Posted on Fri, Apr. 18, 2008

NOTEBOOK

15 innings, 47 K's, 1 run

Creek beat Catholic 1-0 in whiff-fest

By Mike Fields

HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER

Jill Pickett | The News Enterpr

Senior Aaron Mayfield threw back-to-back perfect games for LaRue County. Photo by Jill Pickett | The News Enterprise

The best -- or at least the most fascinating -- high school baseball game of the season lasted 15 innings, more than four hours, and featured 47 strikeouts and one lonely run.

Host Tates Creek beat Lexington Catholic 1-0 in the district game that began Tuesday night but ended at 12:45 Wednesday morning. Coaches Dom Fucci of Tates Creek and Rodney Martin of Lexington Catholic are lifelong baseball junkies, but neither could remember being part of a game that went scoreless for so long.

Home-plate umpire Burney Jenkins, who's been calling balls and strikes for 35 years, hadn't either. Martin joked that Jenkins probably needed to ice his right arm after ringing up so many strikeouts.

Tates Creek batters fanned 28 times; Lexington Catholic batters whiffed 19 times.

The Kentucky High School Athletic Association doesn't keep records on most strikeouts in a game, but it's hard to imagine that 47 K's didn't establish a new standard.

Obviously, there was lots of terrific pitching. Tates Creek got seven scoreless innings from starter Corey Kingsley. Ryan Fucci got two outs in the eighth. Lefty Phillip Donovan finished the eighth, and pitched four more innings of shutout ball. Nelson Cowan finished up by blanking the Knights the last three innings.

Lexington Catholic ace Nick Maronde had 17 K's in eight innings. Michael Champa was next on the mound for the Knights, and he threw six scoreless innings. Devon Williams worked the 15th. Tates Creek loaded the bases on a single and a pair of walks. Finally, on a full count, T.J. Mangione's soft roller to the right side of the infield drove in pinch runner Dylan Justice with the winning run.

"It was an interesting night," Fucci said in his understated style.

• Talk about having a perfect spring break. LaRue County pitcher Aaron Mayfield will always remember the week he had in the Florida sunshine last week. He threw back-to-back seven-inning perfect games. "I'd never seen one before; so seeing two was amazing," LaRue County Coach Chris Price said. "It was unbelievable, and he did it against two quality teams that had quality hitters and he dominated them."

On April 6 in Niceville, Fla., the senior right-hander was perfect in a 5-0 victory over Corbin, a school with a strong baseball tradition. Mayfield needed only 73 pitches (54 strikes) and had 12 strikeouts. On April 11 in Fort Walton Beach, Mayfield was perfect again in a 5-0 win over 10th-ranked Heath. He threw 85 pitches (62 strikes) and had 10 strikeouts.

Mayfield, a slender 6-footer, has increased the velocity of his fastball from 83 mph last year to the high 80s this season. He also has a change-up, curveball and cut fastball. Mayfield's control has been spot-on. Going into Thursday's game against Campbellsville, he had worked 251/3 innings this spring, given up one walk, struck out 39 and held opponents to a .073 batting average.

Before his pair of perfect games, Mayfield was getting attention from mostly small colleges. Since then he's heard from Louisville, Western Kentucky and Ohio State. "It's all pretty amazing," Price said.

• Sayre baseball, which has been on the upswing the past few years, had a memorable sweep of St. Patrick on Saturday as Spartan pitchers threw back-to-back no-hitters. Freshman Cabot Haggin walked three and hit one batter but did not allow a hit and had 18 strikeouts in Sayre's 7-0 victory in the first game. Junior Eric Gaines pitched five innings of no-hit ball as the Spartans won the second game 10-0. Gaines gave up one walk. Sayre Coach Scott Sutton said that even though St. Pat wasn't at full strength (some of its players were taking the ACT), back-to-back no-hitters was a notable achievement.

• Baseball coaches Bob Mantooth of Apollo and Bill Krumpelbeck of Covington Catholic won their 700th games recently. Mantooth, in his 32nd year with the Eagles, led them to the state final four in 1994, 2003 and 2007. Krumpelbeck, in his 32nd year with the Colonels, led them to the 2002 state title.• Madison Central will honor former coach Don Richardson by naming its refurbished baseball facility after him Friday. Richardson won more than 952 games and led the Indians to an undefeated state title in 1982.

• Tryouts for the Kentucky All-Stars' boys' and girls' basketball teams are Friday and Saturday at Georgetown College. The 12-player rosters won't be announced until next week.

• Tyler Zeller, who scored a state-finals record 43 points in leading Washington to Indiana's Class 3A title, is Indiana's Mr. Basketball. Zeller, a 7-footer, has committed to North Carolina. His brother Luke was Mr. Basketball in 2005 and plays at Notre Dame. They are the third set of brothers to win Mr. Basketball. Tom and Dick VanArsdale shared the award in 1961. Billy and David Shepherd won it in 1968 and '70, respectively.

Brittany Rayburn of Attica is Indiana's Miss Basketball for 2008. The 6-foot guard, who averaged 29 points and eight rebounds, is headed for Purdue. She is only the second Miss Basketball to come from a Class A-size school.

Zeller and Rayburn will wear the No. 1 jerseys for the Indiana All-Stars against Kentucky on June 13 in Louisville and June 15 in Indianapolis.

• As expected, Mike Jones will be the boys' basketball coach at Harlan County High School, which opens in August. Jones, who has been out of coaching the past few years, guided Harlan to the Sweet Sixteen three times, and to a pair of All "A" state titles in the 1990s. He led Clay County to the state tournament in 2001, and is five wins shy of 500 for his career. Anthony Nolan will coach Harlan County's girls. Nolan was the boys' coach at Cawood for 12 years and won more than 200 games. Cawood, Cumberland and Evarts will be consolidated into Harlan County.

• Less than two weeks after resigning as Rose Hill's boys' basketball coach, Tim Fraley has been hired as Greenup County's coach. Fraley played on Greenup County's 1985 Sweet Sixteen team, and is a former Musketeers' assistant.• Haley McDowell, a senior at Blue Grass Baptist in Lexington, has been named Miss Basketball for the Kentucky Christian Athletic Association. She played varsity basketball for six years and earned KCAA all-state honors the past three years. She averaged 14 points this season. McDowell is also a standout softball player for Blue Grass Baptist's defending state champs and is one of the best young bowlers in Lexington. She also stars in the classroom (4.0 GPA), and has logged more than 200 hours of volunteer community service. McDowell hopes to play basketball and/or bowl in college, with Union and Morehead State among her choices.

• Stephen Butcher is the new girls' basketball coach at Mason County. He coached at Pike County Central the past three years, and led the Lady Hawks to the Sweet Sixteen final four in 2007.

• Franklin-Simpson basketball star Rayco Bryant will play college hoops at Shawnee Community College in Illinois.• A clarification: Scotty Hopson of University Heights has been referred to as the first McDonald's All-American the state has produced since Jason Osborne of Male in 1993. Carlos Hurt, who transferred from Texas and played at Moore his senior season (2000-01), was also a McDonald's All-American.

• Scott County will have at least two new faces in its basketball lineup next season with Rose Hill stars Dakotah Euton and Chad Jackson joining Billy Hicks' Cardinals. Jackson, a 6-4 junior-to-be, is already enrolled at Scott County, and will soon be followed by Euton, a 6-8 junior-to-be.• Madisonville basketball star Jon Hood, who has scholarship offers from UK, Georgia and Tennessee, won't change high schools for his senior year. There have been rumors about Hood possibly transferring to University Heights. But his dad, Brian, said he "about laughed when I heard that. Jon's not going anywhere." Madisonville has fired James Davis as its coach. Among the candidates to replace him is Maroons' girls' coach Marty Cline, who played and coached at UHA.

• Gary Stepp, who resigned as June Buchanan boys' basketball coach, said rumors that the school may close or shut down its sports program are "totally false. We fully expect to have competitive teams next year," said Stepp, who said he stepped down so he could spend more time with his family.

• Minor Harmon, a fixture of Nelson County basketball for almost three decades, is retiring. Harmon coached the Lady Cards from 1981-90, winning 168 games and four region titles. He's coached Nelson County's boys the past 17 years and won 293 games. His Cards were region runners-up twice.

• Buford Williams, who coached high school baseball, basketball and football for more than 30 years and was also a longtime umpire, was honored at the 14th Region coaches' association Court of Honor day last weekend at Perry County Central. Williams was inducted into the Kentucky High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2001.

• A correction: Murray State golfer Bethany Yates is a Bardstown Bethlehem alum.