Errors controlled the entire game in a showdown between two undefeated teams in conference play.
The Penn Kingsmen took on The Saint Joe Indians last friday night. Saint Joe came into the game undefeated, riding a 16 game winning streak. Penn came in with an undefeated 10-0 record in the NIC.
Errors were earlier and often. In the first inning, Tony Carmola made an error that would give Penn a big lead. Carmola had two errors in one play, he couldn’t corral the ground ball hit to him at shortstop, then he over threw the ball at first base.
Saint Joe had more errors than hits given up going into the third inning. The score was 5-0 and it looked like the Kingsmen would glide to a blowout win.
But, Penn would make a huge error to let the Indians back in the game. A dropped ball by Nate Vargo gave Saint Joe the momentum they needed.
The two-out error by Nate Vargo in right allowed three runs to score. Right after that, Luke Houin’s two-run homer tied the game.
Senior leader Ryan Lau said “We got your back, we got confidence, after a couple mistakes in the outfield I just let them know we got your back and we’re going to win this game.”
Penn would win the game with a final score of 9 to 6. Trevor Waite and Matt Kominkiewicz lead the Kingsmen with 3 hits a piece, and contributed 4 of the 9 runs batted in.
The Saint Joe vs. Penn game is always a highly anticipated game for both sides, I asked Lau why winning the rivalry means so much to him this year.
“It feels very good, especially because we are best friends with half of these kids on Saint Joe our whole lives, it’s a huge confidence booster for us to finally beat them.” Lau said.
Penn will seek a second state championship in 3 years, with Sectional play starting this Wednesday at Elkhart Memorial.
Mikan Gensic 
Nathan Zizzo