13th Region Baseball

"No matter who you draw this year, it isn’t going to be easy," said Corbin baseball coach Rob Ledington. The Redhounds drew 52nd District runner-up Harlan County. The teams will meet at 1 p.m. Monday at Middlesboro High School in the first-round of the 13th Region Tournament.

The tournament gets underway with the Knox Central Panthers, champions of the 51st district taking on the North Laurel Jaguars at 10 a.m.

The afternoon session at 4 p.m. will pit the Clay County Tigers against the Barbourville Tigers at 4 p.m., followed by the South Laurel Cardinals taking on the host, Middlesboro Yellow Jackets at 7 p.m.

"There are six or seven teams that could win this thing," said Ledington. "I don’t know much about Harlan County since we didn’t play them this year. I am sure they are good team, good ball club. I’m sure they are well coached."

"Right now we have to focus on Harlan County and not worry about the rest of the teams," said Ledington. "We will try to beat Harlan County and go from there."

Corbin, Clay County and Middlesboro all come in with 22 wins. The Black Bears, South Laurel and Barbourville all have losing records entering the tournament. Despite winning four of their last six games, Harlan County is 14-18.

Ben Jones, Ben House or Trace Vorbeck will likely get the call to the mound Monday. Offensively, Vorbeck leads the Redhounds with a .400 plus batting average. Among the other top hitters for the Redhounds will be House, a senior first baseman, Josh Coppock, a junior outfielder and senior catcher Cody Duncum.