Delphi offense carries Oracles to regional baseball title
LAFAYETTE − As of late, Delphi’s baseball team has become something of a Swiss Army Knife.
In the case of Saturday’s Class 2A regional championship, a game they won handily by way of a 10-2 final over an 11-15 Bremen team, the Oracles rode a run scoring spree that began in the third and never stopped.
While Delphi (21-10) has once again been crowned regional champions, it was just one year ago they had their postseason run halted early by a county rival, something that senior Cole Long and his team haven’t forgotten.
“I think it just made us even hungrier,” Long said. “Losing to Carroll in that regional really made us all mad and then this returning class really wanted to beat Carroll. We met them in the (sectional) championship, did the job and now we’ve done the job in regional this year. … Us getting bounced last year really set up this run.”
If Saturday’s game is what angry bats look like then there are expletives out there to describe the way their defense has come into its own throughout the postseason.
In their three playoff games, Delphi has allowed an average of 2.5 hits per game including two against Bremen in the regional final.
For the Oracles, they have the capability of beating teams in a multitude of ways.
For an example, look no further than their sectional championship against Carroll where they rode the arms of Brock Burton and Chase Almager before utilizing their bats against Bremen for the regional title.
Senior Carson Workinger believes that his team knowing it has weapons all across the board has provided the Oracles with the confidence they’ve needed for this deep postseason run.
“It’s just kind of that mentality going in knowing that we have the tools. It’s not necessarily going in and thinking ‘wow, this team’s got somebody that’s really good that we’re facing’, it’s about going up with the mentality that we can beat whoever’s on that field if we want to,” Workinger said.
Offensively, they started their run with two scores in the third inning before erupting for four in the fifth where Workinger drove in two runs off of a grounder to right field.
Workinger and Brady Little each chalked two runs batted in while Keigan Watts commanded the mound for three innings and struck out five batters.
From the perspective of Delphi head coach Ryan Long, a large amount of the success has been found behind their hitters throughout this season.
“Well, really I would say our strength all year has been our offense. From top to bottom, today the bottom came through huge for us. … We’ve got guys who’ve been able to hit it all year and we really settled in and got a lot more strikes out of pitchers at the end here and been a lot more consistent,” he said.
The march to Victory Field continues next Saturday against Winchester (15-11) in the semistate semifinals but for Cole Long, the Oracles will continue one step at a time.
“I think if we keep on building piece by piece, I think here soon, we’ll get to the big game,” Cole Long said.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Delphi offense carries Oracles to regional baseball title
