The comeback even had Simon Kenton baseball coach Troy Roberts at a loss of words.
“To tell you the truth I don’t know,” Roberts said after his Pioneers rallied from a 6-0 deficit to beat Covington Catholic 10-9 on Wednesday night.
Early on, it looked as if CovCath was going to end this one early, posting six runs on just three hits in the first three innings thanks to a plethora of walks and errors from the Pioneers.
But a six-run bottom of the third got Simon Kenton right back in the swing of things. A trio of doubles from Chad Atchley, Gavin Riley and Ben Stephens scored four of the runs.
“Bats came alive and that’s the way they are,” Roberts said. “They’re so contagious with that. When one guy gets on the next guy is going to get on. When one guy pops up the next guy is gonna pop up. That’s the way we roll and fortunately we were able to get some barrels on some balls there.”
CovCath continued to tack on, however. Charlie Dieruf scored on a double steal in the fourth to make it 7-6 Colonels. Logan Cones tied it up in the bottom half with a sac fly RBI.
The two traded runs again in the fifth, Jonathan Fit’z RBI double making it 8-7, Max Lawrie following with an RBI single for a two-run Colonel cushion.
But once again Simon Kenton answered, Bailey Rump getting an RBI on a groundout followed by a Evan Sheridan RBI single to make it 9-9 headed to the sixth.
Ben Stephens was the third pitcher to enter the game for the Pioneers and was the most effective, going two scoreless and allowing two hits and striking out one with no walks. He had thrown 3.2 innings on Saturday in relief in a win over Oldham County.
“I was tired coming in, but just shook it off. The adrenaline definitely helped me out on the mound,” Stephens said.
After the only scoreless frame of the game in the sixth, the Pioneers loaded up the bases in the bottom of the seventh thanks to a leadoff walk from Ian Powell, a bunt single from Stephens and an intentional walk to Sheridan.
Daniel Uhl stepped up to the plate with one out and deposited a pitch into left center, scoring Powell for the walk-off victory.
“I was just looking to put the ball anywhere. I mean bases were loaded so I just wanted to put something in play and that’s exactly what I did,” Uhl said.
The win gets the Pioneers to 9-3 on the season as they snapped an eight-game losing streak to CovCath, dating back five years to the day the last team they beat their Kenton County foes.
“Resiliency right there. We got a pretty good little club. I didn’t know we had that kind of fight in us and that’s what it was. I knew we were good enough to come back, but I just didn’t know if we had that fight against a good ballclub like that,” Roberts said.
CovCath dropped to 7-3, suffering their second straight loss after a 7-1 start to the season. After allowing just 16 runs in their first seven games, they’ve surrendered 26 in their last three.
“Defense. Too many errors. We gave them the game on errors,” Colonels coach Bill Krumpelbeck said. “We’re young, infield is filled with sophomores, all sophomores. We only have 15 players on our roster, so we don’t have the depth and kind of limited as to what we can do.”
The Colonels tallied eight hits to the Pioneers 14. Marcus Suwinski took the loss for CovCath, pitching 3.1 innings and allowing three earned runs. Ben McEvoy got the start for the Colonels, lasting three innings and allowing four earned runs.
Dakota Brown got the start for the Pioneers, pitching three innings and allowing four earned runs. Uhl pitched the next two innings and gave up two earned runs.
Both teams continue their busy weeks with the Doc Morris Invitational on tap. CovCath plays St. Henry, Cooper and Trinity over the next three days at St. Henry while Simon Kenton hosts Conner, Paintsville and Highlands Thursday through Saturday.
COVINGTON CATHOLIC — 114-120-0 — 9-8-2
SIMON KENTON — 006-120-1 — 10-14-4
2B — (CC) Yuskewich, Fitz, Magary (SK) Uhl, Atchley, Riley, Stephens
WP — Stephens. LP — Suwinski.
Records: Simon Kenton 9-3, Covington Catholic 7-3