Post 9 Junior Bombers in state championship game
Jul. 14—The Owensboro American Legion Post 9 Junior Bombers have been on a summer-long winning streak through the first two games of the American Legion Junior Division State Tournament in Lexington.
Post 9 went on a late scoring spree, putting up seven runs in the sixth inning and four more in the top of the seventh, for an 11-4 win over Oldham Post 39 in the second round Thursday night.
Lucas Ward was 2-for-4 with a triple and four RBIs for Post 9 against Oldham. Talan Cartwright (Muhlenberg County) was 2-for-5 with a double and two RBIs.
Post 9 will take a 16-0 record into championship round against an undetermined opponent Friday at 7 p.m. CT. An if necessary game would be played Saturday. The tournament is double elimination.
The younger Post 9 team beat Lexington 12-1 on Wednesday and are 2-0 in the state tournament. Post 9 was 14-0 in the regular season.
Lexington, Oldham County, Owensboro and Madisonville are the Legion teams in the state tournament.
The big first round win was important for Post 9 because of pitching and overall team depth. Post 9 has 11 players participating in the state tournament.
"We run ruled them (Lexington). That was nice, saved me two innings of pitching," said Mike Rickard, who is coaching the Post 9 Junior team. "In this situation where it's day after day, back to back, you have to be careful with how to handle pitching."
Carter Kimmel (Apollo), Logan Mewes (Daviess County), Will Rickard (Owensboro) and Lane Skinner (Apollo) have pitched a lot of innings for Post 9.
Rickard picked up the pitching win against Oldham, giving up seven hits, with five strikeouts and two walks in seven innings.
"We use three or four as starters, a couple as middle relief and closers," Mike Rickard said. "We haven't had to go that deep in our pitching. I've got more pitching than I've ever had as a coach. We don't have a lot of outfielders."
Post 9 can hit up and down the lineup, so it has built big leads in most of its games.
In a recent game against Princeton, Easton Mefford hit a two-hop double to the fence that was the walk-off game winner for Owensboro. Mefford is the team's No. 9 hitter.
The age group is 17-under, and most of these players for Post 9 finished their sophomore year in high school. There are four Daviess County players on this Post 9 team.
The entire team is pretty versatile, and pitchers definitely hit for Post 9.
Ward is usually a shortstop at Daviess County, but he has also played outfield for Post 9.
"Those kids are priceless, he also hits leadoff," Rickard said of versatile players. "I think we have a team stocked full of kids who just want to play baseball. I have a talented squad."
Other Post 9 players include: Maddox Mason (Ohio), Eli Hatfield (Ohio), Brody Brubaker (DC), Owen McConnell (Ohio), and Weston Small (DC).
