It had been a long time coming for the Bruins. Like say eight years since Central Hardin had won the 5th Region Championship. Back then, the Bruin program had risen from one of the better one’s in the state to a consistent threat for the State title. Amazing what winning a KHSAA Championship in baseball does for a team. Coach Todd Thompson had built a strong winner from 2010 to 2013 when they laid waste to the rest of the Region 5 landscape and then something happened in 2014. They lost a semi-final game in the Region Tourney at their own place to Bethlehem and then there were two straight seasons in which their year ended in Region Championship game losses to cross town rival Elizabethtown.
After that, the Bruins would make one more trip to the 5th Region final (2018) and that ended in a disappointing loss to LaRue County (at John Hardin). Then 2020 came and a season was wiped out. Last season, Central Hardin ran into Bardstown in the first round of the Region Tourney and their Superman Will Koger held them to four-runs in a 9-4 loss. This season was different for everyone and if anything, the Region was never more competitive meaning Thompson’s team would have an advantage with so many seniors (most playing key roles).
Still, they had to play the season and after a slow start (6-5), Central Hardin went on a 13-game tear winning them all from April 5th to April 28th and eventually ending the season with a 23-9 record and the top seed in the 17th District Tourney at John Hardin where they took the Championship trophy home with a 7-3 win over Elizabethtown. In that game, the formula on the mound was Caden Alvey for four-innings (allowed 4-hits-3-runs), Christian Pinson for two in middle relief (0-hits) and Zak Spurrier as the closer (0-hits), while the Bruins hit Panther pitcher’s Austin Jennings and Hayden Willett for 11-hits, 7-runs and 5-walks.
The Region Tournament at LaRue County may have seemed like a formality as Central Hardin first knocked off Green County (8-2), then Bethlehem in the Final Four (6-0) before preparing for the championship game on Monday afternoon against “guess who” Elizabethtown. In front of a huge crowd willing to spend their Memorial Day witnessing a good baseball game, the Bruins got started early again.
Zak Spurrier got it going quickly with an RBI single that plated Ryan Bibb (who would match his 3-hit performance in the district final with 3-more that day) and then Kellen Brandenburg made it 2-0 in the first inning coming home after Mason Gardner singled.
Central Hardin made it 4-0 after two when Lucas Thompson and Bibb had an RBI single and a double all off Elizabethtown starter Reed Sherrard. Caden Alvey allowed an RBI single by Carter Moberly, but despite that, the senior hurler allowed 3-hits and a single run in four-innings. Bibb, also had one of the most spectacular plays of the game after doubling a run in stealing third then stealing home
.
Alvey was followed by Pinson, who allowed no-hits in his two innings of work followed by Spurrier, who shut the door even further in the seventh. Bibb continued his great body of work with 3-hits as did Lucas Thompson, who had 2 of the Bruins 10-hits off pitchers Sherrard and Willett. So, for the first time since 2013, the Bruins hoisted the Region trophy and the seniors later talked about the joy of doing something that last happened back when they were in grade-school. For those six, it would be a busy day as they would prepare to graduate that night as those proceedings were moved to Louisville because of construction on the school. It had been quite a day.
As for Elizabethtown, the dethroned 5th Region Champ of 2021, they wore the mantle well and with plenty of returning talent should be back in the hunt in 2023. For Thompson, it may have seemed like yesterday as he and the team would prepare for their first state tourney since 2013, but his time with an entirely different team and this time at Kentucky Proud Park. His first team played at Legends Field in Lexington, KY against Greenup County (losing 5-2) before winning it all in 2011. It will also be his sixth Region Title which puts him ahead of all active 5th Region coaches. I’m sure Thompson will have plenty of tall tales to tell his team before their date with destiny by Friday against Corbin.
