Simon Kenton baseball coach Troy Roberts initially didn’t want to do it.
But when his son’s baseball team needed a coach, Roberts was there to answer the call.
Their ‘At the Yard’ summer team at the time when they were 9-10 years old now features six Simon Kenton baseball players, five of them seniors in Jake Bockmon, Noah Hinton, Kaiden Robbins, Bailey Rump, Evan Sheridan and sophomore Brett Bockmon.
“Six of them I’ve been coaching since they were 9-10 years old. My son’s team needed a coach, I didn’t want to do it, but wanted to make sure they were learning the game the right way,” Roberts said. “I jumped in and we’ve had a blast these last 7-8 years. They’re like my own kids.”
Now he’s got that group and the Pioneers headed to Lexington for the KHSAA state baseball tournament that begins on Thursday at 10 a.m. against Russell County.
When Roberts was asked what he planned on doing for team bonding prior to heading into the tournament, he didn’t really have to plan much, didn’t need to.
“Most of these guys are together off the field anyways,” Roberts said.
The Pioneers will do a team meal on Wednesday night, but business will be as usual come Thursday morning as they depart for Lexington.
“We’ll sleep in our own beds, stick to what we’ve been doing and hope to get the same results,” Roberts said.
Longer bus rides certainly aren’t uncommon for Simon Kenton. While they do live in an area surrounded by quality baseball teams, playing in the 8th Region certainly will put some miles on the ole’ cheese wagon. The region is so spread out, the semifinals and championship of the region tournament are played in Louisville.
Doesn’t faze them one bit.
“Guys don’t mind bus rides,” Roberts said. “We take batting practice, get our stuff and get on the bus. We enjoy the ride, there’s not much better on a ride home after a win.”
Simon Kenton is here to this point with much of what has been mentioned…their togetherness. Guys don’t mind sacrificing for the team whether if it’s bunting a runner over or executing a hit and run. It shows in their lineup, while there’s no gaudy numbers or guys hitting over .400, they do have seven regulars that hit at least .270.
“Our 7-8-9 guys had five of our seven hits in the region championship,” Roberts said.
Daniel Uhl and Evan Sheridan are the lone hitters over the .300 mark on the season. Tyler Ruete is the lone Pioneer to homer this season, doing so nine times. Jacob Piper, Bailey Rump, Chad Atchley and Logan Cones with the others mentioned hit at least .270.
They play solid defense and don’t issue many walks, just 104 in 254.2 innings pitched.
Having a workhorse as an ace pitcher helps. Logan Cones has been just that, hurling 72.2 innings this season, 28 more than anyone else on the Pioneers roster. It’s come with a 10-1 record, 1.25 ERA and 79 strikeouts. He may not overpower the opponent, but he pounds the strike zone (24 walks issued) and lets his defense do the work.
Cones has gone 3-0 in the postseason in a district championship win over Walton-Verona, region quarterfinal victory over Shelby County and a region championship winner over Woodford County.
“Logan loves the big moment,” Roberts said. “A lot of kids will say that and tell you that, but he believes it and it shows. He feels like he’s better than the other team all the time. We tell our hitters you have to think you’re better than the pitcher, pitchers better than the hitters. He doesn’t get in bad spots, doesn’t hurt himself. He’s not always looking for the strikeout, let’s the defense work and keeps his pitch count down. He’s got a true bulldog mentality.”
Roberts has been to state twice before, taking the 2014 and 2017 Simon Kenton teams to Lexington, the 2017 team making it all the way to the state championship before a 6-5 loss to Pleasure Ridge Park.
He hopes to use those experiences to guide this group.
“Just going over the little things,” Roberts said. “Just telling them we’ll have a guy leading us to the dugout, those little things make the kids feel special. Just letting them know they’ll be nervous, if not, something is wrong. At the end of the day, it’s still a baseball game and if they can just relax once the game gets going, get your heart rate down and play baseball.”
And at the end of the day, they’ll still have each other and this memory to last a lifetime.
The Opponent
Russell County hails from the 4th Region. They defeated Logan County, Greenwood and Warren East in the region tournament to get to this point. They too have a recent runner-up finish at the state tournament, doing so in 2022 when they lost to St. Xavier in the championship.
The Lakers enter with a 30-10 record and do a lot of damage offensively, averaging 8.65 runs per game and hit .337 as a team with seven guys hitting at least .330.
“They can hit. They hit and score a lot of runs,” Roberts said. “They have two pretty good pitchers. Our pitchers need to have their A game. They’re like us a little bit, they got some guys that can steal bases and they bunt when they have to bunt.”
First pitch on Thursday is set for 10 a.m. at Legends Field in Lexington. It’s the first game of the tournament. The winner advances to Saturday’s quarterfinal to face the Trinity-Pikeville winner at 10 a.m.