TIMES, DATES SET FOR BELLMONT SOFTBALL, BASEBALL SECTIONALS
Bellmont High School AD Dale Manis announced the dates and times for the sectional tournaments to be hosted at the school in baseball and softball in 3A action.
The IHSAA does not mandate specific days and times like they do in other sports because of the flexibility required to navigate the various commencement ceremonies of participating schools.
Bellmont’s commencement ceremony will be Friday, May 27th and no games will be held on that day.
The softball sectional will begin first, with Bellmont and neighboring Heritage playing in the opener of the five-team sectional with a first pitch at 5:30 p.m. Heritage won the first meeting between the two teams, 5-1, on April 20th. The Patriots were knocked out by Norwell in the opener of last year’s tournament.
Tuesday will bring two games to the softball diamond, with Norwell, last year’s host and the defending champions, playing Marion. The Giants have not been competitive this year, playing just ten games, and are currently 0- 10. Marion forfeited to Norwell in last year’s tournament. That matchup will begin at 5:30.
The second game Tuesday will begin after Norwell and Marion and will feature Mississinewa and the winner of the opener between Heritage and Bellmont. Mississinewa pulled off a huge upset to eliminate Bellmont a year ago in the semifinals by a score of 6- 4, despite having just one win on the season.
This season, Mississinewa have just two wins and were defeated by Bellmont 15- 1 in April.
Norwell advanced to the regional last season but were immediately eliminated by eventual state runner- up Guerin Catholic.
The championship game is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 26th.
Most recent softball sectional title/Total
number of titles: Heritage-2007 (6) Bellmont-2019 (17) Marion-1993 (1) Mississinewa- 2011 (5) Norwell-2021 (8)
The baseball sectional features a sixth team, Oak Hill, along with the same five teams from the softball sectional and traditionally starts a few days later than the girls, with a championship game scheduled for Memorial Day.
Play will begin on Wednesday, May 25th with two games at the newly-remodeled Bellmont diamond.
Oak Hill and Marion will square off
in the first game at 5:30. The Giants have won just one game over the past two seasons and will likely have a hard time beating an Oak Hill team that reached last year’s championship game. The Golden Eagles are 14-3 and averaging 12 runs a game at this point in the season.
Norwell and Mississinewa will play in the night game on Wednesday. The two teams played in last year’s semifinal and Norwell had a ten-run lead by the bottom of the third inning.
The Knights won a slugest against Oak Hill to win the title on Memorial Day, triumphing with a 15-10 win.
No games are scheduled for Thursday, allowing for there to be a day if Wednesday’s games get rained out.
Saturday will be the day for the semifinals, with a likely meeting of Norwell and Oak Hill scheduled for an 11:00 a.m. start. After that potential rematch of last year’s championship, Bellmont and Heritage will play. Heritage defeated Bellmont this week, 9-4.
The championship game is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Memorial Day.
Most recent baseball sectional title/Total
number of titles:
Oak Hill-2006 (3)
Marion-1998 (20)
Norwell-2021 (17) Mississinewa-2006 (3) Bellmont-2016 (19) Heritage-2015 (9)