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Apollo, Catholic ready for regional baseball matchups

mark mathis, messenger-inquirer, owensboro, ky.
·3 min read

There are three teams ranked in the top 20 of the PBR Power 25 as the 3rd Region Baseball Tournament gets ready to start with four games on Memorial Day.

Apollo was ranked No. 8 in the latest PBR Power 25. Owensboro Catholic is No. 11 in that ranking. Muhlenberg County is No. 18.

Owensboro Catholic beat Apollo 7-6 in nine innings on Friday to claim the 9th District championship at Daviess County High School. The championship game was delayed two days because of late afternoon rain storms that knocked it out.

That affected pitching setups for Apollo and Catholic. Apollo and Catholic each used four pitchers going for short innings on the mound Friday.

“We had to pitch (Friday’s) game the way we did because of the short turnaround,” Apollo coach Brandon Dennis said. “In the postseason, you shouldn’t have to sacrifice the way you have played all year long to win the district tournament, but in our district, we have all been in that position for the last two years.

“We played everything in such a way that our pitching is completely intact for the region, but we had to make sacrifices for the second year in a row to get to that point. There isn’t one other district in the state that played as late as we did Friday that is starting regional play early (this) week.”

Apollo (22-8) will start off the 3rd Region Baseball Tournament in a 10 a.m. CT brunch matchup against Grayson County on Memorial Day at Breckinridge County High School.

Apollo’s Grayson Smith leads the team with a .376 batting average and 20 RBIs. Noah Cook has an 0.46 ERA and 72 strikeouts in 61.1 innings. Carter Kimmel has a 0.95 ERA in 44.1 innings

Grayson County, the 12th District champion, in that opening game Monday. Grayson County is 16-14 and beat Edmonson County 9-6 in the district championship game.

Levi Rogers is batting .434 for Grayson County. Rogers also has 66 strikeouts in 42 innings pitched.

Owensboro Catholic is 26-7 and will meet Edmonson County at 4 p.m. Monday. Edmonson County is 22-9.

Catholic has been noted throughout the season as being a scrappy team that will truly play to the last out. That attitude has been grown in part because the team is tight on and off the field.

“We’re very close at Catholic,” Aces coach Jody Hamilton said. “Almost every student knows each other’s name, has classes together or plays another sport with them. That helps. Everybody is friends with each other, they like each other, they’re going to play hard for each other.”

Parker Heistand is hitting .380 for Catholic. Luke Quinn has pitched 48 innings with a 1.45 ERA.

Edmonson County’s Hunter Wilson is batting .544 with six home runs and 46 RBIs. Wilson has also struck out 70 in 52.2 innings pitching.

Muhlenberg County will face Meade County at 1 p.m. Monday. Muhlenberg won the 10th District 11-1 over Ohio County.

Muhlenberg is 26-7. Muhlenberg’s Eli DeBoer is batting .421 with 25 RBIs. Peyton Cary has been outstanding pitching for Muhlenberg with a 0.35 ERA, 128 strikeouts in 79.2 innings.

Meade County’s Austin Stansbury is hitting .387 and is one of two Meade pitchers with 60 innings pitching. The other is Grayson Rhodes. Meade County is 19-18.

Ohio County is 10-19-1. Davey Hiner is batting .370 for Ohio, while Owen McConnell has a 1.31 ERA pitching.

Regional host Breckinridge County won the 11th District, beating Meade County in the championship game 1-0.

Breckinridge County is 16-14. Adam Howell is batting .373 for Breckinridge County. Tristan Wicker has thrown 61.2 innings with a 2.50 ERA and 69 strikeouts.

Breckinridge County will meet Ohio County at 7 p.m. in the last game of the opening round.

Semifinal games will be Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. and 8 p.m.

The championship game is scheduled for Wednesday at 6 p.m.