Postseason baseball: LCA, Sayre win titles after week of thrills, upsets and a lot of rain
Coming off the mound Friday afternoon in the seventh inning after giving up a pair of singles that would eventually put his team down by another run, a feeling swept over Lexington Christian’s Hayden Collins.
“For some reason, when I walked off the mound, I felt like it wasn’t over. I just felt like it wasn’t. That wasn’t going to be the final time I was going to walk off of this field,” Collins said after pitching 6⅓ innings, giving way to reliever Elijah Hammond. “I kind of looked at all the boys and said, ‘Hey, we’re good.’”
Tates Creek’s insurance run scored and the host Eagles faced a 4-2 deficit in their final at-bat in the 43rd District baseball tournament semifinals.
But Collins wasn’t wrong.
LCA rallied for three runs in the bottom of the seventh capped by what could have been a season-ending double play grounder by Will Orberson that instead turned into a play at the plate and a walk-off 5-4 victory.
As Orberson dove into first base to try to beat the tag in a cloud of dust, LCA’s Matthew Maggard rounded third with the winning run. Collins scored the tying run just ahead of him. Neither would have counted if Tates Creek had turned two.
“I thought the ball got away from the first baseman, so I took off,” Maggard said. “A good throw probably would have had me, but it shook out the way we wanted it to.”
LCA survived the win-or-go home district semifinal and would go on to capture the 43rd District championship later Friday night to make an extraordinarily long week of rain delays and a high-stakes doubleheader that began under 90-degree temperatures all worth it. Because of rain postponements Wednesday and Thursday, the 43rd District’s semis and finals had to be crammed into Friday.
Will Nichols’ leadoff triple in the fifth inning set up Jaxon Herrera’s squeeze bunt to bring him in and break a 1-1 tie with Lafayette in the title game. The Eagles tacked on three more runs for the 5-1 victory. Hammond struck out the final three Lafayette batters to end the game before being swarmed by his team.
“Man, with all the rainouts, I mean, I’ve spent more hours in that school locker room probably than I ever imagined — sitting there waiting to see if we could get up here and get a game in,” Collins said. “It’s just been so tough, but it’s just this district. Every single game is a grind. Every single game is tough. So you just got to bring your ‘A’ game with this district, and I’m just glad we did it tonight.”
High school baseball’s 42nd and 43rd district baseball tournaments each had their share of rain delays, dramatic games and upsets as Lexington teams fought to keep their seasons alive and play in next week’s 11th Region Tournament. Each champion and runner-up moves on to be paired up with their counterparts in the 41st and 44th districts with the eventual region champ earning a spot in the state tournament.
Sayre outlasts Henry Clay in 42nd
Over in the twice-postponed 42nd District championship at Scott County High School on Friday, Sayre defeated Henry Clay, 3-2, to continue its run with a core group of players who now have back-to-back district crowns, the only baseball titles in the school’s history.
Through all the rain delays and waiting, Sayre’s Addison Stockham said the team wasn’t “too nervous” about the district finals. With all district finalists advancing to the region tournament and keeping the season alive, much of the pressure is off.
“Obviously, the district championship is like the cherry on top, so it was nice to get that,” Stockham said.
But the champions get to host their first-round game on Monday in the 11th Region Tournament format before the semifinals and finals move on to Great Crossing High School.
Henry Clay Coach Jordan Tarrence wanted the home field for his team.
“I think it’s huge. Getting to host that game is important,” Tarrence said after the Devils upset Frederick Douglass in the 42nd semifinals. “I would love to play another one last game at our field. And then in the draw, anything could happen.”
While Stockham might not have been nervous going into the finals, on the mound he had a couple of walks and a couple of hit batsmen to help make some nervous moments for the Spartans’ coaches and fans in a tight championship game.
“We did not play a clean game. We made some mistakes early and they found a way to win,” Clary said. “They competed. They didn’t quit.”
Tied 2-2 in the fourth inning, Henry Clay threatened. A Cooper Handshoe double, a sacrifice and a walk gave Henry Clay runners at first and third with just one out.
Sayre picked off Handshoe’s courtesy runner at third for the second out. Then Sayre reliever Charlie Slabaugh struck out Kasen Parks only to see him advance to first as the ball got away from the catcher. Henry Clay had runners at first and third, again. Trying for the go-ahead run again, Henry Clay started their runners only to see Konlin Brown thrown out trying to steal home.
“They tried a couple of early break plays when they had it first and third. They tried it twice and we threw them out both times,” Clary said. “It took a little momentum out of their sails. We were in trouble.”
Back-to-back doubles in the bottom of the fifth gave the Spartans the advantage. Brock Coffman hit the first pitch of the at-bat to left. Slabaugh brought him home with his own double to center. Sayre held from there.
“I told the kids, ‘Last year we made school history by being the first team ever to win the 42nd District Tournament. Let’s do it again,’” Clary said. “Doing it in back-to-back years is really special. The kids deserved it and they worked their tail off.”
Sayre defeated Scott County 6-5 in their semifinal matchup on Tuesday. The Cardinals topped Bryan Station 5-2 in their first-round game.
Henry Clay takes out region’s top-ranked team
While Henry Clay didn’t capture a title, it did knock off No. 12 Frederick Douglass in the semis on Tuesday.
The Broncos came into the postseason as the highest ranked team in the 11th Region, according to PrepBaseballReport.com, but they lost a tie-breaker with Sayre for the district’s top seed and faced the third-seeded Devils in the elimination game.
Devils pitchers Cade Schneider and Chardy Tierney combined for a two-hit shutout of Douglass in the 2-0 win with Schneider pitching five innings with 10 strikeouts for the win. Tierney had four strikeouts in two innings for the save.
“I just went out there and tried to do the best I could — just try to keep it simple — not trying to do too much with my pitches and just have fun,” Scheider said. “We used all the fire from all of our losses and turned them into a great performance. So, I’m very happy with how my team played tonight.”
Both of Henry Clay’s runs were unearned as an error in the first and a single by Isaac Rone scored Jayden Bailey. Konlin Brown singled in the fourth inning and scored after advancing on another Broncos error and fielder’s choice.
In the regular season, Henry Clay went 4-4 in district play with a 16-14 overall record, but Tarrence had confidence his team could compete and win.
“I think the biggest thing is they never lost faith. We were losing games, but I don’t think the team lost faith in themselves,” Tarrence said. “We lost a lot of close games. I mean last week, we lost three straight games on one run. And we didn’t get the hit when we needed it. We didn’t make the play when we needed it. But I don’t think they lost the faith. I think they showed up tonight and believed they could win.”
Douglass (24-10) featured in the PBR top 10 for much of the season and had an 8-3 record against teams in the region.
“I just told them a baseball is 21 outs. You’ve got to come out ready to play, and be ready for anything,” Douglass Coach Eddie Brooks said he told his team. “We didn’t make a couple of plays early in the game and just couldn’t get our bats going.”
Generals take down top seed
Over in the 43rd District on Friday evening, Lafayette knocked off top-seeded Lexington Catholic 6-2 to take out another team that had been ranked for much of the second half of the season.
The Knights (16-14-1) broke into the rankings by winning seven of nine game in April, but fell out in the last week with three straight losses.
Lafayette made it four in a row by scoring a pair of runs in the third, fifth and sixth innings. Owen Jenkins’ two-run homer gave the Generals an early lead. A Zachery Rayyan RBI single and a wild pitch helped Lafayette retake the lead in the fifth. And a leadoff single by Burkley Bounds and a double by Ben Prather in the sixth resulted in some insurance runs on Conner Mahoney’s RBI groundout and a wild pitch.
While the defending 43rd District and 11th Region champion Generals (20-12) had a decent record, it went 4-4 in the district and had some losses early in the season that took them out of the rankings and off the radar, perhaps. They beat Paul Laurence Dunbar 4-3 in Tuesday’s opening-round game.
“We knew we were the underdogs, but we also knew that we could get it done, because we’ve got every guy who does their job on our team,” Prather said. “It’s been tough. We lost a bunch of the district games and all of them were close. We never got blown out. We knew that we could come back and make a run in this tournament.”
Lafayette lost several key members of their 2021 state quarterfinalist team. It took awhile for this group to gel, Coach Chris Langston said.
“I told them it was going to take a long time for us to figure out what we had. But once we figured it out, we’d be ready to play anybody,” Langston said. “And they stayed with it, they kept their heads up. This is what happens when you stay together and you just keep working.”
Next up: the regional
After a week of delays and tough games, Lexington’s four surviving teams look forward to some more postseason, but maybe with a little less rain this time.
“It’s going to be a lot of fun,” Sayre’s Stockham said. “It’s high energy, high adrenaline, highly competitive environment, which is what good competitors and good athletes look for and strive for. That’s when you have the most fun.”
11th Region Tournament
Monday’s games
6 p.m.: Berea at Sayre
6 p.m.: Lafayette at Great Crossing
6 p.m.: Henry Clay at Lexington Christian
7 p.m.: Franklin County at Madison Central
Tuesday’s semifinals at Great Crossing
Lexington Christian-Henry Clay winner vs. Madison Central-Franklin County winner, 6 p.m.
Great Crossing-Lafayette winner vs. Sayre-Berea winner, 8 p.m.
Wednesday’s finals at Great Crossing
Championship game, 7 p.m.
This story was originally published May 21, 2022 at 2:08 PM.
