McCracken County lands last ‘haymaker’ in back-and-forth baseball battle with Hazard
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Kentucky high school sports state championships
KHSAA state championships played out this weekend across four different sports in Lexington, and the Herald-Leader’s staff of writers and photographers covered all the action. Click below for highlights from the baseball, softball, tennis and track and field state championships.
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McCracken County tried for a first-inning knockout blow as the top of its order went double, triple, home run for a 3-0 lead against Hazard on Friday in the second day of first-round action in the Clark’s Pump-N-Shop Baseball State Tournament presented by UK HealthCare at Kentucky Proud Park.
But even after falling behind 4-0 after two innings and 7-3 after four frames, the Bulldogs scrapped back into a 7-7 tie in the top of the fourth.
“Hazard is a gritty club. They kept throwing punches and fighting and fighting. There was no quit in those guys, but our guys don’t quit either,” McCracken County Coach Zach Hobbs said. “Our mentality is that until the final out’s made we are never out of anything. Teams throw jabs at us, we’re going to try to throw haymakers.”
The haymaker came in the form of a seven-run rally in the bottom of the fourth inning to break the game back open. The Mustangs went on to win 16-9.
McCracken County was the state runner-up last season and was the No. 1-ranked team in the final PrepBaseballReport.com top 25 of this regular season. The Mustangs have never lost the 1st Region since the school was formed.
McCracken’s big fourth inning got a jolt at the start from Zach Sims’ inside-the-park home run which also knocked in the frame’s leadoff hitter Nate Lang, who singled ahead of him. Hazard’s center fielder misjudged Sims’ shot to center field with sun blaring into his eyes and it sailed over his head all the way to the wall some 400 feet away from home plate. Sims motored in well ahead of the relay throw home.
“We stress out of the box from the time we started our practices in the fall to the spring that we’re going to run full speed out of everything and that was a situation that if we don’t come out of the box full speed, that doesn’t happen,” Hobbs said. “We try to do the little things right that turn into big things.”
Still, Hazard’s fight surprised the Mustangs, maybe especially Mustangs’ starter Jack Bennett, who was named Kentucky Gatorade Player of the Year earlier in the day for a season in which he batted .468 and led the Mustangs pitching staff with at 7-1 record and 0.63 ERA.
“I’ve never got hit around at all like that this year, so I was kind of shocked, honestly. I just tried to battle through it and get the next guy,” said Bennett, who was lifted after getting through the fourth inning. “It was kind of big to come out here and put up seven the next inning and kind of make a statement of who we are.”
Bennett did plenty at the plate to help make up for any missteps on the mound. He had a two-run home run in the first inning that landed in the bullpen area over the right-field fence. And added an RBI double in the fourth. He also snagged the last out of the game on a hard liner to third that popped out of his glove for a moment.
Hobbs had nothing but praise for his player of the year.
“You talk about a deserving young man to get that award, he’s one of the hardest working kids we’ve ever coached,” Hobbs said. “When COVID hit when he was a sophomore, I’ve never seen a kid go to work in the weight room like he did. He’s a great kid, a great teammate, great leader for our team and a great student. I’m happy for Jack and hopefully he can play three more games for us.”
Miller Green went 2-for-2 with two runs scored, two walks and four RBI for the most impressive Mustangs stat line. Nate Lang added four hits with two runs and two RBI. For Hazard (27-10), Sawyer Patrick led the way with two hits and four RBI while Max Johnson and Wyatt Hensley each had a pair of hits and a pair of RBI.
McCracken (34-6) was to play Campbell County at 8:30 p.m. Saturday in the tournament’s quarterfinals.
Friday’s other first-round games
Central Hardin 2, Corbin 1: Some aggressive base running combined with a few Redhounds’ mistakes in the bottom of the fourth inning gave the Bruins both of their runs, and Central Hardin then thwarted a seventh-inning rally attempt to advance.
In the critical fourth inning, Sander Lucas got hit by a pitch to reach first. He stole second and advanced to third as the Corbin catcher committed a throwing error on the play. Lucas scored the game’s first run on a balk by Corbin pitcher Evan Poore. After walks to Michael Kirkpatrick and Lucas Lee, Lucas Thompson hit an RBI single to right field to put Central Hardin up 2-0.
Corbin (26-13) got a run in the seventh after a leadoff single by Jacob Baker, who took second on an error. But it took two outs before Mo Carmichael’s hit up the middle knocked him in. Central Hardin pitcher Zakery Spurrier fielded a ground ball for the final out to end the threat.
Spurrier pitched a complete game, allowing four hits, and had two walks with only the unearned run.
Central Hardin (29-9) was to face St. Xavier at 5 p.m. Saturday in the second round.
St. Xavier 8, Christian County 0: The Tigers (31-10) scored four runs in the first inning to take control of the game and pitchers Benjamin Tedesco and Ben Purnell combined for the seven-hit shutout over the Colonels (29-8).
The first six St. X batters reached in the bottom of the first inning with a leadoff single by Zach Marks and run-scoring singles by Jake Gregorn (2), Landon Akers and Ryan Comella staking the Tigers to a 4-0 lead.
St. X tacked on three more runs in the fourth inning, which included a rarely seen two-RBI sacrifice fly by Jacob Bennett. His shot to Kentucky Proud Park’s ocean-like center field scored Jack Thompson from third and a hustling Marks from second.
Tedesco got the win and struck out five with a walk.
Campbell County 14, Johnson Central 2 (5 innings): The Camels scored two runs in the first, three in the second, four in the third and five in the fourth to pull away to a mercy-rule win over the Golden Eagles.
Campbell County (24-10) had a raft of players with multiple hits, including Evan Clark’s 4-for-4 outing with three runs scored. Jake Gross went 2-for-2 with a run scored and four RBI, including a two-run double in the second inning. He also had two walks. Greg Vineyard and Brayden Wells each had two hits. Vineyard scored three runs; Wells, two. Max Louse pitched all five innings for the win, striking out four with two walks. The runs were unearned.
Johnson Central (16-22) threw six different pitchers in the game with Hunter Blevins taking the loss. In all, Golden Eagles pitchers allowed 12 hits and 10 walks, striking out five. Johnson Central scored their runs in the third inning on a single by Keygan Pelfrey after a walk to Cameron Kelsey and a single by Brock Butcher.
State tournament
At UK’s Kentucky Proud Park in Lexington
Schedule listed in bracketed order
Thursday
Beechwood 7, Owensboro Catholic 6 (8)
Russell County 2, Madison Central 1
Boyd County 3, Danville 0
Woodford County 12, DeSales 9
Friday
McCracken Co. 16, Hazard 9
Campbell Co. 14, Johnson Central 2
Central Hardin 2, Corbin 1
St. Xavier 8, Christian Co. 0
Saturday
1:30 p.m.: Beechwood (29-6) vs. Russell Co. (29-6)
10 a.m.: Boyd Co. (26-9) vs. Woodford Co. (25-13)
8:30 p.m.: McCracken Co. (34-6) vs. Campbell Co. (24-10)
5 p.m.: Central Hardin (29-9) vs. St. Xavier (31-10)
June 10
Semifinal games at 12:30 and 6:30 p.m.
June 11
7 p.m.: Championship game
This story was originally published June 4, 2022 at 9:02 AM.
