LCA routs Ballard in top-25 showdown as Eagles shake off early-season setbacks
It hasn’t been a textbook start for a top-25 team, but No. 16 Lexington Christian showed why it’s one of high school baseball’s 11th Region favorites with an 11-0 win in five innings over No. 13 Ballard on Monday.
Senior pitcher Chance McGaughey pitched five scoreless innings, allowing two hits and striking out seven as the Eagles (6-4-1) popped for a nine-run fourth inning that helped put the game away in mercy-rule time over the visiting Bruins (5-4).
“I felt pretty good. I felt loose, controlled, and I was getting that first strike,” McGaughey said. “We’re coming together. I feel like we’re finally getting that teamship and everything, that partnership.”
Lexington Christian came in as the No. 7 team in PrepBaseballReport.com’s preseason rankings, but it sputtered out of the gate with losses to then-No. 1 St. Xavier and unranked Great Crossing. They went on to lose two of their first three games in Florida over spring break. Notching a third straight win, this one against a Ballard team that has a St. X victory on its résumé, is a confidence boost.
“We played some really good teams in Florida. We started to do some good things,” LCA Coach Wynn Harris said. “We’ve still got a ways to go, but, you know, Ballard’s a really good team and to come out and get the pitching performance that we got from Chance and the way the bats kind of came alive and the hard hit balls and all that stuff. It feels pretty good to come back here to Kentucky and play well.”
Senior third baseman Hayden Collins got the scoring started with a two-run double to the base of the right field fence in the third inning, scoring Jordan Cook and Grayson Collins, who got back-to-back singles off Ballard starter Jake Hicks and then moved up on Will Nichols’ sacrifice bunt.
That set the table for the nine-run fourth that saw LCA send nine batters to the plate before the first out was recorded.
Singles by Matthew Maggard and Mac Crosbie and a walk to Parker Chaney chased Ballard’s starter. Will Orberson followed with an RBI single off reliever Jaylen Burton. Jordan Cook then took a bases-loaded walk. Grayson Collins smashed a two-run single. The next two LCA batters got hit by a pitch to push across the seventh run of the game and keep the bases loaded. Cole Ginter’s two-run single made it 10-0. Chaney’s two-out RBI hit made it 11-0.
“We got a slow start this year, but after a week down in Florida, we kind of found ourselves,” Hayden Collins said. “We switched the lineup a little bit. It’s just kind of clicking right now. A lot of hard work has been put in. … Getting these good games in early only benefits us down the road.”
Weather permitting, LCA was scheduled to travel to Louisville to complete the two-game set with Ballard on Tuesday night. Saturday, the Eagles will face No. 11 Lafayette, a 43rd District rival, in Sayre’s weekend tournament before tackling No. 18 Paul Laurence Dunbar in another important district series next week.
The 43rd features three teams that are currently ranked and another, Tates Creek, that has been ranked previously. Two-game sets against all of them are on tap the next few weeks in preparation for the postseason, which begins the third week of May.
“The season is funny. We tell the guys it’s like a marathon, but when you get into it, it goes really fast,” Harris said. “You only have so much time to figure out your identity as a team,” Harris said. “I’m really pleased with the way our seniors have taken ownership of the game and taken ownership of the team. I think we’ll go as they go.”
