BGHS OPEN KHSAA 4th REGION PLAY
AGAINST BARREN COUNTY.
KHSAA’s 4th REGION WILL SEND NEW BASEBALL CHAMPION TO LEXINGTON; SOUTH WARREN SOFTBALL TAKES 38-0 RECORD INTO TOURNAMENT
It might not be a restful night for Nathan Isenberg, the veteran head baseball coach at Bowling Green High School, and his counterpart from Barren County, Trojans coach J.R. Estes.
“I’ll be at my place pretty early,” Isenberg said Sunday night. “We’ll take batting practice (at BGHS) and go over to WKU about 8:30 (a.m.), something like that …”
Bowling Green, ranked in the Top 10 in the statewide rankings for most of the season, is looking to put a disastrous performance against Greenwood in the KHSAA 14th District title game in the rear-view mirror. Bowling Green (31-5 overall) opens KHSAA 4th Region Tournament play against Barren County (19-15) in the opening game at WKU’s Nick Denes Field, set for a 10 a.m. start on Monday morning.
Memorial Day will start with a bang on the WKU campus, as the school plays host to both the KHSAA baseball and softball 4th Region tournaments.
No. 1-ranked South Warren High School softball takes a 38-0 record into 4th Region play, looking to make its third consecutive state tournament appearance. The Spartans (38-0 overall) will face Clinton County (13-14) in the late game, scheduled for a 7 p.m. start at the WKU Softball Complex.
Weather can always be a factor in these tournaments, with the baseball championship game scheduled for Wednesday at 6 p.m. The softball championship game will unfold on Thursday.
“Our girls have done a good job focusing on what’s in front of them,” South Warren coach Kelly Reynolds said. “For our seniors, I think they know, ‘This is it.'”
INTO THE KHSAA 4th REGION TOURNAMENTS.
AND THE GATORS ARE 25-10 OVERALL.
Bowling Green’s baseball squad took a 10-game winning streak into the KHSAA 14th District Tournament, at South Warren High School, before a defensive collapse in the second inning sent them spinning to a 10-1 loss to Greenwood in the championship game.
Bowling Green won’t have to wait long to get back in the groove, with a morning game scheduled against Barren County. The Purples slipped past the Trojans, 6-5, just two weeks ago in Glasgow, so the two teams will have familiarity with one another.
Barren County took the KHSAA 15th District championship by drubbing Allen County-Scottsville, 10-1, at Warren East High School. Warren East dropped a 3-2 heartbreaker to Allen County-Scottsville in the semifinals, in a 15-inning game that ended well after midnight.
Warren East made a surprising run to the 4th Region championship game last year, at WKU, before South Warren came storming back to take an 8-7 victory at Nick Denes Field. The Spartans would make their second Elite Eight appearance in three seasons, falling to McCracken County, 9-4, in the quarterfinals at UK’s Kentucky Proud Park in Lexington.
Isenberg said he’d start senior left-hander Jack Cowan (6-1, 2.77 ERA) in Monday’s game against Barren County. The Purples have several capable arms available, and senior right-hander Logan Johnson (6-2, 0.93 ERA) was the consensus 4th Region Pitcher of the Year. Senior second baseman Landon Gilbert leads the Purples at the plate, batting a team-high .421 with 45 RBI. Senior third baseman Matt Mosley, a transfer from South Warren, has hit a team-high eight home runs with 36 RBI.
“We have a talented and very balanced team,” Isenberg said. “Hopefully we’re 100 percent healthy and ready to make a deep postseason run.
“You’re gonna have to play three good games, in three straight days, to win this thing, no matter who you play.”
Greenwood coach Jason Jaggers has plenty of pitching options himself.
The Gators are likely to go with senior right-hander Whit Glosick (7-3, 3.16 ERA) or junior right-hander Mason Cosby (8-1, 1.86 ERA) in their 4th Region opening game against Allen County-Scottsville (13-19 overall). They used three pitchers — sophomore left-hander Ethan York, Cosby and senior right-hander Jackson Lee — in their impressive 10-1 victory over Bowling Green in the 14th District championship game.
Greenwood’s quarterfinal game against AC-S is set for a 4 p.m. start.
The tournament will feature some top-flight shortstops such as Greenwood’s Kioshe Une, Bowling Green’s Colt Isenberg and Franklin-Simpson’s Brady Delk. Delk, a senior, and the Wildcats will face KHSAA 16th District runner-up Monroe County (14-17-1) in the late game at WKU’s Nick Denes Field. Franklin-Simpson is 25-12 on the season and trails only Bowling Green in the 4th Region RPI rankings.
“You’ve got to play good, no matter who you play,” Franklin-Simpson coach Matthew Wilhite said. “We’ve played a tough schedule, and it’s paid off.”
Delk, a football/baseball standout on his way to play baseball at Wabash Valley Community College, is optimistic about the Wildcats’ chances.
“There’s a lot of good teams in pretty good spots going into the tournament,” Delk said. “It’s going to be a very competitive environment.”
ALLEN-COUNTY SCOTTSVILLE IN
4th REGION QUARTERFINAL PLAY.
AND I PRETTY MUCH CALL
THE SHOTS ‘ROUND HERE …