Redhounds falter at state

The 2005 baseball season came to an end for the Corbin Redhounds last week with a loss to the Boyd County Lions in the Kentucky High School State Baseball Tournament at Lexington’s Applebee’s Park, 13-2.
The Lions (33-7) got off to a quick start and took charge of the game. Once they got the lead pitcher Derrick Wyatt made it tough on the Redhounds, allowing only four hits in the five-inning contest.
Brandon Rosen got things started for the Lions when the lead off hitter smacked a base hit to the first base side of the field. He stole second as Corbin pitcher Lucas Henson struck out Logan Thornberry. The hard hitting C.J. Wamsley sent Rosen to third with a sacrifice to Jake Mahan at short.
With two outs, third baseman Casey Branham got a hit past Corbin centerfielder Kenny Kysar to go ahead 1-0. Tyler Gatrell flew out to Josh Ware in right field but the Lions had a 1-0 lead.
Wyatt kept the Redhounds in check in the bottom of the first as he got Mahan to fly out then struck out Travis Prewitt and Kenny Kysar.
A six-run second inning got Corbin in the hole. The Lions scored six runs on five base hits. Brennan Sargent walked to lead off the inning while Zach Steele and Brad Blanton followed with back to back hits. Blanton’s double down the leftfield line scored two runs and gave Boyd County a 3-0 lead.
Henson got Wyatt to fly out to rightfield but the top of the order knocked had four straight hits to push the lead to seven runs.
Corbin couldn’t get on the base paths in the bottom of the second as Wyatt continued to stymie the Redhounds. Hobe Watkins went down on strikes while Josh Hamlin grounded out to second. Josh Ware popped out to second for the third out.
Mahan came on to pitch for the Redhounds in the top of the third and held the Lions scoreless, allowing just one hit in the inning to lead off batter, Zach Steele.
The Redhounds began to make some noise in the bottom of the inning when senior Jake McDaniel opened the inning with a single. He went to second on a ground out to short then moved over to third on a passed ball. He scored when Wamsley tried to pick off the Corbin runner. Wamsley threw the ball over the head of third baseman Casey Branham.
Mahan followed with a single but was left stranded.
The Lions went down one-two-three in the top of the fourth and the Redhounds came right back and struck home plate again.
Kysar led the inning off with a hit up the middle. He went to second on a one-out sacrifice by Hamlin. Ware followed with a double down the leftfield line for the second Corbin run of the game. Ware was left on base when McDaniel popped out.
Boyd County put the game away in the top of the fifth, scoring six runs off three hits, including a grand slam by Wamsley.

Boyd County 160 06- 13 12 1
Corbin 001 10- 2 4 1
Derrick Wyatt and C.J. Wamsley. Lucas Henson, Jake Mahan (3) and Travis Prewitt. WP-Wyatt, LP-Henson. 2B-Branham (BC), Blanton (BC), Ware (C). HR-Wamsley. LOB-Boyd County 3, Corbin 2.