Indy Chronicler

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) — The Central Catholic baseball team is heading back to state for the third year.

The Knights defeated Morgan Township 4-3 this past Saturday to advance to their third consecutive state finals.

However, the road to get here wasn’t paved in gold. At the start of the season, the team was very uncertain of whether or not they could continue with CC’s legacy of winning.

After all, the Knights lost six seniors from last year’s state championship team. All six of those players also happened to be starters, so it looked like it was going to be a rebuilding year for this team.

However, that didn’t matter to them. Seniors Gavin Boutelle and Keaton Brooks said lack of experience made them a better team. 

Brooks said during the offseason everyone was putting in work to prepare for this year. Once the season started, the theme of getting in extra reps never stopped. 

Combine a relentless work ethic with a desire to win and you have an unbeatable team. A team that finished the year with a 26-7 record. 

CC will now face off against Barr-Reeve on Friday. This is a team that Central Catholic faced off against in last year’s championship game. 

They’re a team that Brooks said hasn’t changed much since last year. He said, “We have an idea of what they have, and they have an idea of what we have. They didn’t really lose anybody and we lost a good amount of people. So, There’s a bit of mystery about us.”

Although there may be a mystery about who CC is, the game itself won’t be that hard to figure out. It’s going to be another hard-fought battle, but this time against a team that’s looking for a revenge win.

Boutelle told us that he’s expecting a good game come Friday, and he can’t wait to play one more time with this group of players. Especially the senior class. 

Boutelle said, “For our senior class to be a part of such a historic moment and to be one of only like four or five classes to be able to even get a chance at 3-peating is really exciting, and it’s going to be great Friday.”

The Championship game will be played at Victory Field in Indianapolis. The first pitch is set for Friday at 4:30.

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