A high school team from Indiana finds itself in the Babe Ruth World Series

Indiana is being represented in the Babe Ruth World Series by Highland, a small town of around 23,000 and part of the Chicago metropolitan area.

While most teams in this tournament are travel teams comprised of players from numerous communities in a given area, this Indiana team is just made up of 17 players from Highland High School, it’s coach, and one homeschooled kid.

“We take our high school guys we go play in the summer and that's it,” Highland head coach Sam Michel said. “You don't play for us, we’re not recruiting from different parts of the county.

“That is an old-school mentality, and it's almost comes from necessity,” Michel said. “We are trying to build (the program) back, and the way we feel to do it is to keep our dudes here.”

Indiana played two games during the first day of pool play on Monday and won both games. Shortstop Nick Steele was the player of the game in Indiana’s 7-6 win over Washington. He got two hits including one that set up the game-winning hit.

Michel said Steele benefited from a change in the lineup.

“He’s been hitting fifth for the whole year, and we've had our second baseman hitting second,” Mitchel said. “We were looking for some protection for our third baseman, he was hitting third and so we said, ‘Why not move Nick up to No.2?” And it worked out.”

Indiana�s Bryce Ozelie makes contact with a pitch against Washington during the Babe Ruth World Series on Monday, August 14, at Cape Central High School.Tony Capobianco ~ tcapobianco@semoball.com

Indiana shut out Colorado 5-0 off the strength of their pitcher Sean Harder, who gave up only three hits with five strikeouts over the full seven innings.

“When he's on, coming from that little three-quarters with a slider and a fastball,” Michel said, “he’s tough to hit.”

Harder, who recently graduated from high school, wasn’t originally a part of the Highland rotation. He was a late addition who had to overcome adversity to get to this point.

“Sean Harder wasn't going to come,” Michel said. “We got a three-week layoff, he thought ‘I gotta get to college.’ We convinced him to come, and then two weeks ago, he fractures his orbital bone. So he's playing with it, and the specialist told him, you're good, just try to avoid getting hit again.”

Highland is in the Babe Ruth World Series for the second time in program history and second in the last three years. They made it out of pool play before and are primed to do it again this time.

“Two years ago we were 3-1 and in bracket play,” Mitchel said. “We started off hot and then we kind of had a weird little layoff at the end and then we got cold with the bats and lost in the bracket play. So I'm going to try to avoid that this year. I'm looking for more balance. I think we're a better pitching team and we were two years ago so we're going to win on pitching and defense like we saw (Monday).”

Mitchel credits the work of his catcher Ryan Gordon for handling the pitching staff.

“He is the heart and soul of this team,” Gordon said. “He calls his own game. I let them call his own game. I don't mess with any of that stuff. We talked through scenarios and as the summer has gone on, he's gotten better at it. We hit him at leadoff because he gives such a good at-bat every time.”

Indiana took Tuesday off and will return to action on Wednesday to take on Alabama at noon in Capaha Field.