Jim Mashek

BGHS OPENS KHSAA STATE TOURNAMENT PLAY AGAINST McCRACKEN COUNTY ON THURSDAY AFTERNOON

It was mid-April, after Spring Break had come and gone, and Bowling Green High School’s baseball team was playing a high-profile game against Knoxville’s Farragut Admirals on the BGHS campus.

Winning is a way of life with the Farragut program, but the Purples were sporting a 14-1 record themselves, and they weren’t about to back down against the longtime Tennessee powerhouse.

And in the bottom of the fifth inning, Bowling Green sent 11 batters to the plate, taking control on its way to a 10-4 victory over the Admirals and setting the table for bigger things to come.

Like a return to the KHSAA’s state tournament, which unfolds Thursday morning at Legends Field in Lexington.

Veteran BGHS coach Nathan Isenberg has taken the Purples back to the state tournament, starting with Thursday afternoon’s first-round game against tradition-rich McCracken County. But on that cool April night, after the Purples had taken care of business, Isenberg and his players seemed to understand they had a chance to do something special over the next couple months.

“The pitchers kept us in the game,” Isenberg said that night. “On offense, we executed a couple hit-and-runs, had some good at bats … We’ve got a lot of arms.”

Do they ever.

And the bulk of them reside in Bowling Green’s six-man senior class.

Senior catcher James Yarbrough and the other five BGHS seniors — Logan Johnson, Hudson Nottmeier, Landon Gilbert, Jack Cowan and Matt Mosley — have carried the Purples to Lexington, and they’ll be looking for four more victories to bring the school its first state championship since 1965.

Heady stuff, to be sure.

And all of them, save Yarbrough, can pitch, when they’re not playing another position in the field.

“They’re my guys,” Yarbrough said.

Isenberg is expected to choose between Cowan and Johnson as his starting pitcher Thursday afternoon in Lexington, but one thing’s for sure.

He won’t be reluctant to make a pitching change, because seven-inning games can come and go in a hurry.

And the Purples’ pitching staff has strength in numbers.

“One of the things I’ve always done is try to get my guys to play multiple positions,” Isenberg said. “I think it goes back to my college (baseball) background … We had a lot of injuries last year, and most of the season was ‘survival mode.’

“At the same time, I think a lot of this came TOGETHER last year, along with Greg (Scheer, the first-year BGHS pitching coach) and our transfers.”

Ah, the transfers.

Jack Cowan had primarily played travel ball during his years at Greenwood High School, and he’s given the Purples a left-handed starting pitcher and solid outfielder. Matt Mosley, formerly of South Warren High School, quickly emerged as the team’s top power threat, and Isenberg has said his defensive presence, at third base, has given his team stability over the long haul.

And, oh yeah, Mosley can pitch, too, in a pinch.

And Logan Johnson, a power pitcher who doubles as the Purples’ first baseman, will tell you that the arrival of Mosley and Cowan gave the team a sense of confidence long before Bowling Green opened the season against Owensboro Catholic on March 21 at Owensboro’s Chautaqua Park.

“We were all really excited when we found out Matt and Jack were coming (to BGHS),” Johnson said. “A lot of us have played together, or against each other, since we were kids … The big thing, with this team, is the coaches know how to TEACH baseball, and we’ve tried to put that to good use on the field.”

The bulk of BGHS coach Nathan Isenberg’s squad includes multi-sport athletes. Johnson and Purples teammate Hudson Nottmeier helped Bowling Green’s football squad claim back-to-back KHSAA state championships, as underclassmen, before bowing out in the Class 5A quarterfinals last season. Johnson was a hard-hitting linebacker, and Nottmeier a crafty wide receiver.

BGHS catcher James Yarbrough played golf, in the fall, and some of the Purples’ younger players, such as sophomore outfielder Ian Wells, played JV basketball over the winter months.

Last fall, after football practice, Johnson and Nottmeier would sometimes stroll over to Harold J. Stihl Field, to take some cuts in the batting cage or shag some fly balls in the outfield. Nottmeier said getting knocked out in semifinal play of the KHSAA 14th District Tournament the last two seasons — both times by South Warren — served as an impetus for their success over the last three months.

“Last season did leave a bad taste in our mouths,” Nottmeier said.

Nottmeier roams center field for the Purples, but he came in to pitch against Russell County in the semifinals of the KHSAA 4th Region Tournament last week at WKU’s Nick Denes Field. Bowling Green would defeat the Lakers, 12-2, with Colt Isenberg’s two-run triple closing the game after five innings. The next night, Logan Johnson and eighth grader Henry Phillips scattered 10 hits, as the Purples defeated Greenwood, 7-5, to claim the region championship.

Johnson has compiled a 7-2 record this season with a 1.52 ERA. Jack Cowan, the Purples’ senior left-hander, has gone 7-1 with a 2.77 ERA. Landon Gilbert, the senior second baseman, has worked 27 1/3 innings on the mound, averaging nearly a strikeout per inning, and Nottmeier and Mosley have shown their versatility at critical times, too.

“Logan’s always played multiple positions. He’s a tough kid,” BGHS coach Nathan Isenberg said.

Johnson will be moving on to Kentucky’s Union Commonwealth University in the fall, where he’ll be playing NAIA baseball, while Gilbert has signed with Cleveland State Community College in Cleveland, Tennessee. Gilbert is batting a team-high .416, with 23 extra-base hits, while hitting behind Yarbrough and Nottmeier at the top of the BGHS batting order. Mosley leads the team with eight home runs, with Cowan not far behind with five.

Bowling Green has won 14 of its last 15 games, with the lone loss coming to Greenwood in the KHSAA 14th District championship game. Nottmeier said the Purples were convinced they’d get another shot at Greenwood, in the 4th Region tourney, and they never trailed while turning back the talented Gators, 7-5.

“We knew we’d be playing them again, we just felt it,” Nottmeier said. “We wanted to get our revenge, I’ll admit it … This team is a brotherhood. We want to pick each other up. That’s a big part of becoming a team.”

Next stop, Legends Field. First pitch is scheduled for 1:30 p.m., Eastern Daylight Time.