For the third consecutive season and the 14th time since 2002, Simon Kenton and Walton-Verona faced off to determine the 32nd District champion. For the third straight year and 13th time out of those 14 matchups, the Pioneers walked away victorious by a score of 9-1.
One pitcher has started every district championship for Simon Kenton in the past three years and that’s senior Logan Cones.
Coach Troy Roberts said he knew in Cones sophomore year when he pitched against Frederick Douglass, Roberts had something special in Cones.
“When he was a sophomore I threw him against Frederick Douglass under the lights on a Friday night. They were ranked fifth in the state at the time” Roberts said. “He went toe to toe with them. I knew right then, this guy is going to be a dude.”
Later that season, Cones threw a gem against Walton-Verona in the district title game. Seven innings pitched, four hits, no runs, and a 5-0 victory.
Fast forward to this season and once again Cones has thrown a gem against the Bearcats in the district championship. Five and two-thirds innings pitched, six hits, one run allowed, and a 9-1 win.
All that experience has elevated Cones to another level.
“First time I was definitely nervous, but then doing it over and over again, doesn’t really make me as nervous,” Cones said. “I just tried to throw them out and just draw weak contact where they can’t do damage with the pitch.”
Walton-Verona head coach Andrew Sien highlighted Cones’s ability to throw multiple pitches for strikes as the key to his success.
“Guys that can throw multiple pitches for strikes in any situation they’re tough to hit,” Sien said.
Simon Kenton scraped across a run in the second inning off the bat of second baseman Evan Sheridan before first baseman Tyler Ruete tripled in a run off the wall in right field and catcher Chad Atchley cashed in with an RBI single up the middle.
Add in a lead to the already confident and experienced pitcher and Cones was dealing.
“It’s definitely a little pressure off me when with my offense behind me that I know I have. They can put up a bunch of runs,” Cones said.
Ruete, who was named to the all-tournament team, capped off the Pioneers’ picture-perfect performance with a towering home run over the center field wall, his eighth of the year.
“He’s a big kid, and when he puts a good swing on it he can hit it a long way,” Roberts said.
Two stats in this game are going to drive Sien crazy, and that’s five errors and seven runners left on base. In particular, it was the fourth inning where it just seemed like the Bearcats couldn’t stop shooting themselves in the foot. Four runners were gifted home plate by the way of a Bearcat error, including three straight plays.
“We booted it. Got some kids in some young spots. We got to be mentally tough. You can’t let one mistake become three,” Sien said. “I thought we battled at the plate today, we had pretty good at-bats. Got guys in scoring position just couldn’t get the timely hit when we needed it.”
Both teams will shift their focus to the eighth region tournament where they await the draw for their matchups.
PIONEERS 9, BEARCATS 1
Walton-Verona — 000-001-0 — 1-7-5
Simon Kenton — 012-501-x — 9-10-1
2b: Sheridan, Kainan Held, Trevor Bauwens
3b: Ruete, Cones
HR: Ruete, Bryce Corpus
WP: Cones. LP: Brunson Corpus
Records: Simon Kenton 24-13, Walton-Verona 21-10