Penn Baseball Claims Regional Title
LAPORTE – Make it a three-peat for the Penn baseball program.
The Kingsmen rallied twice Saturday to claim its third straight regional title with a pair of wins at the Class 4-A LaPorte Regional.
Niko Kavadas drove in four runs in the title game Saturday night as Penn topped No. 6 Andrean 9-5. Kavadas, who is bound for Notre Dame, had three hits in the title game win.
Penn trailed 4-2 in the finale before scoring five runs in the fourth inning to take control. Freshman Ryan Lynch earned the pitching win for the Kingsmen. He is now 7-0 on the season.
Penn was down 2-0 to Lake Central in the semifinals earlier in the day Saturday before scoring four runs in the fourth frame to go on to a 6-2 win.
Matt Komonikiewicz had three hits and Nolan Metcalf two for Penn, which improved to 26-6. Andrean finishes its season at 26-7.
Penn will face Zionsville (22-11) in the Class 4-A Northern Semistate June 10 at either Plymouth or Kokomo. The IHSAA will make the semistate assignments on Tuesday as far as the location of the game.
The Kingsmen, who won the Elkhart Memorial Sectional title last week, were state champions in 2015 under Hall of Fame coach Greg Dikos. Zionsville lost 3-2 to Roncalli in nine innings in the state title game in 2016.
Penn has now won 10 regional titles overall in program history.