One pitch.
One swing, one home run.
And one 10th Region baseball tournament win for Mason County.
The Royals’ Cray Fite provided the only scoring the Royals needed. His fourth-inning solo shot long and far one over the left field fence was enough for Monday’s 1-0 victory over Bishop Brossart at Harrison County’s Mac Whitaker Field.
Besides propelling Mason County (23-7) to Wednesday’s semifinals against Harrison County, a 6-2 winner over Bourbon County, Fite’s homer off Evan Moore gave the Royals their first regional victory since 2014.
Fite thought the left-handed Evan Moore threw a slider.
“It was inside middle,” Fite said.
Moore wanted to throw either a “back door” slider that would have caught the outside corner to the right-hand hitting Fite, or a back-foot pitch that would’ve tracked toward the middle of the plate before diving in the last six to eight feet.
“I couldn’t really decide, so I left it right down the middle,” Moore said.
Brossart’s season ended at 17-18. What was equally distressing: the Mustangs scored just two runs in their last three games – a 2-0 win over Calvary Christian in the 37th District semifinals and shutout losses to reigning champion Campbell County (an 8-0 loss last Wednesday) and Mason County.
What did not go unnoticed was Mason County pitcher Landon Scilley – his two-hit shutout included 10 strikeouts.
“My arm felt really good, so my fastball was working for sure,” Scilley said. “I was able to hit my spots really well. They hit my slider pretty well, but they were trying to hit the fastball. It was going by them for the most part.”
Monday was also Scilley’s second win over Brossart. He struck out three in the Royals’ 5-4, eight-inning win March 21 in Maysville.
“He pounded the strike zone,” Brossart coach Ron Verst said. “He worked ahead (in the count); he didn’t get behind many batters.…He threw that changeup or that off-speed pitch that kept us off balance, so hats off to him; he threw a very nice game.”
Moore bailed the Mustangs out of three early jams. He forced Fite to ground out to second in the first frame, struck out Connor Butler in the second (which neutralized two Mustang errors) and retired the Royals in order in the third.
Mason County’s base-running aggression didn’t help in the first inning.
A hard one-hit grounder to Moore caught Trey Cracraft, who had singled and went to second on a balk, trying to go to third, and Mustangs catcher Colin Combs threw out Scilley, who reached first on a fielder’s choice and went to second on Eli Porter’s single.
Scilley baffled Brossart the first three innings – he recorded six strikeouts.
Brossart’s best scoring chance came in the fourth.
After Robbie Verst flew out to right, Moore reached first on an error, went to second on a wild pitch and took third on Combs’ infield single, a dribbler that died in the grass near the third base line. The rally ended when Brandon Bezold grounded into a double play.
In the sixth, Scilley struck out Derek Martin and Logan Meyer, hit Verst and caught Moore looking on a called third strike.
Combs popped out to shortstop to open the seventh. Bezold walked, but Alex Amin flew out to right and Keegan Gulley struck out.
Moore recalled two highlights from the season: an 8-7, eight-inning win over Covington Catholic on May 10 and an 11-1, five-inning triumph over Nicholas County in the 10th Region All “A” tournament.
“We beat CovCath (for) the second time in our baseball history,” Moore said. “… It’s great to make those memories with the guys.”
BISHOP BROSSART — 000-000-0 – 0-2-2
MASON COUNTY — 000-100-x – 1-5-1
Moore and Combs; Scilley and Pugh. WP-Scilley (7-1). LP-Moore (6-4). HR-Fite (MC). 2B-Pugh (MC).
