[Spud6]

Prestonsburg dominated this one from the opening pitch

[BlackcatAlum]

Kaden Allen was dominant in the mound and the Blackcats didn’t leave many runners on base.

Pburg can’t overlook Shelby Valley tonight.

Go Blackcats!!!

[Spud6]

Two teams below .500 playing for a chance to go to the regional championship. This is what makes post-season baseball fun because a lot of teams can be competitive if their ace is pitching well. Now Pburg faces an interesting good problem to have. They could pitch the Hall kid today against Valley and save their ace 1A/1b for the championship but you never wanna overlook a team cause Valley coming into yesterdays game didn’t have great batting averages but yesterday they hit very ball that was thrown at them.

[Mr. D]

First time in a while that JC has been truly outmatched in the regional tournament especially in the first round. Kaden Allen pitched a great game but I have to question JCs approach for a lot of the night. It seemed like Allen would have walked 1-2 batters every inning if JC wasn’t swinging at everything. A lot of 3-1 and 3-2 counts led to swinging wildly at ball 4.

If it’s me you have to roll the dice and save Welch for the championship game.

[pirateforlife]

If I’m Prestonsburg I’m saving Welch for the championship and don’t use him unless forced. I give someone else a shot and if they hit the ball as well as they did last night you don’t need a real dominant performance on the mound. You have to give yourself a shot to win the whole thing.

[Blackcat 4 Life]

It's a tough call, and one Tucker will have to make. I feel as if you have to make sure you put yourself in the best position to play for a regional championship and that would mean pitching Welch. I know I'm going to be in the minority, but I've seen this scenario play out too many times by saving your ace, and getting eliminated before you can use him. I get it, Welch gives the Blackcats the best chance to be able to upset Lawrence or Pikeville, but if you don't make it, you've wasted a talented arm by taking a chance. At this point, anything can happen, and Shelby Valley can't be overlooked. They hit the ball well last night, and I look for it to be a tough game regardless of who is on the mound. If Tucker goes with Hall or someone else, and gets the win, he looks like a genius, and this is a mute point, but if Shelby Valley were to win, you're going to have a senior who never had a chance to pitch for a shot at a regional championship. I'm hoping it works out either way. Hail Blackcats!

[Blacksmith]

As of now Id save Welch and see... Prestonsburg came very close to beating Pikeville recently..
So Prestonsburg "can" beat Pikeville on the right night.. Im no coach though, so we will see what they do.

[pirateforlife]

It's a tough call, and one Tucker will have to make. I feel as if you have to make sure you put yourself in the best position to play for a regional championship and that would mean pitching Welch. I know I'm going to be in the minority, but I've seen this scenario play out too many times by saving your ace, and getting eliminated before you can use him. I get it, Welch gives the Blackcats the best chance to be able to upset Lawrence or Pikeville, but if you don't make it, you've wasted a talented arm by taking a chance. At this point, anything can happen, and Shelby Valley can't be overlooked. They hit the ball well last night, and I look for it to be a tough game regardless of who is on the mound.  If Tucker goes with Hall or someone else, and gets the win, he looks like a genius, and this is a mute point, but if Shelby Valley were to win, you're going to have a senior who never had a chance to pitch for a shot at a regional championship. I'm hoping it works out either way. Hail Blackcats!

This is why I said give someone else a shot. If things start going south then you use him but they scored 10 runs last night. A good but not great pitching performance from someone else would be enough to win. Who is Lawrence likely to pitch against Pikeville? They definitely can win that game.

[BCF4L]

It's a tough call, and one Tucker will have to make. I feel as if you have to make sure you put yourself in the best position to play for a regional championship and that would mean pitching Welch. I know I'm going to be in the minority, but I've seen this scenario play out too many times by saving your ace, and getting eliminated before you can use him. I get it, Welch gives the Blackcats the best chance to be able to upset Lawrence or Pikeville, but if you don't make it, you've wasted a talented arm by taking a chance. At this point, anything can happen, and Shelby Valley can't be overlooked. They hit the ball well last night, and I look for it to be a tough game regardless of who is on the mound.  If Tucker goes with Hall or someone else, and gets the win, he looks like a genius, and this is a mute point, but if Shelby Valley were to win, you're going to have a senior who never had a chance to pitch for a shot at a regional championship. I'm hoping it works out either way. Hail Blackcats!

This is why I said give someone else a shot. If things start going south then you use him but they scored 10 runs last night. A good but not great pitching performance from someone else would be enough to win. Who is Lawrence likely to pitch against Pikeville? They definitely can win that game.

I think both Welch and Luke Hall have pitched against Pikeville this year and both performed well. The thing is these two pitchers are complete opposites that give you different looks. I don’t think even the coaches know the angle they’re going to go tonight. In a perfect world, both pitch tonight and are eligible to pitch again Thursday.

[Colonel4Life1999]

It's a tough call, and one Tucker will have to make. I feel as if you have to make sure you put yourself in the best position to play for a regional championship and that would mean pitching Welch. I know I'm going to be in the minority, but I've seen this scenario play out too many times by saving your ace, and getting eliminated before you can use him. I get it, Welch gives the Blackcats the best chance to be able to upset Lawrence or Pikeville, but if you don't make it, you've wasted a talented arm by taking a chance. At this point, anything can happen, and Shelby Valley can't be overlooked. They hit the ball well last night, and I look for it to be a tough game regardless of who is on the mound.  If Tucker goes with Hall or someone else, and gets the win, he looks like a genius, and this is a mute point, but if Shelby Valley were to win, you're going to have a senior who never had a chance to pitch for a shot at a regional championship. I'm hoping it works out either way. Hail Blackcats!

This is why I said give someone else a shot. If things start going south then you use him but they scored 10 runs last night. A good but not great pitching performance from someone else would be enough to win. Who is Lawrence likely to pitch against Pikeville? They definitely can win that game.

I think both Welch and Luke Hall have pitched against Pikeville this year and both performed well. The thing is these two pitchers are complete opposites that give you different looks. I don’t think even the coaches know the angle they’re going to go tonight. In a perfect world, both pitch tonight and are eligible to pitch again Thursday.

I would say that you hit that spot on BCF4L

[Ralph Furley]

First time in a while that JC has been truly outmatched in the regional tournament especially in the first round. Kaden Allen pitched a great game but I have to question JCs approach for a lot of the night. It seemed like Allen would have walked 1-2 batters every inning if JC wasn’t swinging at everything. A lot of 3-1 and 3-2 counts led to swinging wildly at ball 4.

If it’s me you have to roll the dice and save Welch for the championship game.

This one was all Prestonsburg from the start. They outmatched Central in everything except blunders. Central’s base running is terrible, they have no approach at the plate other than hack at everything they see, and  the coaching staff acts as if they’re just going through the motions and don’t even want to be there. From the parents reactions in the stands it has been a mess like this all season and some of them are calling for a change. I know my Tigers didn't fare any better this year but something’s got to give in Johnson County with their two baseball teams. Both programs are spiraling down to the point  where they’re just happy to be there while Pikeville continues to distance themselves. 
If you don’t want to put in the effort to be the best at what you do as a head coach then why do it?

[Spud6]

First time in a while that JC has been truly outmatched in the regional tournament especially in the first round. Kaden Allen pitched a great game but I have to question JCs approach for a lot of the night. It seemed like Allen would have walked 1-2 batters every inning if JC wasn’t swinging at everything. A lot of 3-1 and 3-2 counts led to swinging wildly at ball 4.

If it’s me you have to roll the dice and save Welch for the championship game.

This one was all Prestonsburg from the start. They outmatched Central in everything except blunders. Central’s base running is terrible, they have no approach at the plate other than hack at everything they see, and  the coaching staff acts as if they’re just going through the motions and don’t even want to be there. From the parents reactions in the stands it has been a mess like this all season and some of them are calling for a change. I know my Tigers didn't fare any better this year but something’s got to give in Johnson County with their two baseball teams. Both programs are spiraling down to the point  where they’re just happy to be there while Pikeville continues to distance themselves. 
If you don’t want to put in the effort to be the best at what you do as a head coach then why do it?

Both baseball programs? Look at their roster. The high school team is super young, their highest three batting averages are from 4 freshman and the sophomore Chase Preece. They'll be perfectly fine in years to come

[BCF4L]

I’d consider Hall to be one of the 3 best coaches in the 15th with Feltner and Simpkins. Kind of an outlandish post to complain about him after what he typically does in the postseason.

As for “swinging at wild pitches”, I don’t think people understand the movement Kaden has on all of his pitches. His 4 seam even moves. That’s the point of a good pitcher. You can’t just throw 85 mph fastballs right down the middle of the plate. When you can throw a 4-seam, 2-seam, changeup, slider and curve, it’s easy to keep teams off balance. That’s not the offenses fault. Sometimes you are just overmatched. It happens.