Danville baseball powers past Sayre, proves it’s a contender regardless of class
Danville’s No. 5 Admirals greeted the warmest, sunniest day of the spring so far with a burst of offense that overwhelmed No. 15 Sayre at Admiral Field on Saturday in a 14-3 rout in five innings of their All “A” Classic baseball sectional game.
A stiff breeze blowing out to right-center field helped the Admirals launch six home runs, three of them by starting pitcher Brady Baxter.
“I feel like this is one of our best hitting games all year. We came out ready to play. Batting today, I mean, it was amazing,” said Baxter, a senior and Marshall commit who launched a three-run shot on the first pitch he saw from Sayre in the first inning, a solo shot in the second and another three-run homer in the fourth. “The wind usually doesn’t blow out here. It’s usually always blowing in, but they gave me fastballs and I just crushed the fastballs.”
Coming into the game, Danville already led the state in home runs with 25, a fact maybe owing somewhat to home-field dimensions that are smaller than the high school average. Nine Admirals have hit at least two home runs this season. Admiral Field counters its smaller size with a higher than average fence in the outfield, but that blue wall didn’t pose much difficulty for the home team Saturday.
Twice, Danville hit back-to-back homers in an inning. Preston Barnes followed up Baxter’s first home run with a solo shot in the first inning.
“It was a great day and, more than the wind blowing out, just to have some actually warm weather …,” Danville Coach Paul Morse said. “To get out here and feel the sunshine and 80 degrees — guys, you know, want to play — and then, yeah, we had some wind blowing out today … during BP (batting practice), they were drooling.”
Talent to spare
Danville (16-4), the defending 12th Region champion and a state tournament semifinalist, is a favorite to make a deep run in both the All “A” next weekend and the KHSAA tournament later this year despite losing two of the state’s best players to graduation. Christian Howe (Kentucky) and Ethan Wood (Louisville) led both the team’s offense and pitching staffs with spectacular numbers in 2021.
But the galley cupboard’s not bare. This season’s Danville pitching staff includes four “Division I arms” with Baxter (Marshall), Logan Smothers (Eastern Kentucky), Brady Morse (Bellarmine) and Sam Matherly (Bellarmine). All are also significant offensive threats and all but Matherly are seniors.
“We knew we knew we had a good core coming back,” Morse said. “Saying that I wasn’t happy about what was coming back would be crazy.”
On the mound, Baxter and Brady Morse are both 5-1 this season. Baxter has a 1.91 ERA, two saves and a team-high 70 strikeouts. Morse has a 1.77 ERA and 48 Ks. At the plate, Morse has a .550 average and four home runs. Baxter goes for .458 and six homers.
In the second inning, Morse had his own three-run homer ahead of Baxter in the order. Baxter followed with his solo shot. In the fourth, after a leadoff double and an out, Sayre intentionally walked Morse to potentially set up a double play with Baxter coming up. Coach Morse knew that was a dangerous gamble.
“When they walked (Brady Morse), 100 percent, I knew (Baxter) was going to hit a ball really, really hard, because he takes that personally,” Coach Morse said.
Baxter responded with a towering wind-aided drive that took almost five seconds to come down over the right field fence.
Matherly ended the game on the 10-run mercy rule in the fifth with a two-run home run to set the final score. Matherly bats ninth in the Admirals’ lineup, another indicator of how potent Danville’s offense can be.
Baxter got the win on the mound despite not having his best stuff. Sayre got its leadoff hitter on base in each inning and got that runner across the plate three times.
“I didn’t really have my off-speed today, so I was just trying to get them out and just let my infield do the work and my outfield,” Baxter said.
Coach Morse said he can depend on Baxter to work through periods when some pitches aren’t working.
“He is a bulldog on the mound,” Coach Morse said. “Even if he didn’t have great velocity today — he kind of was feeling for his off-speed pitch, curveball and changeup a little bit — but when push comes to shove, you know, he’s gonna make the pitch. Giving up one run an inning, those aren’t going to beat you. You gotta stay away from those crooked-number innings. And he’s been taught that since he was 9 years old. So to see that put into play is great.”
Looking ahead
Saturday’s win advances Danville to the quarterfinals of the All “A” Classic baseball tournament where it will face Campbellsville at 5:30 p.m. Saturday. The rest of the tournament will be played at Eastern Kentucky University’s Earle Combs Stadium, including all four quarterfinals Saturday, the semifinals at 8:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. May 1 and the championship at 1 p.m. May 1.
As PrepBaseballReport.com’s No. 5 team in the state, the Admirals will be the highest-ranked program at the event, but the competition will be tough, Morse said. No. 9 Beechwood could be a potential semifinals foe with No. 11 Lyon County or a red-hot Glasgow team who on Saturday upset No. 3 Owensboro Catholic potentially waiting in the finals.
“You could go through possibly, depending on your draw and how things work out, four top-25 teams,” Morse said, including No. 15 Sayre in that gauntlet. “I don’t think anybody will have to do that at the overall state at the end of the year. It’ll be a tough, tough, battle for sure. But we’re just glad we’re there.”
Perhaps looking ahead to an important district series against Scott County this week, the 11th Region’s Spartans (11-6) did not pitch their ace, University of Kentucky commit Raymond Saatman, instead opting for Owen Murphy, a freshman who is the team’s third option behind Saatman and Addison Stockham, both juniors. Sayre remains in the hunt for the top seed in the 42nd District after splitting their regular-season series with No. 10 Frederick Douglass last week.
Because Morse has a deeper rotation than many of his competitors, Danville was able to pitch Baxter on Saturday against Sayre.
“All ‘A’ means a lot to us,” Baxter said. “Last year, we played LCA on this field and we were up going into the bottom of the seventh and ended up losing it. This game means everything to us. We want to go for this ring and the actual state ring.”
