INDIANAPOLIS — When Terry Stephens took the position of Eastern Hancock softball coach before the 2018 season, he was excited for the future.
It wasn’t the distant future that had him excited, though. Stephens was eyeing some big things in the immediate future.
He knew what the Royals had. He knew the talent that was already on the team and the group that was coming up from the middle school ranks. He was pretty confident Eastern Hancock had something special brewing.
They did.
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In just his second season as head coach, Stephens and the Royals picked up their first ever Mid-Eastern Conference championship last week. On Wednesday at Heritage Christian, they added more hardware, picking up the fifth sectional championship in program history by topping Triton Central, 8-2.
The Royals (18-6-1) advanced to their own regional, a game they will host on Tuesday.
“We talked about the goals earlier,” Stephens said. “We had the conference goal, the sectional goal, now regional is our goal. The fact that we get to play in our backyard is just a bonus. We’re still playing softball. Whoever we play, we’re going to play our game. Win or lose, we’re going to give them everything we’ve got. Motion will be there, I promise you. These girls know how to put the ball in play. They know how to play the game.”
All five sectional titles the Royals have claimed were won in the past decade, the last coming in 2017. Wednesday’s win was the third sectional championship in the past four years.
All three of those were won by defeating Triton Central (12-12) in the sectional final.
While it was a familiar feeling to some of the Royals, topping the Tigers again to claim a sectional was no less special.
“Nothing feels better than this,” senior Megan Bever said. “Yeah, we’ve done it before, but being seniors, being the leaders and going out our last year with a bang, it feels great.”
“You know, it’s one of the best feelings ever,” fellow senior Eriel Truitt said. “When I was the underclassman and making it, it was like, oh man, our seniors got us here, we’ve done so good. Now, it’s like we’re here, and we’re the upperclassmen. To feel like you’re leading a team feels really good.”
The Royals came into the game riding a wave of momentum and energy after a huge 13-2 rivalry win against Knighstown in Tuesday’s semifinal, but they started slow against the Tigers, falling behind 1-0 in the first inning.
Once the bats got going in the second inning, they never really stopped. Bailey Stephens had an RBI double to tie the game, Maddie Turner singled in a run and Sydni Bednarski launched a two-RBI double, which proved to be the winning runs.
Eastern Hancock added two in the third and one run in each the fifth and sixth innings, racking up 12 hits in the game. Bever, Stephens, Turner, Taylor Koch and Caroline Stapleton each had two hits. Bednarski and Paige Wickard had one.
Stephens had three RBIs in the game to lead the Royals offense.
“I’ve had parents come over and tell me the energy in the last two games is absolutely crazy,” Terry Stephens said. “It just builds up the confidence when you’re in the batters box. We hit the ball hard tonight.”
Turner got the win in the circle, going four innings and striking out six while walking none. She allowed five hits and one earned run before giving way to senior Elise Bittinger, who pitched the final three innings. She allowed just one hit while striking out one and walking one.
The Royals will have to wait a few days to find out who they will play in the regional round. They will play the winner of the Hagerstown sectional — semifinals are scheduled for today with the finals on Friday — on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
Whoever it is they will face, they will be ready. They’ll believe they can win, just as they have all year.
“You should see our bus rides on the way here. We are so positive. We believe in ourselves more than anything,” Truitt said. “I’ve seen us come back from behind, we were behind 11 and came back. There’s nothing that can stop us. If we hit, we have all the confidence in the world.”
The confidence has been contagious, carrying down to some of the younger Royals. The team has four seniors — Bever, Bittinger, Truitt and Maddie Clutinger — but they also started three freshmen in the sectional final — Stapleton, Bednarski and Kaylee Stewart.
“We’ve all worked hard up to this point and stayed positive,” Stapleton said. “I knew that we were going to be really good this year, just because of all the talent. I was really hoping we would (win sectional).”
Now that they have, the sky is the limit for the Royals.
“I think we can go all the way,” Bever said. “We’ve just got to keep our bats going, keep the positive energy going. I think we can go far.”
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Eastern Hancock 8, Triton Central 2
TC;101;000;0;—;2;8;5
EH;042;011;X;—;8;12;2
WP: Maddie Turner. LP: Justus Gibbons.
2B: Bailey Stephens, Sydni Bednarski (EH); Jaime Pyle (TC). RBI: Stephens 3, Bednarski 2, Paige Wickard, Turner, Eriel Truitt (EH); Pyle, Katie Cook (TC).
Notable: Turner 4 IP, 6 K, 5 H, 1 ER, 2-for-4, RBI; Elise Bittinger 3 IP, 1 K, 1 BB, 1 H, 0 ER; Stephens 2-for-4, 2B, 3 RBI (EH).
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