By Justin Sokeland
WBIW.com
BEDFORD – With his last swing, Cal Gates perfectly punctuated Bedford North Lawrence’s dominant doubleheader sweep of Brownstown. He added the exclamation point. Break out the brooms.
Gates ripped a three-run home run to deep right field, capping a stunning six-run rally in the bottom of the fifth inning as the Stars bounced the Braves 10-0 in the nightcap of the twinbill on Friday night. That victory came after an 11-1 triumph in the opener. Both wins were mercy-rule conclusions, both featured outstanding pitching performances from the sophomore-heavy staff that has been the most surprising part of BNL’s run to a remarkable 10-3 record.
Almost as surprising is the Gates power display. He’s the prototype lead-off hitter, as his gaudy batting average and on-base percentage suggests. But he’s also been channeling his inner Ricky Henderson, who set the MLB record with 81 homers to start games. Gates now has five bombs (which was his stated goal) this season, currently ranking him second in the state.
“I can keep going,” said Gates, honing his skills for the next level at Indiana University. “I’m just trying to find the barrel, find gap shots. Sometimes I just catch a ball I like, put a good swing on it. The team gets me hyped, and I do my thing.”
The final surprise was the work on the mound by left-hander Chase Rynders, who made his varsity debut in the second game. All he did was go five innings, surrendering three hits.
“He was nervous as all get out,” BNL coach Steven McNabb said. “He’s been wanting this for a long time. He’s put a lot of time in, and he did a great job. It was going to be a bullpen game, we didn’t know how long he was going to go. Once he started cruising, we just went with him. It was huge for the staff.“
“It’s just gut-wrenching, honestly,” Rynders said. “I was nervous, excited, I was ready to get out there.”
In the second game, BNL scored twice in the first (Cam Gates with a sacrifice fly and Tyler Stigall with a RBI double) and two more in the second (Cal Gates with a run-scoring double and Cam with another sacrifice fly). But the real fireworks came in the fifth. With two outs, BNL strung together six straight hits, with Stigall driving in a run, with Charlie Keith plating two with a single, before Gates crushed his walk-off blast.
Cal Gates finished 3 for 4 with 4 RBIs while Jaden Gilbert had three hits.
In the first game, Cam Gates allowed only two hits and struck out 6 on the mound, while BNL’s offense scored in every inning.
The Stars tallied three in the first, as Cal and Cam Gates opened with back-to-back doubles, Tate Tanksley followed with a sharp RBI single, and Cutler Chastain chased home a run with a single. BNL added four in the second. Tanksley drove in a run and later scored on Gilbert’s sacrifice fly, and Chastain singled in another run.
BNL added a run in the third (with Grayson Gillespie’s single setting up the run), another in the fourth (Lucas Ira doubled and scored on a wild pitch), and triggered the mercy rule with two in the fifth (with Cal Gates driving in the final run).
Tanksley and Chastain both had two hits and drove in two runs.
“Two great wins,” said McNabb, whose team has won 9 of its last 10 games. “Proud of the guys, up and down the lineup. Our pitchers did their jobs. With all the weather of late, it’s more mental than physical, it’s preparing to play, expecting to play, then the unknown if we will play. It’s been a grind.”
The Braves slipped to 8-5. They managed only five hits in the 10 innings.
”We just have to catch up to the speed of the game,” Brownstown coach Duane Higgs, a former BNL assistant, said. “You can’t get away with bad habits. We need to focus on details and get ready to play better competition. We had some wins on pure heart and desire, but we have to tip our caps to them.”
BNL, which will learn its postseason fate when the IHSAA reveals the sectional pairings on Sunday, will visit New Albany on Monday.
