Jim Mashek

SOUTH WARREN WILL FACE GREENWOOD IN TUESDAY’s 14th DISTRICT CHAMPIONSHIP GAME, WEATHER PERMITTING

South Warren High School’s baseball team has negotiated more than its share of twists and turns over the last three months.

Losing star Ethan Reynolds, a WKU signee, to hand surgery early in the season is right at the top of the list.

But Reynolds has been back on the field for a week or so, and his presence had a lot to do with the Spartans’ 5-2 victory over Bowling Green High School in a long-anticipated KHSAA 14th District Tournament semifinal game on Monday night at Greenwood’s Corey Hart Ballpark/Aaron Fletcher Field.

“This team has weathered a lot of injuries,” South Warren coach Chris Gage said when it was over.

The weather was on everyone’s mind Monday, as lightning strikes in the area pushed the second semifinal game back about an hour after Greenwood crushed winless Warren Central, 15-0, in three innings.

There were no assurances that the game would even finish, what with the weather forecast and the flexibility provided by the KHSAA’s format for determinining 4th Region participants.

Ultimately, though, the Spartans rode Camden Page’s bases-loaded triple off the center-field fence, four gritty innings from starting pitcher Mikey Coradini and Ethan Reynolds’ emergence from the bullpen to tame their crosstown rival before a packed house with the midnight hour lurking in the distance.

South Warren won for the ninth time in 10 games, while improving to 27-7 overall, in qualifying for Tuesday night’s 14th District championship game. Bowling Green finished its season with a solid 20-12 record, while Greenwood earned its 26th victory against six defeats.

Tuesday’s championship game is set for a 6 p.m. start, but the weather forecast hasn’t been encouraging. The draw for the KHSAA’s 4th Region Tournament, to begin Monday at WKU’s Nick Denes Field, will be held on Saturday morning at Allen County-Scottsville High School.

SOUTH WARREN 5, BOWLING GREEN 2

Camden Page’s bases-loaded triple off the center-field fence allowed the Spartans to put up a 5-spot in the second inning, and South Warren held on for the high-wire act that followed.

South Warren coach Chris Gage turned to junior reliever Jacob Ladd to open the top of the fifth inning, with the Spartans cruising along with a 5-1 lead.

Until …

Landon Gilbert drew a leadoff walk.

And Grayson Newman was hit by a pitch, with one out.

And BGHS catcher Harrison Yates used a high chopper, along the first-base line, to reach on an infield single to load the bases.

“You’d like to manage to try and win the tournament, win the district tournament,” Gage said. “But we had to throw everything we had … right now … in this game. If that depletes us for the (championship) game, that’s the gamble.”

Ethan Reynolds and the Spartans were all in.

Reynolds, the multi-purpose star who gave up his senior year of football to concentrate on baseball, was playing in his 10th game of the season. He was the South Warren DH for Monday’s high-profile semifinal, but he was warming up, in the bullpen, when Ladd ran into trouble in the fifth.

Gage went back to the mound for a second time, and the Spartans moved all the chips into the middle of the table. Reynolds trotted in from the bullpen, and then, BANG, the stadium lights went out.

It wasn’t a long delay, however, and Reynolds used a 2-2 breaking pitch to get a called third strike on the Purples’ Hudson Nottmeier. Bowling Green still had the tying run at the plate, however, and junior first baseman Logan Johnson had a chance to tie things up with one swing of the bat.

Didn’t happen that way.

Reynolds fanned Johnson on a 3-2 fastball, retiring the side, and the Purples wouldn’t score again until the top of the seventh, on Grayson Newman’s sacrifice fly that chased Landon Gilbert across the plate. Bowling Green’s Harrison Yates then lined one up the middle, but South’s shortstop, senior Griffin Rardin, was shading him that way, and he made the play to send the Spartans to the championship game.

South Warren left-hander Mikey Coradini was the winning pitcher, running his record to an impressive 9-1. But Reynolds, making his first pitching appearance since returning from his hand injury, sent a message with his impressive performance.

“Ethan was so pumped up, we had to bring him down a little bit,” Gage said.

Reynolds smiled at the thought.

“I was AMPED, just to be out there,” he said. “Then the lights went out, and I think that gave me a lift. (Bowling Green is) a very good team. Mikey did a great job. I just had to throw strikes.”

That’s the name of the game, of course, and BGHS coach Nathan Isenberg scrambled to keep his team in the game. The Purples used four pitchers — starter Landon Gilbert, Eli Kries, Dru Jones and finally his son, senior outfielder/pitcher/first baseman Drew Isenberg — to stay within striking distance.

“We preach all the time, you’ve got 21 outs on offense, and 21 outs on defense,” Nathan Isenberg told Micheal Compton of the Bowling Green Daily News. “You never know which will be the one that costs you, or finishes it … We had some decent at bats. Our (seven) walks were good at bats. We worked some of that.

“The pitches that were in the zone, we just didn’t do a lot with. It’s hard to do a lot, with two infield hits.”

Gilbert, a junior, took the loss, finishing at 2-2 on the season.

Camden Page, meanwhile, is happy that summertime is here, and he no longer has to balance athletics with his academic work. He’s in line to become the Spartans’ starting quarterback next football season, and he’s played basketball before joining Chris Gage’s baseball squad for each of the last three seasons. The 6-foot-3, 200-pound sophomore pitches a little bit, too, but it was his bases-loaded triple that set the tone for this game.

“I thought that one was going out (over the fence) … I guess Cam hasn’t been lifting (weights) lately,” South Warren shortstop Griffin Rardin said with a smile.

“I was looking for the fastball, and it felt pretty good, off the bat,” Page said. “(Drew Isenberg) had a pretty good read on it … We knew what we needed to do. We had to get to the regional tournament.”

The Spartans are sporting a .338 team batting average with 75 extra-base hits in 34 games.

South Warren coach Chris Gage said senior right-hander Austin Allen (4-4, 2.65 ERA) is his “likely” starting pitcher for Tuesday’s championship game, while Greenwood’s Jason Jaggers was still considering his options.

South Warren faced Greenwood in the final week of April, winning the first one, 2-0, on Mikey Coradini’s impressive four-hitter before the Gators bounced back with a 4-2 victory on their home turf.

Which is the site for Tuesday’s championship game.

GREENWOOD 15, WARREN CENTRAL 0

Greenwood coach Jason Jaggers used virtually everyone on his roster in eliminating the Dragons, and the Gators then waited to learn of their opponent in the championship game.

Senior right-hander Ryan Loairs was the winning pitcher, running his record to 4-0 on the season.

“I just tried to throw strikes, let the defense do the work,” Loairs said.

Warren Central finished its season with an 0-12 record.

“I thought out guys did a good job,” Jaggers said. “They were locked in, right after we got here, after school. Ryan did a good job of throwing strikes. Now we get the opportunity to play for a district championship.”

Greenwood has won six straight games, and 12 of its last 14 contests, including a 3-0 victory over Louisville’s St. Xavier squad (27-6 overall) on May 9 at Corey Hart Ballpark/Aaron Fletcher Field.

The Gators have a modest .298 team batting average, with seven home runs, but their deep pitching staff takes an impressive 1.48 ERA into the championship game.

Jaggers is expected to start either senior right-hander Zach Davis (6-0, 0.39 ERA) or senior right-hander Nathan Howard (5-2, 1.62 ERA) in Tuesday’s game against South Warren.

Again, weather permitting.