SUMMER SHOWDOWN

 Three Corbin teams participated in the USSSA Summer Showdown last weekend. The 8-&-Under Icemen and the 13-&-Under Corbin Crushers were runners-up in their respective divisions while the Corbin Diamond Pups lost two games in pool play.

The Icemen had back-to-back come-from-behind wins in pool play defeating the Clay County 7’s by a 12-11 score then followed that with a 14-9 win over the Clay County Elite 8’s.

In the win over the Clay County 7’s, Corbin was down 6-2 in the third inning when they began to battle back. Corbin took a 9-6 lead in the inning when they scored the maximum number of runs allowed.

Clay County battled back scoring four runs in the next two innings to regain the lead 10-9. 

In the bottom of the final inning Corbin faced defeat when Will Brock stood at the plate with the bases loaded, two outs and was down to his final pitch of the game. 

He calmly belted a double scoring two runners for the win.

In the second game, Clay County Elite 8 jumped out to a 6-2 lead before Corbin roared back to take a 14-9 win with six runs in the final two innings.

However, in the championship game, it was Clay County Elite 8 pulling out an 11-8 win to capture first place in the tournament.

Coach Jody Botner was pleased to see his team comeback in the first two games, but thought they tired as the day wore on. “This has been a good group of kids to work with,” he said.

“It’s really hard to get some of those bad habits they learned in the machine-coach league out of their system,” he said.

“But, the kids have learned a lot and come along way this summer. We played 20 games. We won 10 and lost 10, that’s not bad at all,” Botner said.

The Icemen hope to keep playing some travel ball, but as Aug. 1, they will move up to another level. “They have to go to player-pitch,” Botner said. “It really depends on how many of the kids are involved in football, but we are still planning to play baseball. I know I will be coaching both sports.”

Crushers fall

The Corbin Crushers looked like a team of deer caught in headlights when they opened play in the tournament Saturday morning. The Crushers got crushed by the Lexington Greys, 20-1 in the first game and 12-2 by the Lexington Select in the second game.

They landed in the number four seed against the number one Eastern Kentucky Naturals out of Ashland.

Corbin would prove that “never quit” really meant something as they battled the Ashland team to a 3-3 tie through seven innings behind some “pretty good defense and outstanding pitching by Corey Ledington,” said coach C.E. Brittain.

However, it was an offensive show in the eighth inning for the Crushers as Corbin scored five unanswered runs to win the game, 8-3. Ethan Wilson came to the mound in the eighth and shut down the Naturals.

In the eighth inning, Braden Sevier opened with a single before Michael May was hit by a pitch. Three straight hits by Connor Hicks, Corey Ledington and Jaxon Stewart enabled the Crushers to pull away for the win. Tanner Barnes also scored in the inning.

The win sent Corbin to the championship game where they lost to the Lexington Greys, 9-6. “We turned a 6-4 win into a 9-6 loss,” Brittian said. “We made way too many errors in a couple of innings or that would have been our game.”

“Wilson pitched another outstanding game for us,” Brittain said.

Brittain said he hopes to continue his team into the fall. “We will take a couple of weeks off and start our fall schedule. There are some tournaments we can play in. It just depends on how many kids we have available after football starts.”