Whitley County to face 16th Region Champion Raceland in first round of state baseball tournament Saturday

The Whitley County Colonels Baseball team will take the field against the Raceland Rams for the semi-state round of the state tournament at 4:30 p.m. Saturday at Morehead State University.

The 16^th Region Champion Rams are 31-7 after defeating Ashland Blazer 11-1 in five innings Tuesday night.

In the three games they played in the region tournament, the Rams outscored their opponents 39 to one.

Photo by Carrie Mattingly

Whitley County defeated Middlesboro 16-1 in three innings Wednesday night to capture the 13^th Region title.

Mason Croley started the game on the mound for the Colonels, pitching two-and-a-third innings.

He gave up one earned run, while striking out six and walking four.

RJ Osborne came on in relief with one out in the third inning and struck out the final two hitters.

Whitley County got the scoring going in the bottom of the first as Caden Petrey led off with a triple and Luke Stanfill followed with an RBI double to give the Colonels a 1-0 lead.

Three batters later, with one out and runners on first and second, Mason Croley singled to score Stanfill for second.

One out later, Matt Wright’s ground ball to shortstop led to the second Middlesboro error and allowed Bryce Anderson to score from second base.

Brayden Mahan then pulled off a steal of home to give the Colonels the 5-0 lead.

Whitley County played another round of small ball in the second inning.

Petrey and Stanfill led off the inning with back-to-back singles.

Sam Harp’s ground ball to third base advanced the runners to second and third, and Anderson singled to give the Colonels a 7-0 lead.

Croley ran into control issues in the top of the third inning that led to Middlesboro’s only run.

After hitting the leadoff hitter, Croley walked three of the next four hitters, which got Middlesboro on the board.

That was when Coach Jeremy Shope went to Osborne, who shut down the Yellow Jacket’s hopes of a comeback.

The Colonels finished the game with nine runs via another round of small ball that began with Wright being hit by a pitch.

One out later, Andrew Stack singled and Petrey drew a walk to load the bases.

Stanfill’s single plated two more runs to make hit 9-1, and Harp’s ground ball to third base resulted in another Middlesboro error that allowed Petrey to score.

After another Middlesboro error put runners at second and third, Anderson singled to make it 11-1.

Harp scored on an error, and after Croley walked, Trevor Downs’ ground ball to second led to another error that allowed Anderson to score.

Wright followed with a single that allowed Croley to score for a 14-1 lead.

Tyler Rose stepped to the plate as a pinch hitter and his ground ball resulted in an error that allowed Downs to score and put runners at first and third.

Wright made the second out of the inning attempting to score on Mahan’s ground ball, but Petrey came through with a two-out single for a 16-1 lead to reach the 15-run rule that results in a game being considered a complete game.

Whitley County and Raceland played no common opponents throughout the season.

The winner of Saturday’s game will face the winner of the game between Owensboro Catholic and Lyon County at 5 p.m. on Thursday at Legends Field.