Bethlehem has always been a consistent power player in the 5th Region Baseball universe, but they have never been able to make a serious move for the Championship or a trip to the KHSAA State Tournament until 2014. That was a season which saw a veteran team with experience and talent, which first showed signs of bigger things the previous season when they went 29-11 while making a Region Tournament appearance winning game one, but finally falling to eventual Region Champ Central Hardin, 8-4.
That team would return plenty of talent and coach Roger Robinson could look to a strong rotation of seniors Conner Ballard, Allan Webb, Jimmy Keating and junior Corey Robinson. Senior catcher Blake Brangers would have a strong senior season as would an infield of seniors John Riney, Thomas Osborne, Keating and junior Jake Yates at shortstop. The outfield looked good as well with Ballard and senior Zack Smith.
The Eagles went 20-12 during a regular season schedule which had a few bumps thanks to another District foe which would give them plenty of trouble as Nelson County also had a strong senior class and a deep rotation until bad luck late in the season erased their chances of contending. Still, Bethlehem did win a wild game against the Cardinals on April 22nd 16-9, but then dropped a weird second district meeting to the same team on May 17th 3-1 in 16-long innings.
Still, the rotation of Ballard, Webb and Robinson along with Keating in middle relief turned out to be a winner and the batting lineup was really pounding out the hits and scoring runs (228) while allowing just 133 and put together win streaks of 8-straight and 5-straight during that time.
Despite a four-game losing streak to end the regular season, the Eagles still were rolling in the games that counted winning 7-1 over Washington County in the semi-finals and then 9-0 in the District championship against those same Nelson County Cardinals.
To be remembered for something other than a participatory trophy, Bethlehem would have to make another serious run in the Region Tournament at Central Hardin and their first-round opponent was against the team that eliminated them last season. The Bruins had the home field advantage and were ready to roll, but this was a different Eagle team and they overcame an early deficit to pull out an exciting 6-5 win. Riding the crest of their first-round win, the Eagles took on Campbellsville in the second round the next day and won convincingly 13-0 in five innings.
Now, the only thing standing between the Eagles and their first trip to the Lexington was another surprise team named Elizabethtown. Like Bethlehem, the Panthers were talented and young and were riding the wave of a sophomore phenom on the mound named Hunter Sullivan. In fact, the Eagles had seen Sullivan earlier that season when they traveled to E-town on May 8th and lost, 1-0.
This game will also be remembered for the strange weather issues that consistently plagued the Final as the championship game was originally scheduled on Wednesday, but a rainout of two of the semi-final games forced it to be moved to Thursday and when it started Robinson chose Ballard to start against Sullivan.
The move looked like it might be genius when the Eagles put two base runners on, but were unable to advance. Ballard retired the side just as dark clouds and thunder rolled in forcing a cancellation. The field was still unfit for a Friday night restart, so the Championship game would be played on Saturday noon. The game started to settle down into a pitcher’s duo as Sullivan did not allow anymore base runners and was masterful (as he was in their earlier meeting) at working out of 3-0 counts to either force strikeouts or ground outs. Ballard gave way to Webb, who made it to the sixth inning until a Panther batter reached, was advanced to second on a bunt and made it to third with just one out. Robinson replaced Webb with Keating and Sullivan, of all people bunted. Keating retrieved it and tagged Sullivan out, but the runner scored the only run on a fielder’s choice and after Riney struck out for the final out, the game ended, 1-0.
The irony that the one pitcher that the Eagles (and pretty much everyone that faced him for that matter) could not hit that season was the one that ended their dream season. Just as ironic is that Webb was the tough luck losing pitcher in both Beth-ET games this season as he allowed a total of just 2-runs in both games. Bethlehem ended with a 24-13 record, but there are some that feel that this team just missed their date with destiny and actually had a pretty good rotation set for a deep state run.
The Eagles graduated nine seniors from that team as there would be seven new starters the following season and a large part of their pitching rotation. The following season, Bethlehem did win 24-games, and on a squad that had nine more seniors were eliminated in the first round of the Region Tourney by Adair County, 2-1. For the next three seasons, the Eagles would win 17,20 and 12 games before finally breaking through again with 28-wins in 2019 and eventually losing to the Region champ, Taylor County.
So, was the 2014 Bethlehem Eagles the best that should have won a Region Title? The numbers may lie a bit, but this team did go deeper than any other team and was certainly talented enough in a Region Tournament which was full of great players that season.
I really hadn’t debated it with any former players from the team, but during the post-game interviews, I got the feeling from many of the players that they felt like this was a special team and what happened in 2014 might not happen again or at least for a while. The 2019 team certainly won more games, but didn’t go as far.
Conner Ballard put it best when he stated afterwards “It’s hard for a school our size to compete with teams that can put that many talented athletes on the field. So, this team was kind of special.”
