By STEVE CORNELIUS, CJ Sports Editor
Commonwealth Journal
Lexington —
Soon, summer will fade to the cooler days of autumn.
Soon, long sun-drenched days at the water park will be replaced by ‘reading, writing and arithmetic’.
But for a select local group of 12-year-old baseball players, summer has been extended for another day, and another game.
On Monday at Lexington’s Veterans Park, the Lake Cumberland Cal Ripken 12-year old All-Stars advanced to the Ohio Valley Regional Tournament semifinals after their 9-4 win over Howard Township, Mich.
Since the inception of the Lake Cumberland Cal Ripken League nearly a decade ago, never has an all-star squad advanced as far as the 2010 Lake Cumberland 12-year-old has done this week in the Cal Ripken Ohio Valley Regional Tournament.
“This is a great group of young baseball players, and it is only fitting they have made league history in advancing to the Ohio Valley Regional semifinals, “All-Star coach James Powell commented.
The local all-stars won all three of their pool play games and have now won their first game of the elimination tournament, thus landing them in the regional semifinals — and just two wins away from the Cal Ripken World Series.
The last time a Somerset youth league baseball program advanced this far was back in 1988 when the Somerset 15-year-old Babe Ruth All-Stars advanced all the way to the Ohio Valley Regional championship game.
Somerset High School baseball coach, and former professional baseball player, Phil Grundy led that historic Somerset Babe Ruth All-Star team. Ironically, Grundy’s son, Kross, is a member of this year’s historic Cal Ripken All-Star team.
In Monday’s game, the local all-stars held a narrow 3-2 lead over Howard Township after three complete innings. However, Lake Cumberland exploded for six runs over the next two innings to take control of the contest.
Lake Cumberland had no trouble swinging the bats as they amassed four homers on the night. Trevor Howard had two homers in the game, while Logan Ramsey and Dylan Shadoan, both went yard.
Howard led Lake Cumberland offensively with four RBIs and four runs scored. Ramsey went a perfect 3-for-3 at the plate, drove in four runs and scored a run.
Logan Combs picked up the win on the mound in 5 1/3 innings of work. Combs struck out eight batters and only allowed two earned runs. Howard picked up the save in relief.
Lake Cumberland played Jeffersontown at 3 p.m. yesterday in the semifinals, with the winner advancing to the finals at 7 p.m.
LC 2 0 1 3 3 0 — 9 10 1
HT 0 0 2 0 1 1 — 4 6 2
2B — Combs. HR — Howard 2, Ramsey, Shadoan. RBI — Howard 4, Ramsey 4, Shadoan. WP — Combs. SV — Howard.
