KHSAA Seventh Region baseball: St. Xavier tops Trinity, will face Eastern in final

Having pitched just one inning over the past two weeks, St. Xavier High School pitcher Ty Starke was well-rested for the biggest game of the season.

The 6-foot-6 senior left-hander was on his game Tuesday night, tossing a two-hitter and striking out 12 as the Tigers beat rival Trinity 3-1 in the semifinals of the Seventh Region tournament at the University of Louisville’s Jim Patterson Stadium.

It was a matchup of the top two teams in the state in the Prep Baseball Kentucky Power 25 — Trinity (33-7) at No. 1 and St. X (31-8) at No. 2.

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Starke, a U of L commit, was the difference.

“There were two words tonight: Ty Starke,” Trinity coach Rick Arnold said. “They’re a well-coached, well-prepared, really good baseball team. But Ty Starke deserves the credit because he shoved on us tonight. Credit to him and his composure and durability.”

St. X, the defending state champion, will face Eastern at 5:30 p.m. Friday in the Seventh Region final. The Tigers are looking to become the first repeat state champions in Kentucky since Harrison County in 1997 and 1998.

“That’s really our goal every year is to win the state championship,” Starke said. “In our mind it’s just another year but a little more important.”

Trinity defeated St. X 1-0 in the regular season and took a 1-0 lead in the first inning Tuesday behind back-to-back hits by Kyle Campbell and Jake Schweitzer. But they would be the last two hits of the game for the Shamrocks.

The Tigers tied the score at 1 on Jake Gregor’s RBI single in the third inning. In the fifth, St. X took advantage of three Trinity errors to score two runs for a 3-1 lead.

The Shamrocks turned four double plays, but the three-error fifth was too much to overcome.

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“We played good defense, but we just didn’t play clean,” Arnold said. “We had three errors. You don’t win many games against Ty Starke in this situation with three errors.”

Starke seemed to get stronger as the game progressed, striking out eight of 12 batters during a stretch from the fourth to seventh innings.

Starke said his slider was his go-to pitch.

“I had a lot of confidence in it, got a lot of swings and misses,” he said. “I just kept going back to it, especially at the top of the order.”

Tigers coach Andy Porta said Starke struggled to throw first-pitch strikes, but he finished with just two walks and one hit batter.

“He did the job when he had to,” Porta said. “When he’s on, he’s tough. Righties or lefties, it doesn’t really matter. It was good to see. He picked us up.”

ST. XAVIER     001   020   0 -   3   8   0

TRINITY         100   000   0 -   1   2   3

WP – Ty Starke (4-1). LP – Camryn Warfield (6-2).

Eastern 2, Manual 1

All of 5 feet 9 and sporting rec specs, Landon Waugh may not be the most imposing pitcher to take a mound. But he has the respect of his Eastern High School teammates and head coach T.J. Graves.

“He doesn’t back down,” Graves said. “He thinks he throws 98, and he throws 86. Dude just attacks everything.”

Waugh showed his grit Tuesday night, tossing a three-hitter and striking out six to lead the Eagles to a 2-1 victory over No. 3-ranked Manual in a semifinal of the Seventh Region tournament at the University of Louisville’s Jim Patterson Stadium.

Eastern (26-12) advanced to the regional final for the first time since 2011.

“These seniors have worked their butts off,” Graves said. “I love it for them.”

Eastern beat Manual for the third time this season, and both head coaches admitted the low scores in all three games — 3-2, 3-1 and 2-1 — was influenced by familiarity.

Manual first-year head coach Ryan Blackwell previously was an assistant coach at Eastern. Eagles pitching coach Matt Timbario spent the previous nine seasons as the head coach at Manual.

Waugh said Timbario’s presence was key in shutting down Manual’s offense.

“Having him was a big help because he knows their strengths and their weaknesses,” Waugh said. “Probably the best scouting report you could have.”

Eastern took a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning on Ethan Elmore’s RBI groundout, and Jake Lind’s RBI single gave the Eagles a 2-0 lead in the fifth.

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Meanwhile, Waugh gained control of his slider after struggling with it while warming up before the game.

“Once I got on the field, the slider was working,” he said. “Once I saw they had trouble hitting it, if I needed a pitch to get ahead, that was it.”

Zach Morris’ RBI single with two out in the bottom of the seventh pulled the Crimsons (29-7) within 2-1, but Jonah Lawrence grounded into a force out to end the game.

Blackwell gave credit to Waugh and Graves.

“That group has definitely kept us most tamed,” Blackwell said. “I don’t know if the correlation is there (with Timbario now at Eastern) or if their guys are that much more excited to play at the time. … T.J. had those guys ready to go.”

EASTERN   000   110   0 - 2 4 0

MANUAL   000   000   1 - 1 3 0

WP – Landon Waugh (3-3). LP – Chase Chamberlain (7-3).

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: KHSAA baseball results 2023: St. X tops Trinity; Eastern beats Manual