NEW HOME FOR BASEBALL

 Kentucky High School baseball has found a home for its post-season. Lexington’s Applebee’s Park and the 16-team format were perfect. The atmosphere was great for the fans and there were plenty who attended.

Nearly 30,000 fans attended the five-day tournament that saw Harrison County defeat Louisville Butler in the championship game. Harrison County fans really supported their team. All four times Harrison County played over 3,000 fans came out. The championship game drew over 4,000 fans, the largest of the tournament.

Most of the games were close with only two real blowouts if you want to call them that. Harrison County rolled past Clay County, 8-0 and Pikeville beat Greenup County 10-0. There were five one-run ballgames and a couple of two-run wins.

If there was a Cinderella it was Pikeville, a class A school that made it to the semifinals before losing to Louisville Butler, 3-2. The Panthers beat Perry Central, 8-7, Greenup County 10-0.

After several top teams were knocked out of the regions, Harrison County went into the tournament the favorite and held on to capture the title. It was their fourth state title (1993, 1997, 1998).

•The state softball tournament was packed once again as well. The big question everyone was asking will the KHSAA expand the state tournament to three days or keep it at two days. The KHSAA played the baseball state tournament over five days and now the girls’ coaches want some equal time. This may boil down to a title IX issue.

The softball tournament is a 16-team double-elimination format played in two days at Owensboro’s Fisher Park.

•Corbin Volleyball Coach Alecia Elwell is not a happy camper with the new volleyball alignment. The KHSAA wants four districts in each of the 16 regions and to make that happen in the 13^th new districts had to be formed with the loss of Cawood, Cumberland and Evarts. Plus some of the smaller schools still does not have volleyball, like Barbourville, Pineville and Williamsburg.

In the new alignment that recently came out, Corbin, North Laurel and South Laurel will make up the 50^th District while Whitley County was sent to the 51^st with Knox Central and Lynn Camp.

Bell County and Middlesboro moved over to the 52^nd with Harlan and Harlan County. The new 49^th will be Clay County, Jackson County and OBI.