by

Richie Hall

Sports Editor

Hamilton County Reporter

The Hamilton Southeastern baseball team has already gone further in the IHSAA
post-season tournament than any other Royals team in the history of the program.

Now, the only thing standing between Southeastern and its first appearance at state
is a group of Cavemen.

The Royals (21-8) will take on Mishawaka (25-6) in the Class 4A north semi-state
Saturday at Plymouth. That game will see its first pitch around 3:30 p.m., following
the 1A game between Rossville and Washington Township.

“We were at Plymouth earlier in the year, however, we didn’t play very well in
the Plymouth Invite,” said Southeastern coach Jeremy Sassanella. The Royals
dropped both games at that invitational in early May; the coach believes his team is
“looking more at redemption at that site from earlier in the spring,” rather than the
familiarity of having been there.

Southeastern earned its semi-state spot after beating Fort Wayne Carroll last Saturday to win the Lafayette Jefferson regional.

The Cavemen beat Lake Central to take the La Porte regional, but that game was delayed
to Monday due to weather. That allowed the Royals a chance to see Mishawaka play.

Sassanella called the Cavemen a “bunch of quality ball players with a very competitive spirit.” He noted that 10 of the players on the Mishawaka team were on the Cavemen’s football team that reached the semistate last fall.

“They are a physically big team of grinders, we’ll have to be at our best,” said
Sassanella. “Their pitching staff is strong with three quality right handers that have
been very good for them all year. They’ve got some quality bats at the top of the order
and have also been able to manufacture runs as they’ve needed.”

Junior Donovan Snyder is Mishawaka’s leading hitter, with a .433 average. He is the
co-leader for the Cavemen in runs scored with 27. Snyder shares that place with senior
Grant Jablonski, who also has 27 runs scored. Jablonski is batting .368 and leads
Mishawaka in hits with 32 and runs batted in with 26. Jablonski is also the Cavemen’s
best pitcher with an 8-0 record and a 0.41 earned-run average; he has struck out 78 this
season.

Greyson Droste is on top of Southeastern’s batting list with a .407 average. Droste
also leads the team in hits with 33 and in doubles with 11. He is tied with Matthew
Buckingham for most RBI with 25; Buckingham has scored the most runs with 21.
On the mound, Tyler Schweitzer (8-2) and Michael Dillon (8-1) have been the dominant pitchers, with Schweitzer compiling a 1.21 ERA and 85 strikeouts. Dillon has
struck out 63.

Sassanella said that as the post-season begins, a coach looks for his team to be
business-like and focused, but at the same time not too tight.

“They’ve really grown over the course of the year and they’re a group that played
together a long time,” said Sassanella, who said his team knows what is at stake and
what needs to be done. “Our preparation has been sharp and focused this week and I’m
hopeful and confident we’ll be ready to play.”