[Stardust]

A great pitching duel ended with a bizarre balk as Henderson County beat Newport Central Catholic 1-0 in nine innings in the quarterfinals of the state baseball tournament at Whitaker Bank Ballpark on Thursday night.

Henderson County’s Kaleb Duckworth led off the bottom of the ninth with a double to the wall in left-center. Avery Pitt reached on an error, and Duckworth went to third. With Justin Cessna at the plate, Pitt stole second unchallenged.

Then came the odd finish to a great game.

NewCath pitcher Josh Cain, who went the distance and had blanked the Colonels on two hits to that point, wheeled and fired a pick-off attempt to first, thinking Pitt was still there. The ball whistled past Cain’s first baseman and Duckworth raced home with the winning run on what was officially ruled a balk.

“I was afraid the game would end on something crazy,” Henderson Coach Nathan Isenberg said. “I hated to see the guy (Cain) lose that way, but that’s baseball. We’ll take it.”

Duckworth had the same feelings.

“I didn’t know what he was doing. I guess he forgot Avery stole second. He threw a heck of a game, so I kind of feel sorry for him. But we’ll take it.”

Sam Higgs, who was the winning pitcher in the Colonels’ first-round victory over North Oldham, got another “W” with two innings in relief of starter Marty Coursey. They limited NewCath to 4 hits and combined for 7 strikeouts.

Cain was the hard-luck loser. He went 9 innings, struck out 3 and walked one.

Henderson County, the 2000 state champ, advances to Friday night’s semifinals.