By MICHAEL CHILDERS, CJ Correspondent
Commonwealth Journal
Somerset —
There were two hot things on Saturday afternoon at Pulaski County High School. The first had to be the hot temperatures which flirted near the century-mark all day long. Number two was the hot bats of the Somerset-Pulaski County All-Stars and the South Lexington All-Stars, with each club combing for 20 hits in Saturday’s East Kentucky 13-Year-Old Babe Ruth State Tournament contest at PC Field.
This contest went right down to the wire, but unfortunately for Somerset-Pulaski came up on the losing end, as South Lexington plated one-run in the bottom of the seventh inning to win by a final of 7-6.
Somerset-Pulaski looked to be out of this game after South Lexington went 6-2 in the fourth inning, but clawed their way back to tie the ball game up at 6-6.
Tourney host Somerset-Pulaski took advantage of three errors - all by the same South Lexington player - to knot the contest up at six apiece after tallying four runs in the top of the sixth inning. Chris Henderlight led off the four-run scoring spree with a single to left field. Lucas Turpin, in his first at-bat of the game, ripped one to the third baseman, who made his first of three errors. Turpin reached first safely on the bobble and allowed Devin Mayne - replacing Henderlight - to scoot to second. A Derek Hall single loaded the bases up for Cody Carrender, who got on-base with an error, allowing Mayne to score, cutting the South Lexington lead to 6-3. Jacob Burchett picked up an RBI after getting hit by a Zac Conner pitch, lessening the South Lexington lead to a pair of runs at 6-4. Somerset-Pulaski came within one run of South Lexington with Hall scoring on a Jacob Pelston fielder’s choice. They came full-circle with South Lexington as Burchett scored on the third error of the frame. As you can see, Somerset-Pulaski did not go down in this one without a fight.
A single from Christopher Ray is how South Lexington responded in the bottom of the inning. After Ray’s lead-off single, Somerset-Pulaski retired the side with three consecutive outs, leaving Ray stranded on third.
In the top of the seventh and final frame, Somerset-Pulaski needed a lone run to take the lead. Devin Mayne flew out to center to lead-off the inning. Turpin was the lone batter to get on for the visiting team. Another fly-out to center field and a strike-out ended the inning, keeping the contest tied up at 6-6.
South Lexington won this contest in the bottom of the frame to win by a final score of 7-6. Matt Marcum (walk) and Nathan Walls (single) each got on board to start the inning. Conner then came up in the clutch for South Lexington with an RBI double to win by one run, handing Somerset-Pulaski their first loss of the tournament.
Conner went the distance for South Lexington in this one, pitching all seven innings. Conner gave up six runs on eight hits, with one of those being an earned run. He also struck out four batters while walking one in the victory.
For Somerset-Pulaski, four pitchers made an appearance in the contest. Burchett got the start, lasting 3.1 innings on the hill. Burchett started off strong, but struggled in South Lexington’s big fourth inning. Carrender got his team out of the jam in the fourth, and didn’t return to the mound the next inning. Hall was credited with the loss. The southpaw gave up a lone run on four hits in a pair of innings on the hill. Hall led the way for Somerset-Pulaski with three strike-outs. Boils closed the game out for the Somerset-Pulaski.
Two players - Walls and Conner - had perfect days at the plate for South Lexington. Each player went four-for-four from the dish in the 7-6 win.
Hall also led the way for Somerset-Pulaski in the hit category, as he was the only player with multiple hits in the contest.
Somerset-Pulaski put the first run of the game on the board in the top of the first with an RBI ground out from Vincent Boils, which allowed Burchett to score.
South Lexington plated two runs over the next two innings to run out to a 2-1 lead, but the fourth inning is where they did the most damage.
In the fourth, the home team - South Lexington - scored four runs on five hits to take a five-run lead at 6-1. Singles from Walls, Conner, Brandon Calia, Jordan Nicoulin, and Evan Nicoulin allowed South Lexington to jump on Somerset-Pulaski.
Somerset-Pulaski returned to action again on Sunday afternoon against Southeastern Lexington - look for that game story in tomorrow’s edition of the Commonwealth Journal.
SP 1 0 0 1 0 4 0 - 6 8 1
SL 1 1 0 4 0 0 1 - 7 12 6
WP- Conner (SL).
LP- Hall (SP).
RBI- Burchett, Pelston, Boils, Hall, Carrender (SP). E. Nicoulin 2, Conner 2, J. Nicoulin, Walls (SL).
2B- Walls, Conner (SL).
