Bluegrassrivals

There were at least a couple of times this season when Conner baseball coach Brad Arlinghaus thought a difficult schedule had taken its toll on his team, but it proved for a fourth straight season that the regular-season record doesn’t matter much.
Conner, which went 15-19-1 in the regular season, scored 13 runs over the final three innings to break open a close game and beat Boone County 16-3 in a 33rd District semifinal game on Tuesday at Cooper to earn a fourth straight Ninth Region tournament berth.
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Conner (16-19-1) plays Ryle (25-11-1) in Wednesday’s 5:30 p.m. championship game at Cooper. Both teams have earned a berth in next week’s Ninth Region tournament at Florence Freedom Stadium, but the winner will get a chance to draw a loser from one of the other three district tournaments.

Conner has gone 63-54-2 over the last four regular seasons, but made at least the regional semifinals each of the previous three seasons, including finishing as regional runner-up last season.

“The record doesn’t mean anything,” said Arlinghaus. “It’s all leading to one game. These are the most important games you can get ready for.

“This year we put together a pretty hard schedule. I thought I might have made it too tough after we started playing it, but maybe I didn’t because it all comes down to this. We hit rock bottom two or three times. There was not a lead safe enough with us. I can’t say enough about these guys – they kept fighting.”

Junior right-hander Blake Maines went the distance for Conner as he scattered seven hits, had four 1-2-3 innings, didn’t allow a walk, struck out five and went 2-for-4 at the plate with a two-run triple in a five-run sixth and a three-run triple in a six-run seventh.

“Everybody believed the whole year,” said Maines. “We’ve got a bunch of talent. We started out real rough, but our coaches got us back on track and we’ve been playing good lately.”
Conner won eight of its last 10 regular-season games, including wins over four teams either ranked or receiving votes in the most recent Kentucky High School Baseball Coaches Association top 25 poll. Boone County (25-11-1) was tied for 24th in the most recent state poll.

“Two weeks ago ... it all came together and then the beginning of last week it kind of fell apart a little bit, but Saturday we came back again when we beat Holy Cross,” said Arlinghaus. “We knew coming in we had some talent, but it’s tough when you start three sophomores. We knew we’re going to go through growing pains.”

Boone County took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first when leadoff batter Chase Stanley lined a single to right and came all the way around to score when the ball bounced away from Conner junior right fielder Brady Padget and rolled all the way to the fence.

Conner took the lead for good in the top of the third when it scored three times off Boone County senior starter Kameron Schwartz. The Cougars got their first run when junior left fielder Dustin Herrmann drew a bases-loaded walk with one out and one out later senior first baseman Jake Williams drove in two more runs with a bases-loaded single.

The Cougars added two runs in the fifth when Herrmann tripled with one out, scored when Padget tripled and Padget came home on a passed ball.

They then scored five times in the sixth, two on a single by sophomore shortstop Jared Williams and two more on a triple by Maines, and tallied six runs in the seventh, three on Maines’ second triple and two more on sophomore catcher Blake Hart’s single.

“It was (a tough way to start), but we always come back,” said Maines. “I wasn’t really worried about one run. We always hit the ball somehow and get people on base. We just smacked the ball.”http://nky.cincinnati.com/article/AB/201...news|text|