By STEVE CORNELIUS, CJ Sports Editor
Somerset — Paced by a strong first two innings and consistent pitching by Brandon Pruitt and Landon Powell, the Lake Cumberland Cal Ripken 10 & under All-Star baseball team downed Rockcastle 6-2 in the opening round of the district tournament at Ward Correll Sports Complex on Tuesday.
The local all-star team put up five early runs in their first two at-bats, which was enough to hold off the scrappy team from Rockcastle.
The game started off with Lake Cumberland’s Jake Johnson reaching first on a Rock fielding error and Danny Butt reaching base on a single. Logan Ramsey grounded out back to the pitcher to score Johnson. Steven Fitzgerald reached base on an infield single to score Butt to give the local team a 2-0 lead after one.
Lake Cumberland tacked on three more runs in the second to widen the lead even more. Peyton Gover started the inning off with a gapper to the outfield that allowed the speedster to advance all the way to third base for a stand-up triple. Landon Powell flied out deep to left field to score Gover. Johnson singled and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Then, Hagen Elmore walked as Johnson stole third base, and Elmore immediately stole second on a decoy play, but Johnson did not advance home.
A wild pitch allowed Johnson to score, and after Rockcastle pitcher Lucas Jones fell after the collision at home, Elmore snuck in for the rare home plate double steal.
After Rockcastle added a run in the bottom of the second inning, making the score 5-1, neither team could produce any scoring attacks in the next two innings.
However, Rock added a run in the fifth inning to narrow the Lake Cumberland lead to 5-2.
Lake Cumberland put up one last insurance run in their last at bats when Ricky Maxey laid down a sacrifice bunt to score Gover to put the score, where it remained to the end, at 6-2.
Lake Cumberland was led in hitting by Jake Johnson, who went 2-for-3 and scored 2 runs. Peyton Gover went 2-for-2 and scored 2 runs, while Steven Fitzgerald went 2-for-2 and drove in a run.
Lake Cumberland’s Brandon Pruitt and Landon Powell shared the pitching duties by working three innings apiece. Both pitchers allowed one run apiece and struck out a combined 8 Rock batters.
The Lake Cumberland All-Stars will play again today at 6 p.m. against Casey County.
LC 2 3 0 0 0 1 — 6 7 0
RC 0 1 0 0 1 0 — 2 7 4
3B — Gover. RBI — Ramsey, Fitzgerald, Landon Powell, Maxey. WP — Pruitt.
