LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The kids from Indiana came to play — and they’re not packing their bags just yet.
Floyds Knobs Community Club, representing the U.S. Central Region, kept its World Series hopes afloat Tuesday with a dominant 4-0 win over Czechia (Europe-Africa) at Stallings Stadium in Greenville, N.C.
The win came behind timely hitting and a shutout pitching performance by Briley Mercer and Grace Fiore. The Floyds Knobs team lined up to chants of “Indiana!” after the victory – the program’s first shutout World Series win since 2017.
Mercer started strong, striking out six and allowing just two hits in her three innings of work. Fiore took over from there and slammed the door, permitting only one hit and two baserunners over the final three frames. She worked around a tense final inning that included a lengthy replay review on a stolen base attempt, and finished the game with a strikeout to preserve the shutout.
Fiore also opened the scoring with an RBI single in the first. The game remained tight until the fourth inning, when Fiore and Kennedy Nickels strung together back-to-back singles to spark a three-run rally. Nickels drove in Fiore, then scored herself moments later on a Scarlett Renn single and an errant throw from the Czechia defense.
Nickels, who played through an ankle injury suffered early in the game, was a force at third base — recording all three outs in the fourth inning with a mix of grit and glove.
Central racked up 11 hits in the game, with multi-hit efforts from Fiore, Nickels, and Aubrey Whaley. Kennedy Neff and Dru Daily also chipped in RBIs as Floyds Knobs bounced back from Monday’s emotional loss to host North Carolina.
Next up: a meeting with Brazil, which defeated Canada 10-1 earlier in the day.
The road to the title may be uphill, but for Floyds Knobs, it’s still open, and it continues at 10 a.m. Wednesday in a game televised on ESPN2.
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