSON — The Pendleton Heights baseball team displayed its entire arsenal in a single inning to break open a close game and thump Highland 12-4 at Bob Stecher Field on Tuesday evening.
In the fourth, leading by a score of 4-3, the Arabians sent nine hitters to the plate and reached base on an error, walk, single, double, triple and home run before the inning ended.
FAIRMOUNT — Reality hit the Elwood baseball team three innings into Tuesday’s Central Indiana Conference opener, in the form of head baseball coach Adrian Heim.
With his team trailing 4-1 to CIC rival Madison-Grant, Heim conveyed a stern, yet simple challenge.
Liberty Christian’s Alex Stinson took individual medalist honors and Highland boys golf team won team honors Tuesday in a triangular meet at Killbuck Golf Course.
ANDERSON — A pole vaulter’s existence is off the beaten path somewhat in that the event involves as much daring as it does athleticism.
Highland senior Ethan Wilkinson, a State Meet qualifier in 2007, can speak to this better than most.
ANDERSON — A little scoreboard-watching was all Highland’s girls tennis players needed to take Alexandria seriously in Saturday’s inaugural Madison County Tournament championship match.
In only its third year of operation, the CRA Sportsman series has vaulted its way to the top of today’s Anderson Speedway schedule of events.
The series, based in Winchester, consists almost exclusively of Indiana drivers. About 25 drivers are expected at tonight’s event, which should begin between 8:30 and 9 p.m.
PENDLETON — As the sun made its gradual descent on Thursday evening, the Highland boys track and field team’s point total countered with its familiar upsurge.
It was just part of the defending Madison County champion’s routine these days, and one the Scots used to dethrone the host Arabians at the 52nd running of the Pendleton Heights Track Invitational.
The Frankton softball team, ranked fifth in the state in Class 2A, used a single by Allison Parr in the bottom of the 10th inning to score an exciting 3-2 victory over Shenandoah on Thursday.
ANDERSON — “She’s a gamer” is a phrase often heard about Highland senior Stormy Holder.
The ultimate question that follows is, “Which game?”
ANDERSON — The winning runs Tuesday might have been unearned, but they still counted and provided a win for the No. 1-ranked Pendleton Heights Arabians.
“We got a little lucky with that error,” Arabians coach Scott Hall said. “But we’ve had those go against us too.” Tuesday, it was enough for a 2-0 victory over Highland.
Pendleton Heights’ softball team is ranked No. 1 in Class 4A in the latest Indiana Coaches of Girls Sports Association rankings, which were released Tuesday.
DALEVILLE — It took nearly five innings, but with two outs in the bottom half, the fifth-ranked Class A Daleville Broncos finally caught the break they were looking for.
Down 2-0 as Lapel starter Devon Silvey baffled the opposition through the first 14 outs, Daleville used an untimely Bulldogs’ fielding error to their advantage, winning 5-2 at Bronco Field.
ALEXANDRIA — After going winless for three straight to begin the season, the Alexandria baseball team has flipped the switch, winning their second consecutive Tuesday night.
ANDERSON — The raindrops trickled down persistently at Memorial Field as Pendleton Heights starter Sean Collins dealt the first pitch on Saturday afternoon. Hit hard by the damp and windy conditions while facing the defending Madison County champion Anderson Indians, Collins admitted that ignoring the elements was far from easy.
Rain and cold weather forced the postponement of the final two rounds of the Madison County Girls Tennis Tournament on Saturday.
Rain made the courts at Anderson University, Highland High School and the Dolphin Club unplayable.
Madison-Grant graduate Aaron Vogel has the second-lowest earned run average on the Anderson University baseball team.
He also has an unblemished record.
FAIRMOUNT — With the wind gusting across the track for the Madison County track and field meet on Friday evening, Highland was able to defend its boys title, but the Scots fell to Pendleton Heights in the girls meet.
On the boys side, Highland topped Pendleton Heights, 166-120. On the girls side, Pendleton Heights bested Highland, 131-73.
PENDLETON — Pendleton Heights’ patience was rewarded here Friday night. The prize was the Madison County Softball Championship.
Down 1-0 and with no hits against Frankton freshman pitcher Karli Clark, the Arabians rallied for a 3-1 victory over the Eagles to repeat as County champs.
Highland, Frankton, Alexandria and Pendleton Heights were all victorious in their respective first-round matches of the 2008 Madison County Girls Tennis Tournament.
The Scots and Eagles will meet at 9 a.m. today in semifinal action at Highland after both teams were 5-0 winners in their first-round matches.
ANDERSON — Hours before Friday afternoon’s rain-delayed baseball semifinal grudge match between city rivals Anderson and Highland began, Indians head basketball coach Ron Hecklinski relayed his finale prognoses.
Laughing it off at first, Turner didn’t give his colleague’s prediction much thought. Later, he gave credit where it was due as Anderson won a wild slugfest over Highland 10-9 at Bob Stecher Field.
PENDLETON — Pendleton Heights’ “Field of Dreams” saw two highly similar tournament games on Friday night.
Lapel outdueled Liberty Christian to earn its first victory of the season 14-3 in a game that lasted over 2:30. Pendleton Heights then defeated Frankton 14-4 in a winner’s bracket contest that was highly contested early.
ALEXANDRIA — Three days after losing a tough 6-5 game to Class 4A Highland in the Nick Muller Memorial Baseball Tournament opener, the Class 2A Elwood Panthers rediscovered their swagger on Friday afternoon.
Behind six extra base hits and two home runs, Elwood logged 14 hits overall to overpower Class 2A Alexandria 16-0 in five innings.