Bluegrassrivals

Baseball

35th District final

At Meinken Field

Covington Catholic 10, Beechwood 3

WP -Maile; LP -Johnson (4-4). Leaders: C -Lankheit 2-5, 2B, 3B, 3 RBI; Bir HR; Schreiver 2B; Severson 2B; Arnzen 2B. Record: B 30-8.

COVINGTON, Ky. - Covington Catholic head coach Bill Krumpelbeck said his team has had trouble scoring runs this year.

That was hardly the case Friday, as the Colonels used a seven-run fourth inning to beat Beechwood, 10-3, in the 35th District championship game at Meinken Field in Covington.

“We haven’t scored many runs at all this year,” Krumpelbeck said. “We’re a low-scoring team. We kind of bunt, get one at a time and draw a lot of walks. That (fourth inning) kind of gave us a break there.”

CovCath held true to Krumpelbeck’s words in the first three innings, scoring an unearned run in the second inning and taking a 2-1 lead on sophomore designated hitter Blake Bir’s second home run of the season in the third.

The fourth was a different matter, however, as the first nine Colonels to bat all reached base, with the Tigers failing to record an out until turning to their third pitcher of the inning.

The inning started as a typical one for the Colonels, with a single, a hit batter, and a bunt single loading the bases. Junior center fielder Brady Reese brought home the first run with a single to left, and a walk to junior Michael Best spelled the end of senior Colin Johnson’s day on the mound for Beechwood.

Junior catcher Jake Lankheit, CovCath’s RBI leader with 33 entering the game, then drove a pitch from junior reliever Taylor Smith to the base of the wall just under the 368-foot sign in right-center field for a bases clearing triple.

“I’d never seen Smith throw this year,” Lankheit said. “He looked like he was throwing pretty well, and with the bases loaded I’m looking for something to drive just to get that run in. I got my pitch and just drove it.”

Back-to-back walks loaded the bases again, and junior right-fielder Corey Severson drove a double to right-center field off new pitcher Matt Brennan. Two runs scored before freshman Grant Schreiver was thrown out at home trying add a third run on the play, and Brennan retired the next two batters, but the Colonels lead stood at 9-1.

“The bats came out and I’m glad they did,” Lankheit said. “We’ve been looking for that all year and there’s a not a better time that right now to bring them out and score those runs.”

CovCath added a final run an inning later when junior shortstop Seattle Stein reached on a bunt single for the third time in the game and scored on two errors and a wild pitch.

That was more than enough offense for junior left-hander Ben Maile, who worked around eight walks to hold Beechwood to three runs on two hits over 5-1/3 innings.

“Benny was MVP of the tournament. He saved the game the other night and came in and won this one,” Krumpelbeck said. “He’s a battler. That’s kind of how he pitches all the time. He walks people, but he’s a confident kid and keeps battling. That’s important in these games.”

“I just tried to keep him calm,” said Lankheit. “He’s probably the hardest thrower we have. I tried to keep him calm throughout the game, keep him down not trying to get him flustered with anything. Once we got that big league I went up in the dugout to him and said we have this. You just need to calm down and throw strikes and we’ll back you up.”

Maile was joined on the all-tournament team by Severson, who was the winning pitcher in Wednesday’s semifinal win against Holy Cross, and Lankheit.

Junior Brian Fagel finished on the mound for CovCath, giving up one hit and three walks with two strikeouts in 1 2/3 scoreless innings.

The win gives CovCath its fourth district title in the past five years and keeps Beechwood from claiming its first since 2006. Both teams will advance to next week’s 9th Region tournament at Champion Window Field in Florence.

“We’re hoping to win the region. That’s been our goal,” said Krumpelbeck, who won his 19th district title in 35 years at CovCath. “We’ll see what happens. The draw is pretty big on Saturday. Tomorrow’s the draw, so we’ll take it from there.”

COVCATH 011-710-0—10 12 0
BEECHWOOD 010-101-0—3 3 3

WP: Maile (9-1). LP: Johnson (4-4). Hitting leaders: CC-Lankheit 2-4, 2B, 3B, 3 RBIs; Bir HR; Schreiver 2B; Severson 2B; Arnzen 2B; Stein 3-3. Records: CovCath 27-10, Beechwood 30-8.

All-tournament team: Jesse Jenson, Holmes; Nick Long, Holmes; Nick Ritter, Holy Cross; Connor Callery, Holy Cross; Dylan Cottingham, Beechwood; Jason Suchanek, Beechwood; Jake Lankheit, CovCath; Corey Severson, CovCath. MVP- Ben Maile, CovCath.