Corbin teams fall to South Laurel in district championships

Senior Lady Hound Lindsey Barton makes a move on the basepaths Tuesday vs South Laurel.

It was a tough night for Corbin when both the baseball and softball teams met up with South Laurel on the campus of Whitley County High School Tuesday to play for this year’s 50^th district championships.

In softball, both the Lady Cardinals and the Lady Redhounds were able to advance runners to third base in the first inning, but neither team would be able to score.

Scoreless second and third innings led to the fourth, where South would plate Kenzie Jervis, and then load the bases with only one out. That would lead to Kaylee Norvell scoring Mackenzie Powenski with an RBI single, followed by Haley Shelby bringing home Leslie Dixon with another RBI single to make it 3-0 in favor of the Cards.

Corbin could not respond in the bottom of the fourth, and replaced pitcher Hannah Hart with freshman Meg Green in the fifth inning.

There were no scores in the fifth, but South found their way home again in the sixth inning via a Hagan Burns single that scored Norvell.

Again, Corbin could not answer, but defensive miscues by the Lady Hounds and smart base running by the Lady Cards led to South putting another run up on the board when Dixon crossed home again in the seventh.

That made the score 5-0, which ended up being the final score of the contest.

“The third inning really got us,” said Corbin Head Coach Chris Hart. “We made some errors and allowed them to score some runs that they shouldn’t have scored. That put us behind, plus we didn’t hit the ball very well tonight. If we want to beat a team like South Laurel we have to hit the ball better.”

As for the baseball Hounds, they found themselves in a deep hole early, and were simply unable to climb out. South Laurel’s bats were on fire, as they put up four runs in the top of the first inning. Corbin responded right away when junior Andrew Jones connected with a Braden Miller pitch and sent it sailing over the center field fence, and Jace Woodruff would advance to third base for the Hounds later in the inning, but was stranded there, leaving the score 4-1 in favor of the Cards.

Redhound pitcher Taylor Combs loaded the bases with one out in the top of the second inning, which prompted Head Coach Rob Ledington to pull him in favor of Kevin Goins.

After Goins took over on the mound South went back to work, with Daniel Neal smacking an RBI double that brought in two more runs, and then an additional run was walked in. That was followed by yet another Cardinal run due to a batter that was hit with a pitch. Two more Cards crossed home thanks to a Brennan Miller RBI before Corbin could finally get the third out of the inning. By that time the damage was done, however, and the Hounds trailed by a score of 10-1.

Corbin couldn’t mount any offense, and South Laurel kept pouring it on. They scored two more runs in the top of the third to extend their lead to 12-1.

Combs scored for the Hounds in the bottom of the inning, coming home from first base after brother Austin knocked one into the outfield for a double. The team then held South scoreless in the top of the fourth, and they put runners in scoring position in their next trip up to the plate, but they were unable to bring them home.

TC Collins was on the mound in the fifth inning, when the Cardinals scored three more runs to end the game early with a final score of 15-2.

“We just got the dog snot beat out of us today,” said Ledington. “There’s nothing else that you can really say about it. When you play a good team, and they are a good team, we have to play at our best to beat them. We didn’t do that, and they were the better team today. You have to tip your hat to their coaching staff and their kids.”

“The main thing that I try to do as a coach is teach kids about life through the game of baseball. Today is like life. We all have bad days, but today is over. Tomorrow we just have to get up and go back to work.”

Both Corbin squads will now shift their focus to the Region 13 tournament, which gets underway next week.

2014 All-District Players (softball)

Alexa Chaffman – Whitley County

Angel Hinton – Williamsburg

Lindsey Barton – Corbin

Hannah Hart – Corbin

Callie Schoolcraft – Corbin

2014 All-District Players (baseball)

Steven Watson – Whitley County

Ryan Bowlin – Williamsburg

Kevin Goins – Corbin

Taylor Combs – Corbin

Austin Combs – Corbin

The Corbin Redhounds celebrate after Andrew Jones’ homerun Tuesday evening.