Somerset — While watching the Lake Cumberland 12 and under All-Stars try to advance to the finals of the 5th District Tournament, I turned to the guy sitting next to me and asked him what he thought of the local team’s performance. 12-year-old Lyle Morton, who goes to school with many of the players, gave an answer that seemed to sum things up quite well: “They’re obliterating them…badly.”
It’s easy to see why Lyle felt that way, since Lake Cumberland used the combination of hot bats, precision execution, and three great innings by Austin Cornett to tear into the finals with a 17-4 blowout win over the Casey County All-Stars.
The Casey County stars were very game at the beginning. Pitcher Aaron Lande held Lake Cumberland scoreless in the first, the only runner coming on an error. On the mound for Lake Cumberland, Austin Cornett pitched three dominant innings to buy time for the offense to get untracked. In the first three frames, Cornett pitched no-hit baseball, striking out seven and walking one. While Cornett was shutting out Casey, his teammates came alive at the plate.
In the second inning, Lake Cumberland put forth a work of art that was the equivalent of a stress test for Casey County right fielder Spencer Brackett, painting the foul line with three drives that seemed to spell out Casey’s fate.
Cornett drove in the first run when he lined one down the right field line just inside fair territory for a triple. The next hitter, Caleb Cox, duplicated the feat. Before Brackett could catch his breath he was chasing another ball rolling into the right field corner, giving the local stars back-to-back triples. After a walk and a couple of ground outs, center fielder Colby Adkins seemed to swing the gavel of fate, hitting the third drive the opposite way. Again it just missed the chalk of the line and rolled into the farthest corner of the outfield fence. Despite good hustle by Casey, the speedy Adkins was able to convert this one into a two-run inside-the-park home run.
Trailing 5-0 the Casey stars seemed to feel snake bitten after the Adkins shot. The wind went out of the sails, so to speak, and Lake Cumberland capitalized on three singles, two errors, a walk, and a hit batsman to tally four more runs before the inning came to a merciful end.
Unfortunately for Casey County, Lake Cumberland soon got another turn at the plate. There weren’t any laser guided triples this time, but Coach Neal Dockery’s team kept bulling forward against new pitcher Matthew Sharp. A walk, an error, three wild pitches, two hit batters, and four base hits, the biggest of which was a two-run double by Pedro Herrera, plated another seven runs for the Lake Cumberland stars.
Leading off the fourth inning, pinch hitter Matthew Floyd’s at-bat produced a sound that was all too common for the game, though its abundance in this matchup was quite unique compared to other games. Floyd took a fastball in the small of the back. It was the fourth identical dull thud of the night. Chris Lynch, Austin Cornett, and Caleb Cox had already been beaned in the exact same spot, making the exact same sound. Like the other three, Floyd came around to score, the seventeenth and final run for Lake Cumberland. (I should also point out that the pitches were obviously unintentional, the result of a poor release point by the pitcher instead of poor sportsmanship.)
Up to this point, the four hit batters were the only ‘hits’ Casey County had managed. But whether fatigue or lack of urgency played a part, Casey County caught up to Austin Cornett. Four runs on four hits, including RBI doubles by Hunter Gillock, Jake “Pork Chop” Atwood, and Michael Tucker, forced Dockery to do what was unthinkable just minutes earlier. In order to protect the ten run lead that would end the game, he brought in Gunnar Pitman to record the last two outs, which he did without further damage.
The 17-4 win vaults Lake Cumberland into the finals of the double elimination district tournament Saturday at the Ward Correll Sports Complex, on South Kentucky RECC Field. If the local stars can win one of two Saturday, they will advance to the State Tournament next week in Shelbyville.
Lake Cumberland
Cornett 3.1 IP, 4ER, 4R, 4H, 8K, 2BB
Pitman .2 IP, 0ER, 0R, 0H, 1K, 0BB
2B—Herrera
3B—Cornett, Cox
HR—Adkins
SB—Lynch, Herrera
RBI—Herrera 3, Adkins 2, Cox 2, Hislope, Cornett.
Casey County
Lande 2IP, 6ER, 9R, 6H, 1K, 2BB, 1HBP
M. Sharp 2IP, 6ER, 8R, 5H, 3K, 1BB, 3HBP
2B—Gillock, Atwood, Tucker
RBI—Gillock, Atwood, Tucker, B. Sharp.
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Related Photos
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Lake Cumberland All-Star Charlie Hall takes a rip at the baseball during Thursday's’ Cal Ripken 12 & under District Tournament at the Ward Correll Sports Complex. Steve Cornelius Photo
Lake Cumberland All-Stars obliterate Casey County
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