NorthWood’s baseball team celebrates following last Saturday’s Bellmont Regional championship. (Photo by James Costello)

NAPPANEE — While NorthWood baseball was just celebrating its first regional championship in more than three decades last Saturday night, head coach Jay Sheets was still waiting to find out who his team would be playing in this weekend’s semistate.

St. Joseph and John Glenn had gone into extra innings, but the way Sheets saw it, it didn’t really matter who the Panthers were playing: He likes how his team is playing right now, and he doesn’t see any reason they can’t win the whole 3A shebang.

“In my honest opinion I don’t see why our team can’t go all the way. I don’t think there’s a better team that’s more deserving, and I think we’ve got all the tools that we need to do it: We can hit, we can field, and we can pitch,” said Sheets after Saturday’s championship win over Yorktown at the Bellmont Regional.

“We may come across some guy that throws hard, but we can hit. I like where we’re going, and we don’t want this train to stop anytime soon.”

NorthWood’s lineup will likely be facing IU commit Michael Dunkelberger as the Panthers (26-1) square off against St. Joe (23-4) at the Plymouth Semistate Saturday. Dunkelberger has pitched a pair of complete-game shutouts in the tournament so far — both 2-0 wins, first over Culver Military in the Jimtown Sectional championship and then host Griffith in the opener at last weekend’s regional in the Region — but it would be hard to argue with Sheets’ confidence in his team.

The Panthers have indeed proven their ability to hit the ball, and hit it hard.

NorthWood’s order combined for 11 hits in last Saturday’s regional championship, three of them very deep doubles. For perspective, the Panthers have scored a whopping 42 runs over four games this postseason. This from a team that entered the tourney after winning by a combined three runs in its last two regular-season games.

And the Panthers have been doing it with production from the top to the bottom of their lineup.

“I don’t know what it is. I don’t know if it’s got something to do with focus,” said Sheets. “Everybody knows what they want, and we don’t want to stop playing anytime soon this year. We’ve got a big goal in our mind, and we get to live to play another weekend.”

“There were no holes in our lineup tonight in this last game,” said clean-up hitter Vincent Hershberger after Saturday’s Bellmont Regional championship, a game in which he cranked out two doubles and three RBIs.

“We pulled ahead with some big hits, and it brought us together and we kept the energy up and just kept them out of the game and didn’t let them get back into it at all.”

NorthWood’s pitching has been rock solid, and its defense has been playing lights-out as well. In the same tournament span in which the team has scored 42 runs, it has allowed just nine total by opponents with shutouts versus Yorktown and Lakeland.

Saturday’s finale culminated in a highlight reel-worthy play from shortstop Travis Stephenson, who dove to save a chopper by Jordan Coleman from reaching the outfield, then tossed behind him from his backside for the game’s final out.

“Our defense makes plays, and that’s all you can ask for ask a coach. As long as you make routine plays — and that wasn’t such a routine play — as long as you can make plays, you’ve got to like your chances,” said Sheets of that last out.

NorthWood and St. Joe will both play for a first-ever semistate championship at 3 p.m. at Bill Nixon Field in Plymouth. In the lower half of the state, Jasper hosts Northview at 1 p.m. to determine the best team in southern Indiana. Winners of Saturday’s contests will play in the state finals the following weekend at Victory Field in Indianapolis.