A rejuvenated Homestead boys basketball team bounced back in the second half to clinch the outright NHC title and remain undefeated with a 65-55 win against Columbia City on Tuesday.The Class 4A No.MONTICELLO – They were the first ones to hug.
After Andrea Filler struck out the final batter to secure Bishop Dwenger’s first trip to state in softball, she did a quick fist pump and then crashed into charging teammate Ashley Burkhardt for a lock-down hug.
It was a perfect first celebratory moment for the pair, who refer to themselves as twins.
They’re a big reason why the Saints beat Andrean 6-2 in the semifinal, then crushed No. 5 South Bend St. Joseph’s in the title game, 11-1, in five innings Saturday at the Class 3A Twin Lakes Semistate.
The juniors combined to go 13 of 14 with four home runs and 13 RBI to power the eighth-ranked Saints (26-2) and produce a trip to state against Boonville (34-1) at 4:30 p.m. Saturday at Ben Davis.
“I don’t think we would have expected this at the beginning of the year, but we’ve been playing so well,” said Burkhardt, whose team’s last loss was to St. Joseph’s, 6-5, on April 17.
Filler, who also got both victories on the mound, quickly followed up.
“We play awesome when we play as a team. Everyone’s energy just feeds off each other, and it’s just awesome,” she said. “We were all talking about, ‘What if we run-ruled this game? It would be so awesome.’ It’s just, like, unbelievable. You never would have dreamt of run-ruling. …”
And as twins are wont to do, Burkhardt interjected: “… this team that beat us earlier.”
And Filler with the finish: “So it was awesome.”
Burkhardt and Filler already were hot coming into the day: Filler led the state with a .699 average, and Burkhardt was hitting .500.
And yet, coach Dave Moyer tweaked his lineup for the season’s most important games, swapping Burkhardt and Filler in the batting order.
Moyer made the switch because he expected pitchers to try to pitch around Filler more often at this stage of the season, and to get more pop behind Filler, he plugged in Burkhardt.
It worked.
Against the Indians, No. 3 hitter Filler was 3 for 4 with a home run and three RBI, and clean-up Burkhardt was 4 for 4 with a homer and five RBI.
In the win over Andrean, Burkhardt was 4 for 4 with a grand slam and four RBI, and Filler was 2 for 2 with a solo home run.
“We just go up there and do our job,” Filler said. “When we do it, it just feeds off to the other person and the other person uses it to their advantage as well.”
In the opener, Burkhardt had a grand slam in the first inning when the ball bounced off Andrean center fielder Jackie Gonzalez’s glove and over the center-field fence.
Not to be outdone, Filler laced a home run to left field in the second inning.
Against St. Joseph’s (25-6), Filler crushed a two-run home run to center field in third inning.
Naturally, then, in the fourth, Burkhardt came up and plated Filler and Anna Garner with a three-run rocket over the right-field fence to make it 10-1 Dwenger.
