Jim Mashek

SOUTH WARREN DRUBS LOGAN COUNTY, 10-0, IN KHSAA 4th REGION TOURNAMENT; BARREN COUNTY SLIPS PAST MONROE COUNTY, 1-0

Greenwood High School’s baseball team had to wait it out on Memorial Day, before getting a chance to square off with Franklin-Simpson at the KHSAA 4th Region Tournament at WKU’s Nick Denes Field.

The Gators played in the late game, and needed a rare bullpen outing from senior right-hander Nathan Howard to knock off Franklin-Simpson, 4-2, in a game played in light rain in the late innings.

Russell County, meanwhile, was sent home early. The defending 4th Region champion, sporting an eight-game winning streak, ran into an ambitious Warren East squad, a team that had been eliminated by the Lakers in each of the previous three seasons at The Nick.

Didn’t work out that way. Not this time.

Brenden Bratcher, the Raiders’ slender right-hander, turned in a masterful performance before yielding to Warren East teammate Brooks Vincent, who was making just his third appearance out of the bullpen. Vincent closed the door, however, on the tradition-rich Lakers, and Warren East could celebrate its hard-fought, 4-3 victory over its high-profile opponent.

Finding a place to park outside WKU’s Nick Denes Field was pretty hard in the evening hours, on account of the fact that seemingly half of Russell Springs turned out to support their Lakers in postseason play. And Warren East has labored through a difficult season, reaching double digits for victories this season with a tense 5-4 victory over Glasgow High School in the KHSAA’s 15th District Tournament at Barren County.

Warren East had a special motivtation, however, in the fact that the Raiders had been eliminated in 4th Region play by Russell County in each of the previous three seasons.

No problem this time.

“It’s the weight off our shoulders,” veteran Warren East coach Wes Sanford said when it was over. “I told our kids it was personal for us. It’s about pride. Our record doesn’t really reflect what we have in this team.”

Warren East improved to 11-19 overall. The Raidahs will face crosstown rival Greenwood in semifinal play, with a first pitch scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Greenwood (28-6) took two games from Warren East in regular-season play, but they were both competitive contests. The Gatahs have won eight consecutive games themselves, after senior right-hander Nathan Howard stepped into the closer’s role against Franklin-Simpson and battled out of a seventh-inning jam.

“We knew this game was going to go a full seven innings,” Greenwood coach Jason Jaggers said. “Franklin-Simpson is a good hitting team, and Coach (Matt) Wilhite does a great job down there. Survive and advance, that’s the name of the game.”

Greenwood, the KHSAA 14th District champion, is the Commonwealth’s ninth-ranked team, according to Max Preps. The 14th was considered the toughest district over the course of the entire season, and that’s also evident in South Warren (28-8) checking in as Max Preps’ eighth-ranked team, with third-place Bowling Green High School (20-12) finishing at No. 16.

“Me and (South Warren coach) Chris Gage have talked about that a lot this year,” Jaggers said.

South Warren opened the tournament with a 10-0 shellacking of 13th District champion Logan County. The Spartans also saved their top two pitchers, senior left-hander Mikey Coradini and senior right-hander Austin Allen, for the final two games of the tournament, if South Warren can reach Wednesday night’s 4th Region championship game.

Jacob Lobb, South’s junior right-hander, worked 3 2/3 innings and was the winning pitcher.

Cameron Crawford, Barren County’s junior right-hander, scattered eight hits in 5 1/3 innings before giving way to Trojans teammate Sutton Hide. Crawford and Hyde guided Barren County past Monroe County, 1-0, as the Trojans earned their 24th victory of the season against 10 defeats.

Monroe County finishes its season at 14-14 overall.

GREENWOOD 4, FRANKLIN-SIMPSON 2

Greenwood’s Zach Davis, a University of Louisville signee, and the Gators were cruising along with a 4-0 lead, heading into the top of the seventh-inning, when the Wildcats’ bats came to life.

Braxton Turner lined a one-out double to the right-field corner, and Liam Heinze, the final man in the F-S batting order, ripped a triple to the fence in right-center field. The WIldcats scored another run on a Greenwood error in which Franklin-Simpson’s leadoff man, Brady Delk, reached base safely.

Greenwood coach Jason Jaggers was taking no chances.

Jaggers wandered to the pitcher’s mound and immediately called for senior GHS right-hander Nathan Howard.

Howard, a starting pitcher himself, gave up a leadoff single to Franklin-Simpson’s Layne Alford, putting the go-ahead run at the plate with no outs.

Howard was equal to the task.

The 6-foot-1 senior right-hander then induced a ground ball to first base from the Wildcats’ Jaxon Gass. Howard was quick to cover the bag, however, and the Gators were two outs away from the victory.

(By the same token, Franklin-Simpson had two men in scoring position.)

Howard was one cool customer, however, and he slipped a called third strike past Franklin-Simpson’s Griff Banton, sending the Wildcats home with a solid 22-14 record.

Greenwood’s Zach Davis kept the Gators moving forward, allowing one earned run while working 6 1/3 innings on the mound. He scattered five hits while recording five strikeouts.

Davis remained unbeaten in seven decisions, while Franklin-Simpson’s Boy Blanckenberg took the loss, dropping to 6-6 on the season.

“Zach Davis was phenomenal. We know we’re going to get everyone’s best,” Greenwood coach Jason Jaggers said. “Zach’s a strike machine, gets a lot of ground balls, and that’s just what we needed.

“(Warren East is) going to give us our best game (Tuesday).”

Greenwood first baseman Andy Jolly delivered the big blow at the plate, a sinking line drive off Blanckenberg that skidded inside the right-field foul line for a two-run double in the bottom of the fourth inning. Henry Justice also had a run-scoring single in the first, scoring Jolly from second base.

“Well, they walked Zach (intentionally), so that got me thinking,” Jolly said with a grin. “I guess they didn’t believe I could do it.”

Davis, who will be a middle infielder at U of L, isn’t one given to histrionics or self-promotion. As a pitcher, just give him the ball and let him go to work.

“I really just tried to throw strikes,” Davis said. “I’m never going to say, ‘I’m going to beat this team, or that team,’ if I’m doing all the work.

“My defense does it for me.”

WARREN EAST 4, RUSSELL COUNTY 3

Warren East’s Brenden Bratcher had reached 106 pitches by the end of the sixth inning, so Raiders coach Wes Sanford was ready to turn to reliever Brooks Vincent.

Bratcher recorded 11 strikeouts over the course of his six innings on the mound, and he also contributed at the plate. Bratcher led off the third with a single before scoring an teammate Kaiven Hinton’s triple, a shot off the wall in right-center field. Warren East’s Briggs Young added an RBI single up the middle, and suddenly the Raidahs were sporting a 4-0 lead.

(That’s stop-the-presses material in Russell Springs. The two-man radio team in the press box at WKU’s Nick Denes Field was borderline apoplectic.)

“I just tried to stay calm, but losing to that team in this tournament in the last three years made it hard,” Bratcher said. “We know we can win.”

Warren East coach Wes Sanford has pushed his team through the tough times, and now, even with its 11-19 record, the Raiders are just two victories away from a trip to Lexington’s Kentucky Proud Park and the KHSAA state tournament.

“They left it all on the field for us,” Sanford said. “We have played a lot of good teams this year. Now we get to come back and play (Tuesday).”

SOUTH WARREN 10, LOGAN COUNTY 0

South Warren, the runner-up to Greenwood in the KHSAA’s ultra-competitive 14th District, was on top of its game against Logan County.

The Cougars couldn’t say the same.

South Warren needed just six innings to run-rule Logan County, which finished its season with a respectable 22-13 record.

Pearson Gray, Camden Page and Brandon Perkins all finished with two hits for the Spartans. Junior right-hander Jacob Lobb (4-1) was the winning pitcher. Perkins finished with three RBI while teammate Ethan Reynolds, a WKU signee who missed much of the season after hand surgery, went 1-for-3 with his third home run of the season.

South Warren won for the 10th time in its last 12 games. The Spartans (28-8) will face Barren County (24-10) in the first semifinal on Tuesday, set for a 5:30 p.m. start.

BARREN COUNTY 1, MONROE COUNTY 0

Barren County, which won the KHSAA 15th District championship under interim coach J.R. Estes, has allowed just three runs in its last three games, victories over Allen County-Scottsville, Warren East and Monroe County.

This time, it was pitchers Cameron Crawford and Sutton Hyde who carried the Trojans to victory.

Jackson Reece had two of Barren County’s three hits, and the Trojans might need a lot of offense to compete with South Warren. The Spartans twice defeated Barren County, winning 7-0 early in the season in Glasgow before taking a 3-0 victory over the Trojans in mid-May.

Monroe County finished its season with a 14-14 overall record.