Over the hump: Camels punch ticket to state tournament after yet another shutout

It’s been building up for four years.

When Campbell County’s group of now 10 seniors were freshman, they witnessed a region championship loss to Harrison County. The last two years were semifinal losses to Bourbon County and Montgomery County.

The group of 10 didn’t miss this year, winning the 10th Region baseball title 2-0 over Montgomery County on Sunday at Bishop Brossart’s Mustang Athletic Complex.

They did it with what they have all postseason, lockdown pitching, solid defense and timely hitting. The zero hung by the opponent was the fifth straight in the postseason, the Camels yet to surrender a run in the playoffs.

“You don’t lose when you don’t give up any runs,” Camels coach Scott Schweitzer said. “We scored two in the first and I thought, well, here we go. I was sitting there thinking, with runners on second and third, two outs, let’s not blow this streak now, let’s get this out and Jeb (Kessinger) runs it down in right. Pretty impressive, that’s a pretty good run.”

On Sunday, it was Lucas Anthrop pitching six shutout innings with Trip Mercurio coming on in the seventh for the save.

It wasn’t just all seniors either, junior Gavin Kramer provided the game-winning hit, which happened to come on an RBI double in the first inning to make it 1-0. Despite Kramer running through a stop sign, Cam Tiemeier singled him home the next batter to make it 2-0 and that’s all she wrote.

“I was fired up for sure,” Kramer said. “I was rounding third and coach stopped me last second, I saw it late and just went anyway. Worked out though.”

Kramer has been to Lexington to see Campbell County play when he was younger to see his older brother Brady play in it.

“Just a dream come true,” Kramer said. “I grew up watching my brothers play and he got to play two years in a row. So it’s just gonna be great.”

The sophomore Mercurio hung a zero in the seventh and drove in three runs in the semifinal victory over George Rogers Clark on Saturday.

But it didn’t come easy. Montgomery County stranded nine runners in the contest, the majority of them in scoring position as a team coming in with a 30-7 record had been shutout just one other time this season.

Anthrop found his way out of numerous sketchy situations as he got away with five walks and a hit batter.

“When they had runners on base, I just locked in on my mechanics more,” Anthrop said. “I feel like when I was in the wind up before people were on base, I was kind of just chucking it as hard as I could. When people got on base, I kind of locked in more and just threw more strikes.”

The defense around him certainly helped as they didn’t commit an error and made the plays needed. Tiemier gunned a runner down trying to steal third while Mercurio made a couple of clutch plays at second to keep the Indians at bay.

“They all answered the call,” Schweitzer said. “There’s not one guy that hasn’t done something. Our bench, they were loud and in it and having fun. There’s some guys that threw throughout the year that didn’t get a chance in the region, but they’re all a part of this. They all have done so much to give this team an opportunity and a chance and I can’t reiterate enough how proud I am of these guys.”

The win for the Camels is the icing on the cake for a senior class of 10 that’s won 100 games over the last four years and four district titles, just unable to close the door in the region tournament.

“They’re such good friends, they hang out together, they spend time together, constantly having fun with each other, picking on each other,” Schweitzer said. “You watch them run to our bus driver, Yvonne after the game and she has driven us the last seven or eight years and they run to her because they have so many memories there. They have so much fun together, t’s what happens in the dugout, what happens in the locker room and they’re always there for each other. It’s a really cool experience to watch these guys experience the success.”

The win gets them to Lexington to face LaRue County in the first round of the state tournament on Friday, June 5 at Legends Field at 10 a.m.

CAMPBELL COUNTY 2, MONTGOMERY COUNTY 0