NorthWood’s Drew Minnich can’t break up a double play sliding into second while South Bend St. Joseph’s Tony Carmola turns to first during the Plymouth Semistate Saturday. (Photos by James Costello)

PLYMOUTH — South Bend St. Joseph pulled off a bit of a magic trick at Saturday’s Class 3-A Plymouth Semistate.

Not only did the Indians upend NorthWood — the first team in the Panthers’ last 27 outings to do so — but they managed to do it despite committing six errors and giving up 11 hits.

So how did they do it? Really, there wasn’t anything magical about it. They simply made NorthWood’s mistakes hurt more.

St. Joe claimed a program-first semistate title via an 8-5 tournament eliminator of the Panthers at Bill Nixon Field in Plymouth. The Indians advance to face Jasper — which beat Northview 3-2 in 10 innings on its home field in the southern 3-A semistate — at the state finals at Victory Field in Indianapolis next Saturday at 2 p.m.

“At the end of the day, what they did was is we made made a few mistakes here and there — whether it was errors, walking guys or whatever — and they really made it hurt,” explained NorthWood skipper Jay Sheets.

“Hats off to them because I respect them. They’ve got some good ball players, but it’s tough because I’ve got my guys and it’s hard to see them walk away from us. We’ve got five phenomenal seniors.”

NorthWood strung together a few costly mistakes in the bottom of the third, the most pivotal on a 3-1 offering by reliever Alec Holcomb to Alex Voss. The Panthers sophomore — who was so effective in a two-hit shutout of Yorktown in the Bellmont Regional championship game a week before  — struggled against a patient Indians lineup in Plymouth.

Holcomb hit Tony Carmola with a pitch in his first at bat of the evening before Tyler Kleva reached on an error on a sharply-hit chopper to short, then surrendered an RBI single off another chopper from Luke Houin, bringing Voss to the plate with two on and none out and the Panthers already trailing by a run. Holcomb quickly fell behind 3-0 against Voss, and after watching one strike, he made the young NorthWood pitcher pay with a towering, three-run shot straight out to center.

That dinger would prove the difference-maker as the Indians grabbed a 7-3 advantage and never surrendered the lead again.

“He doesn’t say a whole lot. He’s just kind of calm all the way through, and you never can tell if he’s upset, although he did look pretty happy after that home run,” said St. Joe head coach John Gumpf of Voss, who finished with a double, a homer and two runs scored in addition to his three RBIs leading the Indians lineup from the sixth spot in the order Saturday. “That’s the most emotion I’ve seen from him. It was great.”

Vincent Hershberger replaced Holcomb on the mound following Voss’ bomb and managed to stanch the bleeding for the most part, although St. Joe did extend its lead by a run on a solo homer from Carmola in the fourth.

Vincent Hershberger reaches back to throw a pitch Saturday.

The Panther offense battled back with a pair of runs in the fifth as Hershberger was hit by a pitch at the tail end of a six-pitch at bat, and Matt Dutkowski and Jaron Mullett followed with back-to-back singles to load the bases, setting the table for designated hitter Payton Bear, who did his job with a two-out, two-run single into center. But Travis Stephenson grounded into a fielder’s choice ball at third, and NorthWood still trailed by three going into the sixth.

Matt Dutkowski celebrates a run in the fifth while Vincent Hershberger waits after his own run and Travis Stephenson pumps his fist on deck.

Hershberger and the NorthWood defense held in the top of the inning, and the Panthers rallied again in the bottom half of the sixth as Brant Mast reached on an error at third, Drew Minnich singled through the gap at short, and Mast stole third when Indians catcher Houin overthrew to third trying to gun him down on the play, bringing Hershberger up with two on and just one out.

But Hershberger’s hard-hit liner sizzled straight into the glove of St. Joe first baseman Kleva, who dove to first to catch Minnich in no-man’s land for an unassisted double play, ending the threat of what looked to be a big inning by NorthWood.

“Baseball is a crazy sport. I told him ‘You hit a missile right at someone. If it’s a foot to the right or a foot up or a foot down, it’s probably going to be a double because it was right down the line,’” said Sheets of the unassisted double play. “It’s one of those things. They got lucky on that one; it was just hit right at them.”

“I think Tyler just happened to be in the right spot at the right time. I mean he smoked that ball, and if it gets down the line that’s a double,” echoed Gumpf. “He hit it right at him, and then he fell and hit the bag. It was beautiful. My heart dropped a little bit, I’ll put it that way, but that was a huge relief right there.”

While Holcomb took the loss, St. Joe junior starter Michael Dunkelberger earned the win  surrendering 10 hits and five runs over five innings of work. The Indians finished with eight hits against a NorthWood pitching staff of four — starter Drake Gongwer, who left in the third after battling through early ankle trouble, Holcomb, Hershberger and Dutkowski.

Minnich went 3 for 4 with a double and a run scored to lead the Panthers at the plate, and Jaron Mullett finished with two hits and a run.

St. Joe improves to 24-4 and advances to its first state title game, while NorthWood bows out of the year with a sterling record of 26-2. The Panthers must bid goodbye to a cast of five seniors — Mullet, Gongwer, Stephenson, Minnich and Hershberger — who helped lead the team to a record-setting season which included a 14-0 sweep of the Northern Lakes Conference, 26 straight wins and the program’s first regional title since 1983.

St. Joe celebrates the final out of its first ever semi state championship.

“They’ll remember this game, but I told them ‘Don’t forget everything else we did — 26-2, 14-0 we ran the table in the conference, winning a regional for the first time in 34 years or whatever it is,’” said Sheets. “And the biggest thing at the end of the day — and I complimented them on this — the wins are great, the championships are great, but watching a team come together, those guys are close. And that’s the coolest thing as a coach because I’ve seen other teams where guys aren’t close like that, and it can be a nightmare to coach them. They made my job easy, and I had a fun four years with the older guys.”