Category: High School

Tonight at 6:00 pm, the Class 4A baseball sectional starts at Dekalb High School. East Noble will be taking on FW North in the only game this evening.

The Dekalb Barons will start play tomorrow night when they will take on FW Northrop at 5:00 pm. The second game tomorrow will pit Columbia City vs FW Snider right after the Baron’s game. On Monday at 10:00 am, Carroll will take on the winner of Wednesday’s game, and then Thursdays winners will play the second game on Monday, with those winners then playing for the championship on Monday night at 7:00 pm.

The question for all of us Dekalb fans is, can the Barons win this thing?

After seeing Dekalb play numerous times throughout the season, watching them evolve as a team, and most importantly, having healthy pitching, my opinion is yes, they can take this thing and move on to regional play.

Carter Stafford, Dylan Cagle, Jacob Dickey, Phil Bassett, and Will Vadney are all poised and ready to take the “bump” and do their jobs. All have had moments this year when they have been very good.

The thing about this years sectional is that there is no clear-cut favorite. Anyone could rise up, get hot, and take home the hardware. I liken it quite a bit to 5 or 6 years ago when before the sectional I thought the only team that couldn’t win it was Columbia City, and then the Eagles went out and took care of business, and moved on in the tourney.

If Dekalb gets solid pitching from the above mentioned quintet, and they can get the timely hitting from senior leaders Bayley Coleman, Nick McDonald, and Ty Rottger, throw in the defense staying stay sharp and tight, who says this team couldn’t take it all?

The Dekalb Baron baseball team hosted the Concordia Cadets in their regular season finale on Monday night.

Good defense, timely hitting, and an excellent pitching outing from Will Vadney propelled the Barons to a 7-1 win, and sent eleven Dekalb Barons out on a winning note on their special night that ended the regular season.

Matt Frane, Landon Emenhiser, Carter Stafford, Jacob Dickey, Scott Day, Phil Bassett, Ty Rottger, Cody Burniston, Bayley Coleman, Nick McDonald, and statman Wade Hantz were all introduced with their parents in a ceremony before the game that paid homage to their careers at Dekalb.

The game highlight on this night though, was the complete game, seven strikeout, no walk performance by Vadney. He was in control throughout, pitching with confidence, working quickly, and keeping the Cadets off balance for the entire game.

Dekalb’s offense came through with a number of timely hits. Leading the attack were Emenhiser, Coleman, and Frane who each tallied two hits.

The Barons will start Class 4A sectional play on Thursday night when they will play FW Northrop at Dekalb High School, starting at 5:00 pm.

The Carroll Chargers baseball team brought their swag to Dekalb High School on Tuesday night to take on the Barons in the NHC finale for both of these baseball teams for this season.

Carroll, the 2 time defending class 4A state champions, started early & fast, as they tallied 5 runs in the first 2 innings off of Dekalb starter Carter Stafford.

The Barons were their own worst enemy in the first inning, as a couple of miscues contributed to 2 runs scoring.

As the night wore on, you could see that the Chargers look like a team that is primed for a possible “three-peat.”

Good pitching, timely hitting, making the plays on defense, it all was present at Baron field on this night, but unfortunately for Dekalb, it was coming from the other dugout.

All that the Barons could muster on the offensive side were 3 singles, 2 from Stafford, and one from Ty Rottger.

The sectional starts next week, and maybe if these teams meet again, Dekalb can find a way to knock off the Chargers.

The Dekalb Baron baseball team upped their record to 11-4 as they ran roughshod over the East Noble Knights on Thursday night, winning 10-0 in five innings. With the win, Dekalb moved to 1-1 in the NHC conference standings.

Junior Dylan Cagle tossed a no hitter for the Barons, only allowing 2 baserunners. Cagle was in command all night with a nice assortment of pitches.

Dekalb’s offense staked Cagle to an early lead, as they plated 6 runs in the opening frame. Doubles by Carter Stafford, Logan Shilling, Bayley Coleman, and Ty Rottger were all key in that first inning.

The Barons added 3 more runs in the 4th, and closed out the game with a run in the 5th.

Dekalb goes on the road for 4 games next week. They will be at Columbia City on Tuesday, at Homestead on Thursday, and then a DH at Manchester on Saturday will close out what promises to be a tough week of baseball for the Barons.

The Dekalb Barons, looking for a signature win in this still young baseball season, jumped out to a 5-0 lead early on the 11-1 Leo Lions tonight, and then held on for dear life to record an 8-6 win.

Dekalb once again got an excellent performance on the bump from senior Jacob Dickey. Dickey was very effective before tiring in the fifth inning. He was relieved by Will Vadney, who survived a last ditch Leo rally in the 7th, as he retired the final hitter leaving the bases loaded.

The “Nickel,” Nick McDonald, had a home run and single for the Barons, while Bayley Coleman added 2 singles and a double. Ty Rottger also had 2 hits for Dekalb. Logan Schilling, Cody Burniston, Cody Krumlauf, and Jacob Vanderhorst all added single tallies. Scott Day added to the offensive festivities by executing a perfect squeeze bunt.

Dekalb will be back in action on Thursday as they will host East Noble in NHC conference action.

On Wednesday night, the Dekalb Barons hosted the Snider Panthers in varsity baseball action.

The Barons fell into an 3-0 hole early, thanks to a couple of Dekalb errors, and some nice at bats by Snider. After the Panthers tacked on 3 more runs in the third to make the score 6-0, it was an uphill battle the rest of the way that the Barons just could not overcome.

The lone bright spot for Dekalb was the work out of the bullpen by Baron senior Jacob Dickey. Dickey came on to pitch at the beginning of the 4th inning, and he proceeded to retire 12 of the 13 hitters that he faced, and most importantly, kept his team in the game by not giving up any more runs.

Unfortunately for Dekalb, they could not get the bats going in any kind of sustained rally, and they lost 6-1. The loss dropped the Barons record to 7-3 as they will next host Blackford this Saturday in a doubleheader that will start at 11:00 am.