Three district baseball champions were crowned on the diamond on Tuesday night in Northern Kentucky with three more to be crowned on Wednesday.
Here’s how the action unfolded:
35th District Championship
Beechwood 12, Covington Catholic 6
With the wind blowing out and Covington Catholic’s field having a short porch to centerfield, players took full advantage as six homeruns were hit in the contest.
Both teams hit three, but it was Beechwood’s (29-9) approach at the plate that proved to be the difference. The Tigers put 19 runners on base in the contest, tallied 11 hits, drew five walks and were hit three times as they forced the Colonels (19-16) to throw 155 pitches in the contest.
Tigers coach Kevin Gray pointed to an end of regular season loss against Dixie Heights that helped the team refocus at the plate.
“Our approach was was terrible the other day in the Dixie game. We’ve been really working on that. I thought our approaches today were fantastic,” Gray said. “When you keep hitting and hitting and hitting and they’re gonna bring another pitcher in and another pitcher, that’s that’s your goal, to knock them out.”
It’s the Tigers third straight district title and they’ll enter the region tournament on Monday as the favorite, posting a region best 16-3 record against regional foes.
Brooks Becker hit a grand slam in the fourth, Tournament MVP Caleb Arrasmith helped his own cause with a homerun in the third and Tyler Fryman hit his 11th dinger of the season in the second for the Tigers.
Arrasmith, the winning pitcher, admitted he was a little shaky on the mound with five walks issued, but consistently worked out of jams as he pitched five innings, allowed four hits and four earned runs while striking out five.
“I missed my spots a couple times and it showed,” Arrasmith said. “But shout out to my offense, putting up 12 runs is hard in baseball, when you do it, you’re gonna win most of the time. So I didn’t do my best, but they definitely backed me up, and I give all credit to them.”
Becker’s grand slam made it 9-2 Tigers in the fourth and they were a running catch away from making it a run-rule game in the bottom of the fifth. Colonels right fielder Jack Nolan made the grab from the bat of Jackson Mando with two outs and a runner on second in a 12-3 game.
Covington Catholic showed some grit with a run in the sixth and two in the seventh to get it to 12-6. Matthew Fitz hit two of CovCath’s three homeruns, George Unkraut with the other.
The Colonels needed five different pitchers in this one, Luke Pollock taking the loss after allowing four runs in an inning of work to start the game.
Hours before Tuesday’s game Beechwood had to deal with some significant news to some that also play football. They found out they’d have a new coach heading into next season when the school announced Noel Rash will be replacing Jay Volker.
“It was rough. We had a football meeting. Coach Volker talked to us. I mean, it was very emotional,” Arrasmith said. “We all were just like kind of down, but I mean, he said he’s always going to be there for us. So it’s a heartbreaker right now, but it’s just something you got to deal with.”
Arrasmith didn’t show many adverse effects from it, Fryman as well as both are anticipated to play big roles for the Tigers in the fall.
“Those guys are just, they’re resilient,” Gray said. “As soon as they stepped in here today, they knew it was baseball time.”
Now the focus shifts to the region tournament for the two, slated to begin on Monday with all four quarterfinal contests at Thomas More Stadium in Florence.
Beechwood enters as a district champion, meaning they’ll face the runner-up in either the 33rd, 34th or 36th District. Covington Catholic will face either the 33rd, 34th or 36th District champion in the quarterfinals.
33rd District Championship
Conner 10, Ryle 3
The Cougars put up six runs in the first two innings and never looked back on their way to a second straight district title.
Grayson Wagner was the man of the hour for Conner, belting two homeruns and driving in six runs. His first bomb was a three-run homer in the second to make it 6-0. His second a two-run shot in the fourth to help capitalize a four-run inning and help make it 10-3.
Brady Bushman and Cooper Kelly also had multi-hit games for the Cougars, Bushman adding three runs. Kelly picked up the win on the mound, throwing 4.1 innings, allowing five hits, an earned run and walking four. Everett Hall pitched 2.2 hitless in relief, striking out a pair.
Ryle entered the tournament 7-0 in district contests, including a 5-3 and 6-5 victory over Conner on April 15 and 16. Three errors didn’t help their cause and Raiders ace Nik Carter was chased before the end of the second inning.
Abram Pabst knocked a two-run double in the second to make it 6-2, Michael Flowers RBI groundout in the third got the Raiders within 6-3.
Both will now head to the 9th Region tournament on Monday. Ryle is looking for their second title in three years while the Cougars have picked up a first round win in the region tournament for three straight years.
37th District Championship
Campbell County 3, Scott 0
Tyler Schumacher pitched a complete game for the Camels as he struck out 13 and allowed two hits in Campbell County’s (22-13) fifth straight district title.
In a scoreless gridlock for five and a half innings, the Camels broke through with three in the bottom of the sixth as five straight batters reached base with one out.
It started with a Dennis Mercurio walk, a Schumacher double to score Mercurio, a Gavin Kramer RBI single and then a Camden Tiemeier walk and Gavin Richardson hit by pitch. Lucas Anthrop then made it 3-0 on a sacrifice fly.
That’s all Schumacher needed as his 106th and final pitch was a backwards K on the scorecard. Schumacher entered with a 6-1 record and 1.33 ERA. He’s allowed nine earned runs and walked just 10 batters in 54.1 innings pitched. The Marshall commit was also the lone Camel with two hits.
The Eagles (16-18) Jackson Race kept the Camels at bay through the majority. He had a one-hitter through five, but five walks and a hit by pitch finally caught up to him. Carson Bleha and Monday night hero Andy Reed were the lone Eagles with hits.
Both teams now set their sights on the 10th Region tournament, slated to start on May 25 at Harrison County.
36th District Semifinals
Highlands 15, Dayton 0 (4 innings)
Newport Central Catholic 10, Bellevue 0 (5 innings)
