Redmen slug their way past Sailors

BELLEVUE — Ike Brown had the answer with his arm and bat. The Bellevue junior threw 3 1/3 no-hit innings in relief and hit a home run to lead the Redmen to a 10-2 win over Vermilion in a Division IV baseball tournament opener Wednesday. Brown had plenty of help, too. Bellevue starter Cooper Winke struck out eight batters in 3 2/3 innings. Brown struck out six. The second-seeded Redmen belted out 12 hits — half of them going for extra bases. "We swung it well, drove the ball well to both gaps," Bellevue coach Andy Dennings said. "The kids obviously were seeing the ball well." Bellevue got some payback after losing 6-5 to Vermilion last Thursday and dropping a tournament opener to the Sailors last year. "They heard about it (last week), that they were gonna come back and we needed to be ready," Dennings said. "There was no fear for (Vermilion); they probably ran to get on the bus after getting us last week. We needed to respond and play loose. I thought we did. It didn't matter who was coming, we needed to win the game to move on to the districts." Bellevue scored two runs in the bottom of the first inning, highlighted by the first of two Reid Claus doubles. Sam Cooper led off the bottom of the second with a double and the Redmen scored two more runs and chased Vermilion starter Mason Cooper, who threw six shutout innings against Bellevue last week. Vermilion, a No. 7 seed, pulled within 4-2 in the fourth. Winke hit two batters, gave up a single to Drake Hooks and yielded runs with a walk and wild pitch. Brown came in and got a fly-ball out with the bases loaded. "They both threw well. Cooper had a little issue in one inning, but other than that I thought he battled," Dennings said. "When he got behind in counts he did a nice job of getting back in counts. "Ike did a nice job coming in there in a tough situation. He got us out of that and continued to throw it across the place pretty consistently with three pitches." Brown has not allowed a run all season and has struck out 38 in 20 1/3 innings. Bellevue stretched its lead in the bottom of the fourth. Caden Lindsey doubled with one out and scored on an error on Grant Musser's grounder. Brown followed with a two-run shot over the fence in left-center field. "Just looked for a fastball and got one where I wanted it," Brown said. "I put a good swing on it and it just went. I started running and I looked up and couldn't see it anymore. It was gone." It was Brown's first career home run and the second this season for Bellevue. Claus has the other one. "That ball got elevated," Dennings said. "He finds barrels a lot and has good exit velo. We don't hit a lot of home runs. We have two this year and that's two more than we've had in about the last five years." Lindsey, Claus, Cooper and Tatum Gore each had two hits for the Redmen, who improved to 14-8 and will play Shelby next Wednesday in a district semifinal in Willard. Vermilion finishes Gehrig Gabrie's first season as head coach with a 9-15 record. "I'm proud of my guys for how they handled themselves all year," Gabrie said. "We found our groove midway through the season. The huge win against Bellevue was one of our strongest performances of the year, and me being a first-year coach, I couldn't ask for a better group of seniors (Adam Gerber, Gavin Wilfing, Ryan Beck) to be leaders for this team." Vermilion 000 200 0 — 2 2 3 Bellevue 220 330 x — 10 12 1 WP: Winke. LP: Cooper. 2B: (B) Claus 2, Cooper, Lindsey, Gore. HR: (B) Brown