It was “Senior Day” for Covington Catholic baseball Wednesday when Beechwood came a-calling.
Although that almost seemed a contradiction in terms for a Colonel club that legendary CovCath coach Bill Krumpelbeck describes without hesitation as “the youngest team I’ve ever had.”
And that gets your attention when Krumpelbeck says it. He’s been at this long enough – 46 seasons — to become Kentucky’s all-time third-winningest baseball coach having led the Colonels for 1,528 games, winning 1,070 and winning at least 20 games for 34 straight seasons now. And yeah, he won Northern Kentucky’s last baseball state title back in 2002 with a then-best 40-win season (now second best all-time in Kentucky).
So how does Krumpelbeck describe the Colonels’ 14-11 season after Wednesday’s 1-0 loss to high-flying 35th District rival Beechwood, now 21-3?
“It’s been very interesting,” Krumpelbeck says of a CovCath team with five sophomores and three freshmen. “I’ve never had more than one freshman ever.” And then only rarely.
This is as much a learning experience for the veteran coach as it is his players as they’ll have to sweep the rest of the regular season schedule to hit that 20-win mark before tournament time.
“They’re getting better,” Krumpelbeck says of a team that could have easily snuck up and took one away from Beechwood’s Tigers, runner-up this past weekend for Kentucky’s All “A” Classic title.
“They’re starting to figure out my style,” he says of his young guys, a style that is basically fundamentals first . . . and last and in between. It’s a tribute, Cincinnati West Sider Krumpelbeck attributes to his coaches at Elder High and Bentley Post American Legion.
“I’ve had fantastic coaches,” says Krumpelbeck, an outstanding left-handed pitcher at Xavier. And now he’s working on becoming a better coach himself.
“I’m trying,” he says with a smile.
Much the way his Colonels tried on this cold, windy, overcast day where the ball left the bat with a sound of a pickle ball serve. “Either the ball is dead or our bats are dead,” Beechwood Coach Kevin Gray said after an inning where no matter how hard his guys hit it, how well they squared up on a pitch, nothing was about to leave Jerry Collins Field.
Both starters were solid as can be. CovCath’s Colin Gastright gave up just six hits in five full innings and the lone run to the game’s leadoff hitter Cameron Boyd, who walked, stole second, moved to third on a misthrow on the play and scored on a ground out to deep short. That was it. Everybody could have gone home at 5:05.
Not that Beechwood didn’t come close to plating more. The Tigers ran their way out of a run when they opened with a double, and back-to-back singles, in the fifth only to get the leadoff runner picked off on a terrific play by CovCath catcher Jonathan Fitz.
CovCath had much the same chance when the Colonels put together back-to-back singles from William Burke and Jackson Reardon, their second hits of the day, in the bottom of the seventh and had runners on second and third with just one out.
But as he’d done all game in pitching his first shutout and first seven-inning complete game, junior Matt Kappes had the answers when he needed them. He got Alek Yuskewich to ground out to third with the runners holding and then Nick Darpel on a soft liner to short to end the game.
“This is how you win these games,” Gray said of the rivalry that produced a 1-0 Beechwood win the last time these teams played here two years ago. “I know they’re young . . . but it’s Beechwood-CovCath.”
This one belonged to Kappes. “I’m proud of this guy,” Gray said. “He mixed his speeds well.”
Kappes was pretty proud of what he did as well. “I’ve always wanted to pitch against CovCath,” he said as he improved his season record to 4-0. “I was definitely bringing some adrenaline.”
Not to mention his fast ball. “I was able to hit the outside spot with it,” he said. “And I was able to throw the curve for strikes.”
Then when CovCath put men on base, as they did the last three innings with five left on base, “I just trusted my ability to get out of it,” Kappes said.
And as it has in an up-and-down season of great extremes for CovCath and a season where most things have gone Beechwood’s way, that’s how this one went.
Close for the Colonels, but another one in Beechwood’s win column.
Nazario Pangallo, with two hits replacing Mitch Berger who left the game after getting hit by a pitch in the first inning, and Brice Estep, with a double and a single, led Beechwood. Pangallo also had a terrific lunging catch at the wall in right center off the bat of Charlie Dieruf. CovCath was led by Fitz’ single and double.
