Continuing Coverage: Corbin Little League All-Stars compete at state

Continue to monitor this post for ongoing coverage of the Corbin 11-12 year-old baseball All-Stars’ appearance in the 2019 state championship tournament, currently in progress in Prestonsburg.

Update 1: The Corbin All-Stars took the field for the first time in this year’s Little League state tourney on Saturday afternoon, July 20. They faced the North Floyd All-Stars in pool play, managing to come away with a 6-5 victory.

Corbin found themselves trailing 2-0 at the end of two innings Saturday, but a four-run top of the third put them in the driver’s seat. North Floyd fought back, adding one run in the bottom of the third to make it 4-3, but the boys in red answered again, scoring two runs in the top of the fifth inning to extend their lead to 6-3.

North Floyd cut the lead back down to 6-5 with two more runs in the bottom of the fifth, but that was all they could manage. A scoreless sixth inning meant Corbin would go on to secure the one-run win, remaining undefeated this summer and building some serious momentum heading into day two of pool play tomorrow (Sunday).

Lucas Brittain, JP Carmichael, Clay Botner and Cam Estep all saw some time on the pitching mound Saturday. Estep led the way at the plate, going two-for-three and knocking in one run. Botner finished the game with two RBIs courtesy of a home run, while Brittain had one. Eli Pietrowski and Cody Gibson also recorded hits in the win.

Update 2: The Corbin 11-12 All-Stars tasted defeat for the very first time this summer on Sunday, falling 8-3 to Eastern Lexington in their second game of pool play at the 2019 Little League state championship tournament in Prestonsburg.

Keaton Smith pitched the majority of the game for Corbin, striking out three batters. Peyton Hamilton also saw some time on the mound in the loss.

Cam Estep and Lucas Brittain both had a solid day at the plate, with Estep going two-for-three with one RBI and Brittain going two-for-two, but it was not enough to keep Corbin undefeated on the summer. Cole Stevens also recorded one hit against Eastern Sunday afternoon.

Corbin now finds themselves in a must-win situation in their next game against the Russell-Flatwoods All-Stars on Monday. With a win, they will move on to the tournament semifinals this Tuesday, July 23. As of now, the state championship game is scheduled to take place the next day, on Wednesday, July 24.

Update 3: It was announced early Monday that, due to rain, all Little League state tournament games would be cancelled. The Corbin All-Stars versus Russell-Flatwoods All-Stars game will now take place Tuesday afternoon, with the tourney semifinals being rescheduled to this Wednesday, and the championship game moved to Thursday.

Update 4: After a scoreless five innings Tuesday, Corbin’s Eli Pietrowski knocked in one run in the top of the sixth against Russell-Flatwoods. Russell responded in the bottom of the inning with two runs, however, to secure the victory and prevent Corbin from moving on to the semifinal round of this year’s Little League state tournament.

Lucas Brittain and Clay Botner teamed up on the pitching mound for Corbin Tuesday, with Brittain striking out three Russell-Flatwoods batters, and Botner striking out seven.

Photos courtesy of DEE BARNES