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REMINGTON — After losing a three-run lead in the top of the seventh inning, the Caston Comets came right back and scored the game-winning run in the bottom of the frame in Monday night’s sectional championship game.
The Comets loaded the bases with no outs and London Herd lifted a sacrifice fly to center that scored Logan Mollenkopf on a bang-bang play at the plate to lift them to a 6-5 win over West Central in a thrilling final at the Class 1A Tri-County Sectional at Remington Community Park.
The No. 5-ranked Comets (21-5) won their first sectional title since 2022 and third all-time. They denied the No. 15 Trojans (16-6) their first sectional title since 1975.
Both of these teams have a lot of young, talented athletes so they figure to have more sectional matchups against each other coming up in multiple sports.
They couldn’t have had much more than a better game than they had on Monday. We’ll fast-forward to the bottom of the seventh, when in a 5-5 game, Logan Mollenkopf was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning. Eli Holloway then had an adventurous at-bat. He fouled off a couple of bunt attempts. He then hit a popup into foul territory near the first-base line and was fortunate in dropped in and wasn’t caught. Then on a hit-and-run, he ripped the ball up the middle on a play the shortstop could not corral and tag the base in the same motion and it fell in for a hit.
With two on and no outs, Gavin Mollenkopf fell into an 0-2 hole but worked his way into a walk to load the bases. Sophomore starting left-hander Teagan Holle was removed at that point for junior right-hander Tate Leman.
Herd greeted him with a fly ball into short left center. Holle was playing center at that point and had one of the strongest arms on the field, but he hesitated a bit and Logan Mollenkopf tagged from third and darted to the plate. The throw was on the money at home but Mollenkopf slid under the tag and was called safe as the Comets won the game.
“I knew I was safe, but it was pretty close,” Mollenkopf said. “I felt my hand slide across the plate and I felt the tag on my back. So I knew I was safe. I looked up, I knew I was gonna see safe.
“It was a good call.”
Herd talked about his game-winning sac fly.
“I was just trying to think ‘keep it short, get it out of the infield, drive a run in and win the sectional,’” he said.
The Comets’ three-man pitching attack got the job done again. Carson Harness was efficient enough in pitching 4 2/3 innings in Saturday’s 6-0 win over Tri-County that he was able to start his second straight sectional game Monday under the IHSAA pitch-count rules.
But the Comets fell into a 2-0 hole in the top of the first. A dropped third strike, a walk and wild pitch set up a two-out, two-run bloop single into right field by Hayden Johns.
The Comets answered with a five-spot in the bottom of the third. Tucker Woolever led off with a single to right. Lucius Edson bunted him to second. Logan Mollenkopf reached on an error on the third baseman when an errant throw allowed Woolever to score to make it a 2-1 game. Holloway drew a walk. Gavin Mollenkopf followed with an RBI single to right center to tie the game. Holloway slid safely into third when the third baseman dropped the ball on the tag. Herd followed with an RBI infield single to give Caston a 3-2 lead. Parker Zimpleman was hit by a pitch to load the bases with one out. Brodie Howard hit a grounder to second when the second baseman tried to tag Zimpleman but the ball popped out of his glove and flew into the outfield. Two runs scored on the play to give the Comets a 5-2 lead. It was ruled an E4 and RBI for Howard. Holle struck out the next two hitters to avert further damage.
Caston coach Blake Mollenkopf said trying to tag Zimpleman out might not have been the best decision as the 6-foot-1, 230-pound sophomore was just running straight to second and knocked the ball 20 feet into the air on contact with the defender’s glove.
“It’s just like the play at the plate, when you make that tag you’ve got to make the tag and finish the play and show the umpire and if it pops loose, sometimes a lot of times they call that transfer and things like that, but on a tag play you’ve got to tag him and show the umpire you have the ball,” he said. “Yeah, anytime Parker hits anything, it hurts. If you’re a baseball or an offensive lineman or whatever, it hurts.”
Harness pitched four innings, allowing two runs on four hits and one walk, striking out four.
Logan Mollenkopf relieved and breezed through the first two innings with six up and six down. But he walked the leadoff hitter to start the seventh. He struck out the next hitter when his 3-2 pitch caught the outside corner. But he fell behind 3-0 on the next hitter and Howard was brought into pitch. Howard threw a ball on the first pitch for a walk and the tying the run was brought to the plate. Howard struck out the next hitter for the second out. But Holle lined the ball into the spacious outfield at Remington to the gap in right center. It rolled all the way the wall 380 feet from home plate. The throw home was wide of the plate and Holle scored on a three-run home run to tie the game. Leman followed with an infield single before Howard got Zane Wall to ground out to himself for the third out.
Howard talked about the inside-the-park home run.
“He just got the better of me that at-bat, but we still came through as a team and got the win,” he said. “We just played super well as a team, came together, no errors. It was just great team baseball.”
Howard spent his first two years of high school at Pioneer before transferring to Caston for his junior year. He also plays soccer and basketball for the Comets.
“It was mainly schooling, but I just played travel ball with some of the kids on this team and I just liked it better here,” he said. “It just feels nice, moving and being in a new environment and still be able to do good and thrive with a new team.”
Howard added the Comets are not done with just a sectional title.
“Hopefully all the way,” he said.
The Comets had a good game defensively with no errors while the Trojans had a few miscues.
Coach Mollenkopf talked about how he mapped out the sectional pitching-wise.
“I’ve never done it this way. But we just had three guys that we thought were really good and we knew they all needed to see the mound in crucial times and they all needed to be fresh,” he said. “Carson on Saturday was just absolutely lights out. That’s the best I’ve seen him throw in three years. And today I was gonna start Logan and when a guy is that hot, I just decided to stick with Carson and he was good. He wasn’t as sharp, but we’ve also asked a lot of him this week and he kept us competitive. Logan’s got wipeout stuff, it’s really good. But if he gets in trouble finding the zone is where sometimes he’ll get in trouble and Brodie’s the guy that’s back in the zone real quick. And I just felt like with the nine-hole and then the top, we needed to get in the zone back quickly. And Brodie did a great job. I know that that happens, but as one good swing over three or four at-bats.
“It’s not very often you see an inside-the-park home run. But this is a big park, a lot of ground to cover out there. And he put it in the right location and ran hard. And credit to him. But just great at-bats by our kids in the seventh. That was our thing, we’re gonna get a guy on, get him over and find a way to scrap him across.”
West Central outhit Caston 6-4 for the game but the Comets found a way to win.
“It means everything,” Gavin Mollenkopf said. “This is my last year playing with these guys. The first three years, the first year we got beat first round. Second year we got beat second round. Last year we made it through to the championship, had a sour taste in our mouth, we lost that one. This one, we got hit in the throat earlier, but we bounced back. It was a team effort. I feel like everyone contributed one through however many.”
“I just give thanks to God for giving us this opportunity,” Logan Mollenkopf added. “I can’t think right now. It’s just crazy because you see all the sectionals won in front of you by kids older and then you do it yourself and it’s a great feeling to have, especially with your dad as a coach and your brother’s senior year.”
Caston will play Fort Wayne Blackhawk Christian (8-14) in a one-game regional at 11 a.m. Saturday at Fort Wayne Carroll.
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The Comets loaded the bases with no outs and London Herd lifted a sacrifice fly to center that scored Logan Mollenkopf on a bang-bang play at the plate to lift them to a 6-5 win over West Central in a thrilling final at the Class 1A Tri-County Sectional at Remington Community Park.
The No. 5-ranked Comets (21-5) won their first sectional title since 2022 and third all-time. They denied the No. 15 Trojans (16-6) their first sectional title since 1975.
Both of these teams have a lot of young, talented athletes so they figure to have more sectional matchups against each other coming up in multiple sports.
They couldn’t have had much more than a better game than they had on Monday. We’ll fast-forward to the bottom of the seventh, when in a 5-5 game, Logan Mollenkopf was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning. Eli Holloway then had an adventurous at-bat. He fouled off a couple of bunt attempts. He then hit a popup into foul territory near the first-base line and was fortunate in dropped in and wasn’t caught. Then on a hit-and-run, he ripped the ball up the middle on a play the shortstop could not corral and tag the base in the same motion and it fell in for a hit.
With two on and no outs, Gavin Mollenkopf fell into an 0-2 hole but worked his way into a walk to load the bases. Sophomore starting left-hander Teagan Holle was removed at that point for junior right-hander Tate Leman.
Herd greeted him with a fly ball into short left center. Holle was playing center at that point and had one of the strongest arms on the field, but he hesitated a bit and Logan Mollenkopf tagged from third and darted to the plate. The throw was on the money at home but Mollenkopf slid under the tag and was called safe as the Comets won the game.
“I knew I was safe, but it was pretty close,” Mollenkopf said. “I felt my hand slide across the plate and I felt the tag on my back. So I knew I was safe. I looked up, I knew I was gonna see safe.
“It was a good call.”
Herd talked about his game-winning sac fly.
“I was just trying to think ‘keep it short, get it out of the infield, drive a run in and win the sectional,’” he said.
The Comets’ three-man pitching attack got the job done again. Carson Harness was efficient enough in pitching 4 2/3 innings in Saturday’s 6-0 win over Tri-County that he was able to start his second straight sectional game Monday under the IHSAA pitch-count rules.
But the Comets fell into a 2-0 hole in the top of the first. A dropped third strike, a walk and wild pitch set up a two-out, two-run bloop single into right field by Hayden Johns.
The Comets answered with a five-spot in the bottom of the third. Tucker Woolever led off with a single to right. Lucius Edson bunted him to second. Logan Mollenkopf reached on an error on the third baseman when an errant throw allowed Woolever to score to make it a 2-1 game. Holloway drew a walk. Gavin Mollenkopf followed with an RBI single to right center to tie the game. Holloway slid safely into third when the third baseman dropped the ball on the tag. Herd followed with an RBI infield single to give Caston a 3-2 lead. Parker Zimpleman was hit by a pitch to load the bases with one out. Brodie Howard hit a grounder to second when the second baseman tried to tag Zimpleman but the ball popped out of his glove and flew into the outfield. Two runs scored on the play to give the Comets a 5-2 lead. It was ruled an E4 and RBI for Howard. Holle struck out the next two hitters to avert further damage.
Caston coach Blake Mollenkopf said trying to tag Zimpleman out might not have been the best decision as the 6-foot-1, 230-pound sophomore was just running straight to second and knocked the ball 20 feet into the air on contact with the defender’s glove.
“It’s just like the play at the plate, when you make that tag you’ve got to make the tag and finish the play and show the umpire and if it pops loose, sometimes a lot of times they call that transfer and things like that, but on a tag play you’ve got to tag him and show the umpire you have the ball,” he said. “Yeah, anytime Parker hits anything, it hurts. If you’re a baseball or an offensive lineman or whatever, it hurts.”
Harness pitched four innings, allowing two runs on four hits and one walk, striking out four.
Logan Mollenkopf relieved and breezed through the first two innings with six up and six down. But he walked the leadoff hitter to start the seventh. He struck out the next hitter when his 3-2 pitch caught the outside corner. But he fell behind 3-0 on the next hitter and Howard was brought into pitch. Howard threw a ball on the first pitch for a walk and the tying the run was brought to the plate. Howard struck out the next hitter for the second out. But Holle lined the ball into the spacious outfield at Remington to the gap in right center. It rolled all the way the wall 380 feet from home plate. The throw home was wide of the plate and Holle scored on a three-run home run to tie the game. Leman followed with an infield single before Howard got Zane Wall to ground out to himself for the third out.
Howard talked about the inside-the-park home run.
“He just got the better of me that at-bat, but we still came through as a team and got the win,” he said. “We just played super well as a team, came together, no errors. It was just great team baseball.”
Howard spent his first two years of high school at Pioneer before transferring to Caston for his junior year. He also plays soccer and basketball for the Comets.
“It was mainly schooling, but I just played travel ball with some of the kids on this team and I just liked it better here,” he said. “It just feels nice, moving and being in a new environment and still be able to do good and thrive with a new team.”
Howard added the Comets are not done with just a sectional title.
“Hopefully all the way,” he said.
The Comets had a good game defensively with no errors while the Trojans had a few miscues.
Coach Mollenkopf talked about how he mapped out the sectional pitching-wise.
“I’ve never done it this way. But we just had three guys that we thought were really good and we knew they all needed to see the mound in crucial times and they all needed to be fresh,” he said. “Carson on Saturday was just absolutely lights out. That’s the best I’ve seen him throw in three years. And today I was gonna start Logan and when a guy is that hot, I just decided to stick with Carson and he was good. He wasn’t as sharp, but we’ve also asked a lot of him this week and he kept us competitive. Logan’s got wipeout stuff, it’s really good. But if he gets in trouble finding the zone is where sometimes he’ll get in trouble and Brodie’s the guy that’s back in the zone real quick. And I just felt like with the nine-hole and then the top, we needed to get in the zone back quickly. And Brodie did a great job. I know that that happens, but as one good swing over three or four at-bats.
“It’s not very often you see an inside-the-park home run. But this is a big park, a lot of ground to cover out there. And he put it in the right location and ran hard. And credit to him. But just great at-bats by our kids in the seventh. That was our thing, we’re gonna get a guy on, get him over and find a way to scrap him across.”
West Central outhit Caston 6-4 for the game but the Comets found a way to win.
“It means everything,” Gavin Mollenkopf said. “This is my last year playing with these guys. The first three years, the first year we got beat first round. Second year we got beat second round. Last year we made it through to the championship, had a sour taste in our mouth, we lost that one. This one, we got hit in the throat earlier, but we bounced back. It was a team effort. I feel like everyone contributed one through however many.”
“I just give thanks to God for giving us this opportunity,” Logan Mollenkopf added. “I can’t think right now. It’s just crazy because you see all the sectionals won in front of you by kids older and then you do it yourself and it’s a great feeling to have, especially with your dad as a coach and your brother’s senior year.”
Caston will play Fort Wayne Blackhawk Christian (8-14) in a one-game regional at 11 a.m. Saturday at Fort Wayne Carroll.
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