UK commit Willoughby hurls Trinity past Lexington Catholic in top-10 showdown
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Grayson Willoughby threw a 5-1 complete game on the road at LexCath.
- Trinity improved to 32-3 and beat three PrepBaseballReport Power 25 teams in four days.
- District tournament play begins next week for both Trinity and LexCath.
A half dozen radar guns lined Lexington Catholic’s scout box behind home plate Tuesday as No. 1 Trinity’s University of Kentucky commit Grayson Willoughby took the mound against the No. 5 Knights in the final week of the regular season.
Willoughby, whose fastball has been clocked at upwards of 97 miles per hour, perhaps didn’t have his best stuff for this trip to Lexington. But last year’s state tournament most valuable player and one of the favorites for this season’s Mr. Baseball will take an off night that equals a 5-1 complete game victory on the road.
“My friends were like, ‘Hey, there’s all these guys back there. Maybe they want to look at other people?’” Willoughby said with a laugh. “I told them, ‘Uh, let me see how I do today, and then I’ll let you know.’ But yeah, … Anytime I can go seven is my main focus.”
Willoughby allowed one run on four hits and struck out nine. He kept his earned run average at 0.99 for the season. In addition to the scouts, UK coach Nick Mingione and dozens of Willoughby’s family members were in attendance.
“I have tons of family that live here — my grandparents, my aunts, my uncles and cousins, they all live here,” Willoughby said. “It’s special to see them near the last game of the season and get everyone to come see me. Then, it’s tournament time next week, so hopefully they’ll pop by again.”
The Rocks (32-3) rank as the No. 10 team in the nation, according to PrepBaseballReport.com, and are favored to return to Lexington and its Legends Field and Kentucky Proud Park, the sites of this year’s state tournament.
Willoughby’s return to UK’s KPP next spring might depend on where he goes in the Major League Baseball Draft this July. He’s projected as a top 100 pick, according to some draft boards.
Willoughby closed out his eighth win in eight starts Tuesday despite trouble in LexCath’s final at-bat. A leadoff walk led to a two-out bloop single by Leo Gaunce over the Trinity’s second baseman. The Knights’ Beckett Brittingham broke up the shutout with an RBI single to center.
LexCath marked the third PrepBaseballReport.com Power 25 team the Rocks have taken down in the past four days. Trinity topped No. 4 McCracken County 7-0 as part of a doubleheader at home in Louisville on Saturday and knocked off No. 16 Madison Central 5-3 in Richmond on Monday.
“I was a little sore from the week we’ve played,” Willoughby said. “But, you know, you dressed to come out here against LexCath. They were fired up to play us. It’s just finding ways to compete through it, getting ahead with the fast ball, landing breaking balls, mixing the up counts. … just doing everything you can to help the team out.”
Willoughby got help from both his teammates and the Knights.
Nolan Hosking, a senior Louisville commit, hit a solo homer in the first inning and smashed an RBI single up the middle in the fourth inning after a LexCath error kept that frame alive.
Cade Partin later doubled twice and scored each time thanks to Knights errors. Only one of the Rocks’ runs against LexCath starter Eamon Hughes and reliever Wyatt Hayslett was earned.
After the run scored, Trinity coach Richard Arnold sent a couple of relievers to the bullpen, but Willoughby knuckled down for his ninth strikeout of the game to end it.
Arnold explained that he’s looking to see his starters try to go as deep as they can as the postseason nears, because the Rocks’ success depends on not burning through their bullpen in big games. At the start of the seventh inning, Willoughby had thrown just more than 70 pitches, well below the 100-pitch milestone that tends to lead to rough outings.
“(Willoughby’s) a mature kid who handles that,” Arnold said. “So, yeah, his pitch count was down going into that last inning, and he felt really good.”
The Knights (26-7) played without the heart of their offensive lineup — Baird Woodall, Bennie Lawrence and John Crandall — due to injury or illness. LexCath coach Scott Downs didn’t use that as an excuse. His team got seven hits against a pitcher who’d only given up 25 in seven previous starts.
“(Willoughby’s) as good as you’re going to get, right? He threw strikes. He kept us off balance,” Downs said. “Having quality at-bats and proving that we can face the best is, I think, is a confidence boost for our guys moving forward. If we make some routine plays, it’s a 1-0, 2-0 ball game, and who knows what’s going to happen when the game stays close like that?”
In addition to Willoughby and Hosking, Trinity boasts four more high-level Division I commitments in juniors Hudson Meredith (Virginia), Max Phillips (Wake Forest) and Grayson Davis (Clemson) and senior Zach Floyd (Louisville).
It’s no wonder Trinity ranks in the state’s top 10 in batting average, runs scored, hits, homers, and runs batted in.
In addition to being one of Trinity’s best pitchers, Willoughby leads the Rocks with a .482 batting average and 33 RBI. He went 0 for 3 with a walk against LexCath, but that represented an opportunity for his teammates to step up.
“It’s awesome to have guys always pick each other up throughout the lineup,” Willoughby said. “The last couple we’ve had to dig deep and kind of win. … I like that we have the experience of playing in close games. And this core has a lot of experience in the postseason, anyway, from last year. I like where we’re at right now.”
District tournament play begins next week.
