State baseball: West Jessamine battles to the end in 1st round loss to Beechwood
West Jessamine coach Austin Kearns wouldn’t call his team’s run to its second 12th Region championship and state tournament appearance in three seasons improbable.
The Colts took their lumps in going 16-19 in the regular season. They dished them out in tallying three straight wins in the region playoffs, including a 2-0 victory over No. 8 Boyle County in the semifinals.
But West Jessamine ran into another ranked team Friday in the first round of the Baseball State Tournament presented by UK HealthCare at Legends Field.
No. 11 Beechwood built a 6-0 lead over seven innings before the Colts finally broke through in their final at-bat of the 6-2 loss.
“When you play for one another and don’t care who gets the credit, a lot of good things happen, and they’ve done that the past couple of weeks,” Kearns said. “We just (made) a couple of mistakes tonight, didn’t swing the bats well ’til late, and, yeah, that’s how it goes.”
Beechwood starter Sawyer Carlisle had a two-hit shutout going until the seventh inning when a pair of walks led to Jordan Head’s RBI single and Blake Buehner’s run-scoring sacrifice fly to get the goose-egg off the scoreboard.
“We battled to the end,” Kearns said. “It was a little too little, too late. Carlisle threw a good game. He pounded the zone. I don’t think he had a walk until the seventh.”
West Jessamine starter Tyler Giles held serve against the Tigers for three innings, but a pair of botched pickoff attempts set up each of Beechwood’s scores in the fourth inning.
Coincidentally, the game was halted briefly as a squirrel darted from left-center field toward the Beechwood dugout. The light moment isn’t new to baseball. Many baseball teams, most famously the Los Angeles Angels more than a decade ago, have had “rally squirrel” moments. Beechwood added Kentucky high school baseball to the lore.
Sawyer started the fourth off with an infield single. After the squirrel stoppage, Sawyer’s courtesy runner, Bobby Meier, advanced from first to third on a pickoff attempt that sailed into right field. Zach True singled him home after a walk to Caleb Arrasmith for a 1-0 lead. Arrasmith and True moved up a base on the second pickoff attempt, this time at second. Jackson Mando singled Arrasmith in to make it 2-0.
“As long as I’m staying consistent on our side and making sure that we’re getting outs pretty quick, I know eventually, we’re going to hit them,” Carlisle said.
From there, Beechwood (33-9) continued to add runs, most spectacularly on an inside-the-park home run in the top of the seventh inning by junior Louisville commit Tyler Fryman. His liner to right center perfectly split the West Jessamine outfielders and rolled to one of the deepest parts of the park. The play also scored Maddux Hatton, who singled moments earlier. Brooks Becker tagged on an RBI single after another Carlisle hit to put Beechwood up 6-0.
Despite West Jessamine’s rally in the seventh Carlisle, a senior Massachusetts Institute of Technology commit, stayed in the game and recorded his 12th strikeout of the night to close it out.
“I really enjoy how I earn Coach (Kevin) Gray’s trust,” Carlisle said. “When he puts me in these positions, it makes me even more confident that I can go out there and do what I need to do.”
Beechwood’s reward is a date with No. 1 Trinity in Saturday’s 8:30 p.m. quarterfinal back at Legends Field.
West Jessamine (20-20), meanwhile, sent off its nine seniors with two region crowns and earned some valuable postseason experience for a squad that should return seven of its top 10 contributors, including leading hitters Brock Hayden, a junior, and Braxton Frankenburger, a sophomore.
“I’m not surprised we got here. I think we all knew we had the talent in the room for that,” Kearns said. “These kids being about to put it together for the last two or three weeks is something for them to remember and know what it takes moving forward.”
Friday’s other first round games
Apollo 5, Whitley County 3: Gunnar Hendricks’ three-run home run in the fourth inning broke a scoreless tie and was followed up by an RBI single from Jagger Pate moments later to help the unranked Eagles (21-12) stun No. 2 Whitley County (38-3).
John Milburn led off Apollo’s fourth inning with a double to right center off Colonels starter Ethan Allen. Ty Lillpop got hit by a pitch to put two on for Hendricks’ blast. Later Jackson Carter singled and moved into scoring position on Brayden Burger’s sacrifice bunt. Facing an 0-2 count, Pate knocked in Carder with a hit to left center to cap the rally.
In the fifth inning, Ryleigh Logan made Whitley pay for a leadoff walk to Geordyn Stevens with an RBI single to put Apollo up 5-1.
Whitley County, ranked near the top of PrepBaseballReport.com’s Power 25 all season, scratched out a run on a passed ball in the fifth after Kip Allen’s leadoff double. The Colonels scored two more in the sixth on RBI singles by Cooper Parman and Luke Hillard, but Apollo’s Isaac James came on in relief for Milburn from there and pitched two perfect innings for the save.
Trinity 5, Bullitt East 0: Grayson Willoughby pitched a three-hit shutout with nine strikeouts in his first game after being named the state’s Mr. Baseball as the No. 1 Shamrocks (37-3) cruised.
Nolan Hosking hit a solo homer in the third and Grayson Davis smashed a two-run homer to right-center in the fifth to provide all the offense needed. Trinity got an unearned run in the second inning and turned Cade Partin’s leadoff walk in the fourth into a run as Partin stole a base and scored all the way from second on Harper Haywood’s sacrifice bunt.
Chris Logan notched two of the three hits against Willoughby for Bullitt East (24-11).
Campbell County 6, LaRue County 1: Tyler Schumacher allowed a run when the game was all but decided while also grabbing two hits, an RBI and a run scored at the plate to help lead the Camels (25-13).
Camden Tiemeier added an RBI double in the third inning and a two-run homer in the fifth for Campbell County, who saw six different batters cross the plate.
No. 21 LaRue County (30-8) stranded nine runners as its offense struggled to put rallies together. Dekker Thomas led the Hawks with two hits and a run scored via Ryan Hughes two-out single in the seventh inning.
State High School Baseball Tournament
What: Baseball State Tournament presented by UK HealthCare
Where: Legends Field (this week) and Kentucky Proud Park (semis and final).
Tickets: via GoFan.
Streaming: KHSAA.tv.
Friday’s first-round games
Campbell County 6, LaRue County 1.
Apollo 5, Whitley County 3.
Trinity 5, Bullitt East 0.
Beechwood 6, West Jessamine 2.
Saturday’s quarterfinals
10 a.m.: McCracken County vs. Sayre.
1:30 p.m.: Boyd County vs. University Heights.
5 p.m.: Campbell County vs. Apollo.
8:30 p.m.: Beechwood vs. Trinity.
June 12 semifinals
10 a.m.: Sayre-McCracken County winner vs. Boyd County-University Heights winner.
1:30 p.m.: Campbell County-Apollo winner vs. Beechwood-Trinity winner.
June 13 final
3:30 p.m.: Championship game.
