‘Just a regular day.’ LexCath, Great Crossing keep calm, carry on in tense baseball semis.
Lexington Catholic withstood a late rally by defending 11th Region champion Madison Central to defeat the Indians 7-4 and advance to its first regional baseball tournament finals since its last crown in 2011.
Lexington Catholic freshman reliever Cody Decker came on in relief with two on and one out and a 7-2 lead. What looked like a comfortable advantage got sticky very quickly Tuesday night.
“There is not a comfortable lead in this region,” LexCath Coach Scott Downs said. “There is not a team that can’t come back from whatever deficit.”
Fortunately, Downs’ faith in his freshman and the defense behind him was rewarded.
“(Decker’s) amazing. I love that guy,” LexCath sophomore starter Pierre Kauffmann said after the game.
Despite an error that loaded the bases, a wild pitch that let one run across and a Madison Central single by Gunnar Rhodus to score another, Decker got the fielding play he needed from third baseman Max Daugherty to seal the victory over the Indians (26-11).
Lexington Catholic (29-9) was to face Great Crossing for the 11th Region Tournament championship at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Madison Central. Great Crossing beat Sayre 4-3 in Tuesday’s other semifinal. Coincidentally, the same two schools were also to contest the 11th Region softball championship at Henry Clay at 6 p.m. Wednesday.
Kauffmann pitched 6⅓ innings, allowing three earned runs on 10 hits while striking out six and walking none for the win. Decker walked one and struck out one in getting the save.
Kauffmann said he felt sure his team would pull out the victory.
“It was really tough, but I wasn’t really nervous,” Kauffmann said. “We prepare for this a lot. It’s just a regular day.”
Kauffmann did admit some first-inning nerves when Madison Central’s Parker Mullins smashed a one-out triple to right field and Ben Poynter knocked him in for a quick 1-0 Indians lead.
But LexCath’s offense responded immediately with three runs in the bottom half that included doubles by Griffin Cameron and Zach Grigalis, an RBI single by Harrison Tibe and a two-out, two-run single by Zach Rayyan.
“They punched us in the mouth first and we responded,” Rayyan said. “We did our job. Everyone knew what we were supposed to do and we got it done.”
Cody Decker led off the second inning with a hit and was brought home by Owen Jenkins’ two-out double down the right-field line for a 4-1 lead.
Daniel Bauer cut Madison Central’s deficit in half in the fourth with a double to left that scored Rhodus. But Kauffmann calmly got out of the jam with a fielder’s choice and a strikeout to leave two Madison Central runners stranded.
“He’s been the dog for us since he moved into the rotation,” Downs said of Kauffmann. “I think getting those three runs after giving up one calmed him down a little bit and settled the team down.”
Playing as the home team on Madison Central’s field by virtue of the draw, LexCath added some insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth inning. Cameron followed Decker’s leadoff hit in the sixth with a one-out RBI double. A Tibe single and a Grigalis sacrifice fly tacked on a run each to stake the Knights to a 7-2 lead for Madison Central’s final at-bat.
Lexington Catholic came into the tournament as the highest-rated team in the field at No. 4 in the state, according to PrepBaseballReport.com. Unranked Great Crossing has proved a giant killer this week, however, knocking out No. 6 Paul Laurence Dunbar and No. 7 Sayre on its way to the finals. The two met earlier this season with the Knights claiming a 9-2 victory on April 15.
Warhawks seize on Sayre mistakes
Great Crossing (24-12) capitalized on an avalanche of Sayre miscues Tuesday to claim a 4-3 victory over the Spartans and earn the school its first 11th Region baseball tournament finals appearance.
Two errors in the first inning set up the Warhawks’ Nate Adkins’ run-scoring groundout for a 1-0 lead.
Two more errors and a walk gave Great Crossing’s Matt Lacy an opportunity to deliver a sacrifice fly. A wild throw home on the play allowed not only Adkins to score from third, but also Peyton Mullannix to score from second for a 3-0 lead.
Sayre got an RBI double by Charlie Slabaugh and an RBI single by Grady Johnson in the fourth inning to cut its deficit to 3-2.
But another Spartans error in the bottom of the fourth turned Dustin Hoffman’s single into two additional bases, putting him at third for Zach Morris’s run-scoring hit in the next at-bat to extend the lead again, 4-2.
Though it had racked up eight errors, Sayre still had a great opportunity to tie the game or take the lead in the bottom of the sixth.
Great Crossing starter Nathan Beaven exited after a leadoff walk. Then, senior reliever Caleb Morrison gave up a single and a walk against the first two batters he faced to load the bases win no one out.
But Graham Johnson’s sharply hit liner to left found a perfectly placed Hoffman for the first out. While Dirk Visser’s grounder into a fielder’s choice scored Sayre’s third run, another walk to load the bases went for naught as Morrison struck out Reed Beatty on three pitches to end the threat.
“I thought we showed a lot of resilience, a lot of character to stay in the game,” Sayre Coach Kevin Clary said. “Every ball we hit hard, we hit right at them. Hats off to them.”
Sayre (29-10) ended the season one game short of its region runner-up finish a year ago, but with its six seniors led by Stockham and Raymond Saatman the Spartans claimed the school’s first All “A” Classic small-school state championship this year.
“We just picked a really bad day not to play well,” Clary said.
This story was originally published May 24, 2023 at 8:20 AM.
