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First round results from area district tournaments
Posted On 20 May 2015
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With thunderstorms moving through the area Monday evening, first round play in this year’s 50th and 51st District tournaments had to be rescheduled for Tuesday.
In the 50th District tourney at Williamsburg, the host Yellow Jackets and Lady Jackets were both going up against top seeded South Laurel in round one. Both contests were able to make it to the third inning Monday before eventually having to be postponed due to the arrival of lightning and heavy downpours.
Williamsburg senior Ethan Wilson
When play resumed Tuesday, the baseball Jackets were down 10-0 to the Cards. A grand slam in the bottom of the third inning added four more runs to South’s lead, making it 14-0 going into the top of the fourth.
A Hunter Brown RBI single brought home senior Michael Rose-Creekmore to give Williamsburg one run on the board, but that would be all the offense they could muster. South added one more run of their own in the bottom of the fourth inning, going on to win by a final score of 15-1.
After the game, Williamsburg Head Coach Bryan Hopkins said that he is hopeful for the future of the Yellow Jackets baseball program. “We have some young players coming up that will be able to contribute,” he said. “We want to build some four-year players. That would help us a lot, but I think we’re headed in the right direction. It just takes time to develop a winning program.”
Williamsburg ends the 2015 season with an overall record of 7-17.
Williamsburg senior Danielle Lipsteuer
Over on the softball field, things were not going much better for the Lady Jackets. They trailed by a score of 4-1 when play resumed in the third inning Tuesday, and South quickly added to that with two more runs scored in the fourth.
Williamsburg had a runner in scoring position in the fifth inning, but was unable to bring her home. The Lady Cards, on the other hand, were able to score four more runs to extend their lead to 10-1. The final run of the game was walked in, giving South the 11-1 victory.
“I said back in August that my main goal was to compete,” said Lady Jackets Head Coach Jason Prewitt after the loss. “And I believe that other teams know we’re there now. We can be however good we want to be. We just have to start over now and get back to work.”
“I’m disappointed in the way this season ended, but South is a good team,” Prewitt continued. “They hit, they’re fast, and I think our youth kind of showed against them. I just keep telling our girls to continue working hard, and the sky’s the limit.”
The Williamsburg softball team ends their season with an overall record of 10-14.
Corbin pitcher Connor Hicks
Whitley County pitcher Caleb Rains
Corbin and Whitley County squared off in Tuesday’s late games, with the Redhounds winning both contests to advance on to Wednesday’s district championships, as well as this year’s 13th Region championship tournaments.
Beginning with baseball, Corbin was able to jump out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning thanks to an RBI single from senior Andrew Jones, an RBI double from junior Peyton Buford, and a two-run RBI triple from sophomore Cole Brock.
Seniors Trevor Browning and Nick Vorbeck crossed home plate for the Hounds in the bottom of the second inning to extend their lead to 6-0, and four more runs added in the third made it 10-0.
Corbin starting pitcher Connor Hicks was having a great outing up to this point, but Whitley would finally begin to fight back in the top of the fourth inning. Junior Colonel Michael Harris was able to get his team on the board after being walked, stealing second base, and eventually making his way home. Eighth grader Jonathon Watson would also find his way around the bases to cut the Redhound lead to 10-2.
Eighth grader Caleb Rains was still on the mound for Whitley after coming on in relief of starting pitcher Stevie Watson back in the second inning. He was able to keep Corbin from scoring any more runs in the bottom of the fourth inning, but the Colonel offense couldn’t do any more damage of their own in the top of the fifth.
Whitley loaded the bases in the top of the sixth inning, scoring another run when Jonathon Watson was walked in to make it 10-3, but eighth grade Corbin pitcher Chase Estep was able to get his team out of a jam, preventing any other scores and leaving three Colonel runners stranded on base.
The Hounds’ Cole Brock smashed a two-run home run against new Whitley pitcher Michael Harris in the bottom of the sixth inning to extend the Corbin lead to 12-3, and that would end up being the final score of the contest.
After the win, Corbin Head Coach Cody Philpot said, “We felt like we were the better team coming in as long as we played our game.”
As for Wednesday’s championship matchup against South Laurel (27-5), Philpot said, “South is a good ball club, and tomorrow is a game that is going to be fun for us. We know we’re going to the region tournament, so there’s no pressure on us. We believe we can win that game if we play well, but all of the pressure is on them.”
Whitley County Head Coach Kyle Adams summed up his team’s performance by saying, “We’ve practiced and played all year. We’ve put these kids in a position to succeed, but we can’t catch it, hit it and throw it for them. Twenty wins for us this season is a feat, but it means nothing if you don’t advance to the next game.”
Talking about the future, Adams said, “We’ll be back. We have a lot of positives. Our three seniors will be hard to replace, but we have a ton of young kids coming up that we’re very excited about.”
The Colonels end the 2015 season with a record of 20-10.
First pitch of the 50th District championship game between Corbin (16-14) and South Laurel is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 20 at Briar Creek Park in Wiliamsburg. Look to www.thenewsjournal.net for updates as they become available.
Lady Hounds pitcher Halia Stidham
Senior Lady Colonel Codie Thacker
It was also a good night for Corbin softball, who hit the ball well and took advantage of some costly Whitley County errors to pick up the 10-0 victory over the Lady Colonels, improving to 11-19 on the year and qualifying to face South Laurel (25-10) in Wednesday’s district title game.
After the win, Lady Hounds Head Coach Jake Mahan said, “We’ve been talking about doing the little things right, and today we did. We played well, and now we’re ready to go and play a great team tomorrow. We believe that we can win, so we just have to throw strikes, make plays, and go from there.”
Lady Colonels Head Coach Todd Lawson said, “I think we have matured as a team and have gotten better as the year progressed. Tonight we made some crucial mistakes, and a good team will make you pay for that. I’m proud of my kids this year, though. I’d still take them over any other team in the district or the region.”
The Whitley County softball Colonels end their 2015 season with a 13-10 record.
Wednesday’s district championship matchup between Corbin and South Laurel is scheduled for the same time as the baseball championship (6:30 p.m.), and will also be played at Briar Creek Park in Williamsburg. www.thenewsjournal.net will have results of that game when it becomes available.
Lady Cat pitcher Lakylla Medlin
Also contending for a district championship and moving on to the region tournament in 2015 will be the Lynn Camp Lady Wildcats, who improved to 11-20 on the season Tuesday with an 8-3 victory over Pineville in the first round of this year’s 51st District softball tournament at Knox Central High School.
The Lady Cats had the Lady Lions down 3-2 in the fourth inning, and their offense exploded in the fifth when eighth grader Makenzie Grant stepped up to the plate with the bases loaded. She proceeded to smack the ball up against the outfield fence for a bases clearing, three-run RBI double.
Junior Lakylla Medlin pitched a complete game for Lynn Camp, striking out six batters and walking one.
Lady Cats Head Coach Nikki Hendrix said of her team’s huge win Tuesday, “They deserve it. They have worked really hard, and have been really focused for the last two weeks. They are playing the best ball that they have played all year right now. This is the perfect time for us to be coming together, and everyone has contributed something.”
Lynn Camp will face the host Knox Central Lady Panthers (7-21) in Wednesday’s district championship game at 6:00 p.m. These two teams met each other just days ago on May 14, with the Lady Cats winning by a score of 11-1. Details on Wednesday’s contest will be made available online at www.thenewsjournal.net as they become available.
Senior Lynn Camp Wildact Skylar McFarland
And finally, the Lynn Camp Wildcats baseball team did not fare so well in their first round game against Knox Central Tuesday, falling 19-0 to end their season with a record of 3-25.
Photos by TREVOR SHERMAN
