The Campbell County Camels and St. Henry Crusaders baseball teams took the field ready to work through some of the yearly transitional moves.
But Campbell County senior shortstop Aydan Hamilton had a huge motivating factor to start this season-opener. The University of Kentucky signee missed the last 15 games of last year’s 10th Region championship and state quarterfinal run after going down with an injury on April 26 against Scott.
Hamilton played a big role helping the Camels beat the visiting Crusaders (0-2 overall), 6-4. He finished 1 for 2 at the plate walking twice, batting in two and scoring twice and made the routine plays in the field.
“It feels great to be back where I belong,” Hamilton said. “I’m looking forward to playing with these guys. This could be a special year as long as we make the routine plays and put the bats on the ball.”
Senior second baseman Jake Gross led the Camels at the plate going 2 for 4 with a double and two batted in. Campbell County batted .273 (6 for 22) overall taking advantage of nine walks and three hit by pitches. Junior Landon McNabb took two hit by pitches for the Camels with Gross and senior left fielder Brayden Wells also drawing two walks.
“The first one is always the tough one. Guys are nervous,” said Scott Schweitzer, Campbell County head coach. “Guys were getting first-time varsity at-bats and innings. Our pitchers did a good job setting the tone throwing strikes. St. Henry stayed in the game. Those guys will always have a chance.”
St. Henry made the game’s lone error in the bottom of the third. But it did not lead to any Campbell County unearned runs.
St. Henry batted .174 (4 for 23) in the loss drawing four walks and one hit by pitch. Senior first baseman Luke Keipert led the Crusaders going 2 for 3 with two doubles, three RBI and one run scored. Senior Nicholas Webster added a double and RBI for St. Henry.
Webster started the game and struggled to find the plate walking six for the Crusaders. Senior Charlie Lange took over with one out in the second and pitched into the sixth inning before junior John Lubert made the last out of the sixth.
“I think it says a lot fighting back after getting down early,” said Greg Pass, St. Henry head coach. “But at the end of the day, you have to throw strikes. It came back to bite us in the tail, especially against a well-coached team like Campbell. We always open up against them.”
Senior Max Lause started and pitched into the sixth inning for Campbell County striking out six and walking three. Junior Gavin Bell came on in relief with one out and the tying run at second base. After walking Webster, Bell coaxed junior Carson Shea into grounding into a double play to end the threat then pitched the seventh to record his first career varsity save.
“I just wanted to finish the job,” Bell said. “I saw what Max started. Going out there and doing what (the coaches) expect out of me feels good. I got the first one out of the way and hope to keep it up for the rest of the year.”
The first four Campbell County batters walked or were hit by a pitch. Hamilton walked with bases loaded to score sophomore center fielder Carson Clark. Gross then grounded into a fielder’s choice forcing Hamilton at second and scoring senior third baseman Evan Clark to make it 2-0 Camels.
The Camels added two more runs in the bottom of the second to go up 4-0. Wells and sophomore left fielder Zach Franzen walked then Evan Clark walked with one out to load the bases before junior catcher Parker Schweitzer walked with the bases loaded to score Wells. Hamilton then grounded out to score Franzen.
St. Henry started to square up Lause in the top of the fourth. Junior infielder John Lubert walked and scored when Keipert hit one down the right field line. Webster then doubled to left to score Keipert to make it 4-2 Camels. But Lause got Shea to fly out to left then Franzen threw a strike to Gross at second to double up Webster ending the threat.
“We played good defense,” Coach Schweitzer said. “We got enough hits to get a win. We’ve had some good players come through this program. We had some sophomores ready to step up that are juniors now.”
Hamilton scored in the bottom of the fourth to put the Camels back up 5-2. He walked, stole second and scored when Gross doubled to left.
With one out in the top of the sixth, St. Henry looked to tie the game. With one out, Lubert walked and moved to second when senior center fielder Matt Resing walked before Keipert doubled them both in making it 5-4 Camels.
Campbell County earned an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth. Hamilton scored on a balk with two out after he singled to right. Senior pinch runner Luke Barbian tried to score on Hamilton’s single. But St. Henry threw him out at the plate.
St. Henry plays host to Walton-Verona (3-0) on Tuesday at 5 p.m. Campbell County travels to Ryle (2-0) on Wednesday at 5 p.m.
Other Baseball Scores
Harrison County 7, Bishop Brossart 4
Holy Cross 11, Boone County 4
Conner 17, Carroll County 0 (3 innings)
Walton-Verona 12, Lloyd Memorial 4 (6 innings)
Newport Central Catholic 15, Dayton 0 (3 innings)
Ryle 12, Scott 2 (5 innings)
Villa Madonna 10, Holmes 0 (6 innings)
Softball
Cooper 8, Pendleton County 7
The Jaguars (1-1) evened up their record with a huge win over the Wildcats (1-1) and senior standout pitcher Kayley Bruener (1-1). Cooper struck out 10 times against her, but still managed to bat .240 (6 for 25) to pull out the win. Both teams committed two errors.
“She’s got a tough rise ball and a real deceptive change-up. She has pretty good velocity along with them,” said Rusty Scott, Cooper head coach. “When she’s hitting her spots, she’s pretty unhittable. We went through the first time in the line-up and only put the ball in play one time.”
That one time was junior shortstop Ava Scott’s first home run this year leading off the bottom of the first. Cooper fell behind 6-1 entering the bottom of the fourth before scoring seven runs to go up 8-6 in the bottom of the fourth. Ava Scott went 2 for 2 with two RBI and two runs scored.
“Defensively, we had to make a lot of adjustments trying to find the right spots,” Ava Scott said. “We struggled a bit in the beginning. But we got ourselves together and did well.”
No one else had extra-base hits. But freshman Sadie James and sophomore first baseman Grace Cline had two RBI each.
Senior pitcher Kendall Blau (1-1) pitched a complete game to earn the win. She struck out six and allowed two walks, four earned runs and eight hits.
Cooper plays at Grant County (3-0) on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m.
Other Softball Scores
Bishop Brossart 16, Lloyd Memorial 1 (3 innings)
Harrison County 14, Simon Kenton 4 (5 innings)
Calvary Christian 14, Holy Cross 8
Campbell County 11, Mason County 7
Augusta 27, Newport 0 (3 innings)
Scott 8, Boone County 5
St. Henry 33, Ludlow 32
Trimble County 19, Walton-Verona 0 (4 innings)