Woodford County baseball’s first state tournament run in a decade comes to an end
Despite the end to his team’s season, Woodford County head coach Paul Patterson is not disappointed with the way it concluded.
“They played their hearts out today; they played to win,” Patterson said following Friday afternoon’s state semifinal loss to No. 17 Russell County in the Clark’s Pump-N-Shop Baseball State Tournament presented by UK HealthCare.
“Today wasn’t our day.”
The Woodford County Yellow Jackets’ season ended in a 10-0 loss in six innings to Russell County in the first of two semifinals played Friday at Kentucky Proud Park in Lexington.
The Yellow Jackets had needed to rely on their younger players to come out of a four-game losing streak to end the regular season and make their first KHSAA tournament appearance since 2012.
“For them to get this experience is invaluable,” Patterson said.
The first four innings of the state semifinals matchup between Russell County and Woodford County went slowly, with only one run.
Russell County sophomore outfielder Trace Stringer gave the Lakers a 1-0 lead after capitalizing off a Woodford County error.
The Lakers found their rhythm in the fifth inning, scoring five runs to build a 7-0 lead.
The Yellow Jackets attempted to minimize the damage, making pitching changes in the fifth and sixth innings. But Woodford County was never able to catch up to Russell County and was run-ruled in six innings.
“You’ve got to be ready to play the small ball game or wait for the big bomb,” Russell County head coach David Rexroat said in an interview on WJRS 104.9 after the game. “A lot of times in a big park like this, you’re going to create some mistakes for the other team.”
One of Russell County’s 10 runs came from a throwing error by a Woodford County shortstop.
Multiple throwing errors also allowed the Lakers to advance runners for extra bases.
Russell County has only allowed one run in three state tournament games.
This is largely due to senior pitcher Nathan Lawson, an Eastern Kentucky baseball commit. Lawson only allowed four hits and struck out eight batters in Friday’s game. In the round of 16, Lawson allowed two hits and struck out six batters in a 2-1 win over Madison Central.
Russell County’s 1-0 tournament win over Beechwood in the quarterfinals was pitched by senior Cody Luttrell, who threw a complete game and only allowed four hits and struck out eight batters.
In eight postseason games, Russell County has only allowed two opponents to score more than one run.
“Their starter was really good today,” Patterson said of Lawson. “You’ve got to give them a lot of credit.”
While Russell County will play St. Xavier in Saturday night’s championship game, Patterson is looking forward to next season with the Yellow Jackets.
“We’ve got a really young team,” Patterson said. “I’m really excited about their future.”
St. Xavier reaches title game
A banner year of athletics for St. Xavier High School continued Friday night with a state baseball tournament semifinal win against McCracken County.
St. Xavier won 5-4. Junior Cooper Smith had three hits, including a pair of triples, and senior Benjamin Tedesco pitched the final two innings of the game while allowing just one hit to earn the win.
St. X scored three runs in the first inning on home runs by senior Jacob Bennett and junior Landon Akers.
The game was tied 4-4 in the seventh inning, though.
The winning run for St. Xavier came across in the top of the seventh, when courtesy runner junior Alec Hildenbrand scored off an error from second base.