Bluegrassrivals

On Monday night many of the top juniors and seniors gathered at Dixie to participate in the Northern Kentucky Baseball Coaches Association’s East-West All-Star games.
While the games had their typical casual feel to them, with players playing out of position, wearing mismatching helmets and catcher’s gear and lots of laughing out on the diamond, both the junior and senior contests were close.
In the junior game, the West All-Stars made a 3-1 lead stand through the final four innings to give Lloyd pitcher Addison Brown the win.
The West All-Stars pulled off the sweep, as the West also won the senior game on a walkoff wild-pitch that Scott’s Brandon Stamper came home on to make the final score 9-8.
Both senior squads had their big innings at the plate. The East went up 5-1 after the top half of the fourth, but the West responded with seven runs over the next three innings to take an 8-5 lead, only to see the East tie it in the top of the seventh, which led to Stamper’s run in the bottom half of the seventh.
It wasn’t the highest level of baseball, but it was enjoyable watching the kids have fun playing the game. Here are a few of my personal highlights from the evening…
- Holy Cross’ Blake Tiberi, who was playing third base in the bottom of the sixth of the junior game, made a basket catch with his back turned towards home plate while chasing a high fly midway into the outfield in foul territory. That catch was spectacular, but he also recorded all three outs in the inning, including a nice short pop up in foul territory that he had to run in hard for and a ground ball that he fielded and stepped on third to get the force out.
- Lloyd’s Jimmy Stevens and Scott’s Kyle Kramer combined for a great play in the top of the seventh of the junior game. Stevens, who was playing first, made a sliding snag on a ball hit into the hole between him and second. He quickly hopped up and flipped to Kramer who was coming over to cover the base and record the out.
- In the top of the third inning in the senior game, Leiff Clarkson fielded a ground ball at second base with the bases empty, but inexplicably and immediately flipped the ball to Boone County shortstop Doug Teegarden who was cutting across the infield and threw a seed over to first for the out. Just the boys having some fun with your average 4-6-3 putout.
- Listening to Holmes’ Jared Martin “chatter” out in the field. Martin was hilarious while playing the infield and supporting his pitchers (rather loudly) in between pitches.
- Also, shoutout to Campbell County coach Stephen Schweitzer, who embraced the spirit of the game by rocking these cowboy boots at the beginning of the senior game.
[Image: CCboots-1024x701.jpg]