WARREN EAST TAKES FIRST DISTRICT TITLE SINCE 2017
Warren East’s baseball team had plenty of incentive going into Tuesday night’s KHSAA 14th District championship against fifth-ranked Bowling Green at South Warren High School.
For starters, the Raiders are leaving the 14th District to go east, and face the likes of tradition-rich Glasgow High School, Allen County-Scottsville and Barren County.
And they played the game, a 4-3 upset of the talented Purples, in memory of their teammate Tucker Stringfield, who died in an ATV crash last October at the age of 16.
And now the Raiders (22-13) will be the 14th District’s No. 1 seed in the KHSAA 4th Region Tournament, which begins at district champions’ home fields in quarterfinal play before moving on to WKU’s Nick Denes Field for the semifinals and championship game.
Warren East reliever Drake Young turned in a strong performance, allowing just one hit while striking out seven batters in four innings pitched. After the final out, the Raiders came storming out of their dugout to swarm Young and his catcher, Wyatt Nesbitt, in a controlled dogpile near the pitchers’ mound.
“It means everything, to us, especially after losing my best friend (Stringfield),” Nesbitt said. “We’ve all been playing baseball together since we were 4 or 5 years old.
“It feels good to know he was watching.”
It was a stinging defeat for the Purples, who advance to 4th Region play with an impressive 24-9 record. BGHS coach Nate Isenberg pointed to the Raiders’ defense, in key situations, as the difference in the game.
“We missed three home runs by about 5 feet, and their left fielder (Maddox Tarrance) made a helluva catch on (Dillon Maners’) line drive in the sixth,” Isenberg said. “I thought we could have made some adjustments earlier, offensively, but we didn’t play that bad. I told the guys that I believed in them. Everybody wants an easy path to the state tournament, but it’s not going to be easy.
“It never is.”
Warren East’s starting pitcher, Austin Comer, gave up two unearned runs in the first inning but settled in before departing two batters after giving up a leadoff home run to the Purples’ designated hitter, Dom Davis, in the fourth. Torrance slammed into the fence in left-center field and appeared to make the catch, but the ball fell to the warning track and the umpires ruled the play a home run.
The draw for 4th Region play will be held on Thursday morning at Warren East, provided Barren County and Glasgow High School can get in their 15th District championship game to be played at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday at Monroe County. Warren East will be playing at home, on Monday, while the Purples will be traveling to a district champion’s home field in South Central Kentucky.
That brought a big smile to the face of veteran Warren East coach Wes Sanford, who was an outfielder for the Raiders more than two decades ago.
“I’ve got to get to work on my field,” Sanford said.
This was two innings before Tarrance robbed Maners of an extra-base hit on the sinking line drive to shallow left-center field.
“(I was) a little banged up, but I wasn’t coming out of the game,” Tarrance said. “No way.”
AFTER HE SLAMMED INTO THE OUTFIELD FENCE.
Young entered the game with the Raiders holding on to a 4-3 lead, and he challenged the BGHS hitters with a live fastball most of the way.
“There was a lot of adrenaline out there,” Young said with a smile. “I just wanted to stay ahead (in the count), and at the end, after the bottom of the (BGHS) lineup, we wanted to face (No. 2 hole hitter Blake) Ginter.”
Which meant intentionally walking the Purples’ Patrick Forbes, the leadoff man and perhaps the favorite for Kentucky’s prestigious “Mr. Baseball” award.
Forbes replaced Bowling Green’s starting pitcher, Dillon Maners, to open the top of the fourth inning. The University of Louisville signee threw 90 pitches and kept his team in the game, finishing with seven strikeouts and an unusually high six walks.
Sophomore first baseman Braylen Lee had two of the Raiders’ big hits, an RBI double to the fence in right-center field in the third inning and a two-out, run-scoring single to right field in the fourth.
“Coach (Sanford) wanted us to stay in the back of the batter’s box,” Lee said, “and I was looking to go to the opposite field.”
Sanford pulled out all the stops in building the lead, as Tarrance’s safety squeeze brought Chase Carver across the plate for the Raiders’ second run of the third inning. Warren East’s Colton Edwards tried to follow suit, but Maners made the play this time, fielding Edwards’ bunt and retiring Lee at the plate.
“We weren’t going to sit back, against a team like Bowling Green,” Sanford said. “We were going to try to put pressure on them any way we could. We had to be aggressive, play through our early (defensive) mistakes.”
Bowling Green went unbeaten against its 14th District opponents in regular-season play, and the Purples opened tournament play Monday with a resounding 16-2 victory over homestanding South Warren.
The Purples grabbed a 2-0 lead in the first inning, capitalizing on two Warren East errors before Nathaniel Roof drove in a run on a hit-and-run single, followed by Dom Davis’ RBI single to the right side of the infield.
Warren East’s Wes Sanford, who turns 40 years old on Sunday, has been wearing a wispy moustache for the last week or so and it’s become a good-luck charm of some sort. His assistant coaches are following suit.
“One of our guys promised the kids he’d get a Mohawk (haircut),” Sanford said with a laugh. “We can’t shave now, not until we lose.”
It was Warren East’s first 14th District championship since 2017, and the Raiders made it a memorable one.
