KHSAA State Baseball
YOU GOTTA BELIEVE!!!!
You would NEVER believe that the Marion County Knights were making their first state baseball appearance EVER the way they have played the first two games in Lexington, KY. Twice they surrendered a lead after looking like they were in control early and twice when everyone waited for the bubble to collapse, they came out swinging and pulled two huge history making wins over Hazard and Knox Central.
Against Hazard, the Knights starter Andrew Spalding gave up an early run, but the Knights started warming up their bats and scored once in both the fourth and sixth inning and put two more up in the fifth to take a 4-1 lead and were already looking forward to Saturday’s game until the roof nearly caved in. First Spalding allowed a run in the bottom of the sixth and was finally chased out as Luke Thomas allowed two more runs to tie the score at 4-all. Then after a scoreless eighth, the Knights finally got to Hazard pitcher Devin Morris and scored three times starting with Spalding’s single that scored Cody Hammond for the go-ahead and eventual winning run. The Knights would plate two more behind singles by Travis Wiser and Landion Russell and Thomas pitched a scoreless bottom of the eight as he picked up the team’s FIRST win at State.
You’d think the Knights would be satisfied with that, but coach Patrick Campbell was not and neither was his team even though they once again produced a spine tingling finish against Knox Central on Saturday morning. This time, Marion County scored at will and piled up seven runs in five innings and Luke Thomas allowed only one run during that time, but then once again everything changed fast.
First Thomas faced six batters, allowing 2-walks, 3-hits and 3-runs until he was replaced with Travis Wiser who allowed 2-hits (one a double), 1-passed ball, 1-walk and allowed 3-runs as Knox Central tied the game up at 7-all. Just when it appeared Marion County’s dream season was about to burst, the Knights fought back as Wiser was hit by a pitch with one out, Russell singled and scored the game winning run after Thomas singled. Ryan Hayes pitched a scoreless seventh despite allowing two hits.
Now, the task gets tougher as Marion County continues their dream season against Region 8 rep Simon Kenton on Friday morning at 11:00 am.
