11th Region baseball: LexCath returns to title game to face surprising Franklin County
Locked in a scoreless tie in the top of the sixth inning Tuesday night, Lexington Catholic had the heart of its order coming to the plate and the Knights knew it was time to make something happen if they wanted to move on from the 11th Region baseball tournament semifinals at Bryan Station High School.
“We were struggling at the start and we finally made an adjustment,” Lexington Catholic first baseman Zach Rayyan said of his team’s struggles against Great Crossing starter Coleton Arbaugh, who had allowed only two hits to that point.
Jackson Wasik led off the sixth with a single to center and advanced to second base on a passed ball moments later. That prompted Great Crossing to intentionally walk LexCath’s leading hitter, Owen Jenkins, for the second time in the game.
Then came a controversial hit by pitch called by the home plate umpire after the Knights’ Cody Decker squared to bunt. Great Crossing’s coaches argued Decker swung at the pitch, but they did not persuade the officiating crew.
The bases were loaded for Rayyan.
“We had to do something, and I got it going,” Rayyan said.
Rayyan’s line drive to right field scored Wasik and Jenkins. Brady Wasik followed with a well-placed groundout to knock in another run for a 3-0 lead. Then, Lexington Catholic starting pitcher Burkley Bounds helped his own cause with an RBI double to left to set what would be the final margin.
“It was a 10-pitch at-bat and I was thinking he’s got to throw me a fastball,” Bounds said. “It was a fastball low and in, and I just turned on it.”
Bounds pitched a complete game, scattering five hits with six strikeouts and two walks. Great Crossing’s best chance to score came in the fourth inning when Nate Adkins hit a one-out single followed by Peyton Mullanix’s double to right field. That put runners at second and third, but Burkley got a strikeout and a flyout to center to end the threat.
“I knew I just had to keep throwing strikes and let my defense keep making plays,” Bounds said.
Great Crossing (22-9), who beat LexCath 11-5 in Lexington on May 2, was eliminated from the postseason for the second year in a row by the Knights. This was a rematch of the 2023 region finals, a 3-1 Knights win.
Next, Lexington Catholic (25-11) will get a chance to defend its region title in Wednesday’s finals at 6 p.m. against a surprising Franklin County team.
“We’ve just got to stick to our approach and keep playing how we are,” Bounds said. “We’ve won seven games in a row. We’ve just got to keep going.”
Franklin County knocks off Henry Clay
Depending on who kept the score, Franklin County starting pitcher Jacob Golson either threw a no-hitter or a two-hit shutout in the Flyers’ 3-0 victory against Henry Clay in Tuesday’s 11th Region semifinals at Bryan Station.
Henry Clay’s statistics called two Franklin County misplays in the outfield doubles for the Blue Devils, while Franklin County’s stat keeper labeled them errors.
Regardless, Golson struck out seven and walked one as he blanked the Blue Devils (25-14) in what his coach called an “off-the-charts performance.”
With it, Franklin County erased any doubt that a team who started the season 3-12 could play with the big boys.
“We just kept battling and battling — overcoming adversity, that’s the biggest thing,” Golson said. “We’re starting to play as a team and making the plays we need to make and being smart.”
Fresh off their upset of No. 20 Madison Central on Monday night, the Flyers caused problems for Henry Clay from the outset by putting runners at first and third base with one out in each of the first two innings.
While Henry Clay starter Giancarlo Gonzalez escaped each of those jams without giving up any runs, a disturbing trend had been established.
In the fourth inning, Franklin County again put runners at the corners with one out.
When Kaelin Farr hit a chopper back to Henry Clay’s Gonzalez on the mound, the Flyers’ Jack Ross broke from third base toward home on contact. He slid in safely under the catcher’s tag for a 1-0 lead.
“It felt great to get that first run,” Ross said. “We had runners on basically every inning. It just felt like we had a block, but once we got that run we just broke through.”
In the fifth inning, back-to-back singles by Cameron McDonald and Jeremy Walters and a one-out walk to Ross loaded the bases. A wild pitch allowed McDonald to score for a 2-0 lead. Armstrong then hit a sacrifice fly to score Walters.
Since that 3-12 start, Franklin County (18-19) has won 15 of its last 22 games and two in a row to advance to the Flyers’ first 11th Region finals appearance since 2001, when they won it all and went on to the state semifinals.
“Our record is not really indicative of our team because we’ve played everybody this year,” said Franklin County coach Deron McDonald, who was at the controls for that 2001 team and is in his third season back as head coach after a decade away. “We were going down to Florida to play 7A and 8A schools to see 90 mph pitching so that when we come back we’ll be ready to play. We’ve played Kentucky commits and Western (Kentucky) commits all year long and I told them to just keep grinding and we’ll put the ball in play when it’s time to, we’ll make plays when it’s time to and we’ll pitch when it’s time to.”
This story was originally published May 29, 2024 at 8:31 AM.
