Highland beats Timberwolves 1-0
By A.J. Gates
It took nine innings to decide a regional champion last Thursday night, and in the end it was visiting Highland walking away with a 1-0 victory over host River Ridge in a division 4 baseball regional final played at Patch Grove.
During their two regular-season conference meetings earlier this season, the two teams split a pair of close contests, with River Ridge winning 3-2 on April 22, and Highland winning 1-0 on May 12.
With a regional title on the line, last Thursday’s rubber match was sure to make for an exciting contest, and fans were certainly not disappointed.
The Timberwolves, who managed nine hits in the contest, left a total of 12 runners stranded on base throughout the nine-inning marathon.
They also had runners at first and second in the seventh and eighth innings, and began the eighth with a double by Cael Koenig and an intentional walk to Blake Reynolds before three straight strikeouts ended the threat.
Highland, who concluded the contest with six hits, scored the games only run in the top of the ninth, where starting pitcher Koenig struck out the lead-off batter before giving up his fifth hit in the game to the very next batter.
Having reached his pitch limit, Koenig was then replaced by Carter Copsey, who gave up a single to the first batter he faced, putting runners on first and second with one out.
A walk to Bennett Smith loaded the bases for the Cardinals, and Jack Tarrell followed with a sacrifice fly to right field, scoring Davis Dorota, before a second fly out ended the inning.
River Ridge began their half of the ninth with a single by Peyton Aulwes, followed by a strikeout and a ground out.
Andrew Nies then roped a single to left field, allowing pinch runner Braden Skaife to reach third and put runners at the corners with two outs.
Koenig, who went 2-for-4 at the time then stepped into the batters box, where he roped a liner down the third-base line, that was miraculously caught by Highland third baseman Jack Tarrell to end the game.
Koenig took the loss on the mound for River Ridge, giving up one earned run off five hits in 8.1 innings. He also struck out 11 batters and did not walk any.
Copsey, who pitched the last two outs in the ninth, also gave up one hit, while striking out no batters and walking one.
Koenig and Reynolds each had two hits, with Koenig having a lead-off double in the eighth inning and Reynolds a double in the third.
The Timberwolves advanced to Thursday’s regional final with a 7-6 victory over visiting North Crawford the night before, where Koenig was a perfect 4-for-4 at the plate with two runs scored and Brandon Davis 3-for-3 with a team-high three RBIs.
The Timberwolves finished last Wednesday night’s regional semifinal with 11 hits, scoring five runs in the bottom of the third and two more in their half of the sixth.
Blake Reynolds picked up the win on the mound after holding his opponent to three earned runs off two hits in the first six innings. He also struck out nine batters and walked six before being replaced by Carter Copsey to start the seventh.
Coach Andrew Redman’s Timberwolves concluded the 2025 season with a record of 17-9, giving them the most wins in program history.
Though they are a young team, the Timberwolves lose four valuable seniors from this year’s squad in Andrew Nies, Ty Adrian, Carter Copsey and Peyton Aulwes.
