The Cardinals were on a great run and after the exhilaration of a walk off win in their first KHSAA State tournament appearance since 2019 looked to see if they could extend it the following round of the Elite Eight. Unfortunately for Taylor County, their next opponent was one of the top teams in the state and despite having Cole McLean on the mound, the game got out of control early as the Shamrocks won, 6-2.
Trinity scored three times in the bottom of the first inning and then single runs in the second, third and fourth to build a 6-2 lead and then let the relievers take over for starter Hudson Meredith, who went nearly two innings, allowed two-runs on four hits before giving way to Gray Davis, who went 4.2 innings and stopped the bleeding while getting the win.
Meanwhile, starter McLean ran into trouble quickly in the first when he allowed three singled sandwiched between a walk and a hit batter which scored three runs before he got out of the inning. The Cardinal batters showed some life for the first time when Meredith surrendered a leadoff walk, two straight singles loading the bases before Grayson Kearney’s texas leaguer scored their only two runs. That’s when Davis entered the game and got Trinity out of the inning without anymore further damage.
The Shamrocks went back to work in the bottom of the second when Jackson Supsky hit a triple and eventually scored on a a sacrifice bunt to make it 4-2 and after retiring the Cardinals in the top of inning three, McLean gave up a single, walk and after a fielders choice and a strikeout, Harper Haywood’s single got Zach Floyd home for the fifth Shamrock run.
Despite putting two Cardinal batters on base with walks, Taylor County was unable to score and Trinity put up their final run after Colin Sanders had a one-out single and eventually scored when Floyd knocked him in with a two-out single.
Although he went the distance, McLean did allow 11-hits and six runs while getting four strikeouts against the Shamrocks. The Cardinals totaled nine hits against three Shamrock pitchers with Kearney, McLean and Young each had two hits.
So Taylor County’s season ended two games short of their final goal, but it was certainly a successful season, but next year will be different and their 29-wins in 2025 will be hard to duplicate with four seniors gone. Still, they do return a lot of young talent and one of the best pitchers in the Region if not the state in McLean.
After getting the walk off hit against Sayre Thursday afternoon, senior Layken Lyons said this year was sort of a dream come true. Unfortunately, every dream comes to an end, but the one thing no one can take away from the Cardinals and their fans are the memories of a successful season that ended in Lexington.
For Lyons, who had just graduated a few weeks ago, it was one heck of a graduation party.