The Allen County-Scottsville Patriots opened the baseball season with wins over the Edmonson County Wildcats and the Christian County Colonels. However, Monday afternoon, the Patriots fell to Logan County, 10-6, in the season’s home opener.
Last Thursday, home runs from Aaron Howell and Tristan Brooks helped the Patriots down the Wildcats 4-0 in Brownsville. Friday, a four-run seventh inning and one-hit pitching lifted the Patriots to a 5-1 win over the Colonels in action at Western Kentucky University.
“It is always good to win game one,” noted coach Scott Stamper. “We threw the ball extremely well. Hunter Foster scattered five hits over five innings of quality work. He got some big strike outs when deeded and a couple of nice defensive plays helped close out a couple of innings.”
With Foster holding the Wildcats at bay from the mound, the Patriots plated a pair of runs early. Warren Bray’s RBI single to left fielder started the scoring. Howell’s homer followed in the second. Brooks added a solo homer later in the game to stake AC-S to a four-run lead. Howell and Brooks finished the game with two hits.
Foster’s efforts on the mound was complimented by the Patriot bullpen.
“Brett Rippy came on in relief in the 6th and recorded two strikeouts and a pop up to short,” coach Stamper added. “Owen Stamper came on in the seventh to close the door.”
Coach Stamper noted that his squad will need to look to put the ball in play more going forward.
“We did strike out to many times at the plate,” coach Stamper noted. “We had 10 for the game. That was a lot of guys didn't have a good mental approach to their at bats. We gave away too many swings.”
Strikeouts were a problem for AC-S Friday night at Nick Denes Field as the Patriots faced Christian County as part of the Spartan Classic hosted by South Warren. For five innings, Christian County left-hander Lane Dieguad dominated the Patriot bats. The junior south paw recorded 10 strikeouts and limited the Patriots to two hits---an infield single by Rippy in the third and a right field hit by Stamper in the fourth.
Defensively, senior Sheldon Peay was throwing a gem of his own. The Colonels lone hit was a bunt single by Austin Fields in the first. Fields would come around to score on a wild pitch staking the Colonels to a 1-0 lead. However, Peay would take control after the rocky start. Peay retired 13 of the next 14 batters---the lone exception being a walk in the home half of the third. Peay left the game after the fifth, having allowed one run on one hit.
Dieguad began to falter in the top of the sixth as he began to face the Patriot batters a third time. Peay ripped a one-out single. After his courtesy runner Dusty Craft was forced out at second as Stamper grounded into a fielder’s choice. Drew Meador entered as the courtesy runner for Stamper and quickly moved to second on a steal. Bray followed with a scorcher up the middle---scoring Meador from second on the play and tying the game at one.
AC-S reliever Jordan Charlton worked the sixth and essentially picked up where Peay left off. The Colonels’ leadoff hitter reached on an AC-S error only to see Charlton forced Colonels batters into two ground ball out and a floater to left field.
The Patriot bats came to life in the top of the seventh. Dieguard was replaced on the mound by Keith Stallions. With one out, Cody Lafitte walked. Rippy legged out an infield roller with Brooks drawing a walk to load the bases. AC-S first baseman Marcus Carter followed with a two-run single to plate Lafitte and Rippy and give AC-S a 3-1 lead. Peay would be plunked, one again loading the bases.
Christian County tried to start the bleeding with a pitching change. However, Stamper’s single off reliever Jason Polley scored Brooks. Carter would be the fourth AC-S runner to reach home, scoring after Bray drew a bases-loaded walk.
Coach Stamper turned to Zack Ausbrooks to close out the game. Ausbrooks struck out the first two Colonels he faced in the seventh before forcing Polley to pop out to Carter to end the game.
“Defeating Christian County was a big win for us,” coach Stamper noted. “Our pitching kept us in the game until we got their leftie out of the game. Then, out bats finally got going a little.”
AC-S finished with seven hits. Peay, Charlton, and Ausbrooks combined to hold the Colonels to one hit for the game.
Monday, the Patriots pushed six runs across the plate despite an afternoon of struggling with the bat. The hosts finished with four hits---a triple from Brooks and singles from Peay, Howell, and Cayden Ross. Defensively, AC-S used six pitches---a staff by committee that gave up 11 hits. Four Patriot errors hurt AC-S’s hopes of a 3-0 start.
Logan County broke a scoreless tie when Third Bell scored from third on an error on Carter. The Cougars added two runs in the third on a two-run home run by Bradley Taylor. Logan County pushed three runs across in the fourth to open a 6-0 lead.
The Patriots answered with two runs in the home half of the inning. After Carter and Peay reached on back-to-back walks, a Logan County fielding error allowed Stamper to reach first and the Patriots to load the bases. Carter scored moments later as Bray grounded into a fielder’s choice. Howell followed with an RBI single.
After Cougar Koby Wall blasted a solo homer in the top of the fifth, AC-S used a three-run inning in the home half of the fifth to pull to within two. Ross singled, moved to second on a balk and reached third on a groundout by Rippy. A triple by Brooks scored Ross. Carter followed with a walk before a single off the bat of Peay plated Brooks. A hard grounder by Stamper led to an error on the Cougars---a play that allowed Carter to advance to third base. A passed ball led to Carter scored AC-S’s fifth run of the game.
Logan County recorded a three-spot of their own in the top of the sixth. Nick Wooden and Taylor walked to start the inning. Wooden would come around to score two batters later as a result of a Rippy error. Taylor scored on a sacrifice fly before Bell---who reached on Rippy’s error---crossed the plate to add Logan’s final run.
AC-S’s Colby Lafitte would score the last AC-S run in the home half of the sixth. Lafitte had moved around the bases on a pair of passed balls by the Cougars before scoring on a groundout by Rippy.