Carmel tops Warren to fight another day

The eye black that was smeared not only under Quinten Sefcik’s eyes but also all over his cheeks looked more like war paint.

And that was fitting.

Sefcik was fighting for his life Thursday afternoon. And so, by extension, were the rest of his Carmel teammates.

A relief pitcher, and just a sophomore, Sefcik was sent to the mound to close out a regional semifinal against Warren with a 3-run lead in the top of the seventh inning.

But Warren shortstop and Purdue-bound Pat Kenney, the first batter that Sefcik faced, crushed one of his pitches and sent it far over the center field fence. With a runner already on, that cut Carmel’s lead to just 1 run with no outs.

But Sefcik continued to battle and wound up winning the war, rolling up three straight outs, including 2 strikeouts, in Carmel’s brow-wiping 8-7 victory over the host Blue Devils.

“I just had to bear back down and throw strikes and get outs and finish for the team any way I could,” said Sefcik, who was promoted to the varsity as a freshman last season and has been a starter at times this season. “I went down 2-0 (against Kenney) and had to take a little something off my fastball and he’s a great player and he just killed the ball. It was the farthest home run I’ve ever seen.

“All the seniors came out and calmed me back down and I just threw strikes. It was nice (to close out the game), especially since it was in the tournament.”

Sixth-seeded Carmel, which improves to 23-11, moves into Saturday’s regional championship game at Warren (3 p.m.) against No. 13 Highland Park.

“It was good to see our kids steely in that last inning,” Carmel coach Joe May said. “I hope a win like this ignites us a little bit.”

The Corsairs had some other fireworks going, getting a big 2-run homer themselves. Designated hitter Tyler Murphy blasted a 2-run shot over the center field fence in the fourth inning that wound up being the difference-maker.

“That felt really good,” Murphy said of his third home run of the season. “I had been struggling a little bit and have just started to pick it up, so I can’t thank the coaches enough for keeping me in the lineup in the first place.

“It’s nice to have people believe in you. One swing of the bat can change the game like that, and it did for Warren, too. But we were confident and knew we could come through in the end.”

Carmel also came through in the beginning.

The Corsairs got off to what seemed at the time to be a back-breaking 6-0 lead. They put up all six runs in the second inning, and scored them all in demoralizing ways: 2 of them on walks, 2 on wild pitches and 2 on an error.

Carmel eventually forced Warren starter and ace Adam Reuss out of the game.

“When they got those 6 runs, that kind of (stunk),” said Kenney, who went 3-for-3 on the day with a double to go along with his homer. “But you’ve got to know that at this level of baseball, things like that can happen. We all stuck together and we were able to get back in the game.”

Warren, which wrapped up its season with a 17-17 record, put together a big inning of its own, ringing up 4 runs in the third inning, which got started with a triple by center fielder Adam Glogovsky.

The Blue Devils were quiet while Carmel reliever Dalton Wright, another sophomore, took over for starter and winner Alex Young in the fourth inning. But then they rallied again in the seventh. Before Kenney’s homer, Glogovsky opened with a single and Ben Dinter followed with a double that drove in Glogovsky.

“I was really proud of how the kids didn’t give up,” Warren coach Clint Smothers said. “They fought back. We were one more swing away from tying it up.”