These teams played on Saturday with Covington Catholic prevailing over Simon Kenton, 6-3.
In that game, the Colonels were ahead 3-0 early before the Pioneers struck back to tie things up at 3-3. It was a three-run seventh inning that ultimately led to the Covington Catholic victory.
In Tuesday’s edition of the matchup, it was Simon Kenton’s turn to jump ahead early with a two-run first inning off third baseman Jacob Piper’s single and first baseman Logan Cones’ sacrifice fly.
But the Colonels’ breakthrough inning was foreshadowed early on. They left runners on in the first three innings unable to dent the scoreboard.
It all came to fruition in the fourth inning when Covington Catholic scored eight runs en rout to a 10-5 victory, their second win over the Pioneers in four days.
With runners on second and third and two outs in the fourth, it looked as if the Colonels were going to waste another golden opportunity until Covington Catholic head coach Bill Krumpelbeck decided to make a change by inserting Parker McKinley in as a pinch hitter. After taking the first pitch for a ball, McKinely whacked the 1-0 pitch to right center to put the Colonels on the board.
That one hit spurred a domino effect for the Covington Catholic offense as the next seven batters reached base, including doubles from Jackson Reardon and Joseph Magary and a single by Alek Yuskewich, and just like that it was 8-2 Colonels.
“It was big,” Krumpelbeck said. “We were making mistakes or missing signals. We were doing all kinds of things I was not happy with, so it was big.”
However, the Pioneers never stopped fighting, as they scored three runs in the fourth and fifth innings combined to cut into the deficit.
“We’re two pretty good teams. And if you have two good teams there is no lead safe. I mean we knew when we were up 2-0 it wouldn’t hold,” Simon Kenton coach Troy Roberts said. “When they were up 8-2, I didn’t think we were done. I felt like we could come back from that and we had some chances.”
The Pioneer rally ultimately came up short but Roberts wants another shot at the Colonels.
“I want to play them again. They’ve got us twice you know. We got them twice last year and I want to play them again,” Roberts said. “You want to play good teams. That’s what gets you ready for the regional tournament.”
Michael Rozell got the nod for Covington Catholic and lasted three innings allowing just three hits and no earned runs. Pieper came in relief and after a rocky start settled in and retired nine straight batters to end the game.
Kaiden Robbins started on the bump for Simon Kenton and through three innings stifled the Colonels. He was unable to make it out of the fourth inning while Noah Hinton pitched the final 3.1 innings.
Both teams were coming off a taxing weekend in which they played multiple games and used up most of their pitching staff. All four pitchers in Tuesday’s game combined for just 40 innings pitched combined so far this season, each team has played over 150 innings.
A hit parade was expected coming in, but both coaches saw it as an opportunity to grow the depths of their staffs.
“They played a lot of baseball over the weekend. We played a lot of baseball over the weekend. We used a lot of pitching,” Roberts said. “But that’s it, high school teams you got to have a deep pitching staff.”
Roberts’ pitching staff will be challenged once again as they face another 9th region foe in the Ryle Raiders on Wednesday evening. Covington Catholic will have a much-needed day off Wednesday before playing host to 35th District foe Holy Cross on Thursday night.
Colonels 10, Pioneers 5
Covington Catholic — 000-810-1 – 10-12-1
Simon Kenton -200-120-0 – 5-7-4
2B– (CC) Reardon 2, Magary 2, Yuskewich, Pieper, McKinley, (SK) Daniel Uhl, Logan Cones
WP– Michael Rozell. LP-Kaiden Robbins
Records: Covington Catholic (21-2), Simon Kenton (18-7)