Now that Campbell County is back in the 2026 Baseball State Tournament presented by UK HealthCare, it’s easy to forget that the Camels started the prep season in a bit of a funk. Their record on April 15 following a 15-5 home loss to Covington Catholic stood at 7-6. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t great. Either way, the coach didn’t like what he was seeing on the field.
“We laid an egg against the blue Colonels,” Scott Schweitzer said. “We played as bad as any of the teams I’ve coached in my career.”
Ever the optimist, the coach turned right around and said, “Today’s a new day.” Had Schweitzer sent it by email, he would have put a smiley face after it. He’s been known to do that.
The man is an imposing 6-foot-3 in cleats. When the Shohei Ohtani of his day puts on his Camels uniform and pitches batting practice and hits ropes to his infielders, he looks like he can still play both ways. It’s not a show or a put-on by a wannabe. Schweitzer is authentic and he gets real results.
The 1998 Campbell County graduate is a baseball lifer, a true talent when he played. An all-state standout for the Camels, he was a left-hander selected in the 18th round of the 2002 Major League Draft. He was taken as a reliever by the St. Louis Cardinals out of Kentucky Wesleyan College, where he was an All-Great Lakes Valley Conference pick at two positions: pitcher and designated hitter. So please excuse the coach if he wants to do things seriously but with a smile.
“Baseball is a lot of fun,” the coach said. “Let’s keep it fun but let’s work hard, too.”
This is Scott Schweitzer in full bloom. He’s a no-nonsense guy with charm and a way out of every problem on the baseball field. If you want to know what’s going on, he’ll give you the unvarnished truth, but with a level of diplomacy befitting his role as a behavior interventionalist and former special education teacher at Campbell County High School.
“I live on the little things because they are the big things and sometimes, we’re not making that one big play,” Schweitzer said after an early-season letdown. “But we’ll get there.”
See what he did there. Reality. Truth. Smile.
It rubs off on his ballclub, a late-blooming force with a 25-13 record heading into Friday’s state tournament first-round game against 5th Region champion LaRue County (30-8). The victor plays the Apollo-Whitley County winner Saturday in a 5 p.m. state quarterfinal. The state semifinals are June 12. The final is Saturday, June 13, at 3:30 p.m.
Now that they have worked out the kinks following the tough start to the season and a late-schedule hiccup, the Camels are over the hump. While trying to explain early difficulties marked by several one-run losses, senior prophet, Cam Tiemeier, otherwise known as a talented catcher and a Morehead State commit, summed it up in late April.
“We’re jumping on teams early and things are kind of happening late,” said Tiemeier, now batting .448 with a Camels high nine home runs and 57 RBI. “But I think playing in a lot of close games can be a good thing. We’ve become a more resilient team and that will help us come tournament time.”
Tiemeier might want to play the lottery, because he predicted this. He absolutely nailed it with reality, truth and a smile.
After the CovCath debacle, the Camels won their next four games and beat CovCath in the rematch, 6-2. They put together an 8-2 stretch. After dropping four straight games to out-of-town elites plus Beechwood on May 13, they have not lost in what has amounted to some great timing.
The Camels are playing their best baseball while riding a six-game winning streak in which they’ve outscored the opposition 53-1. That is highly effective numerical shorthand for “dominating” and the Camels just let it play out like they knew it would.
They have shut out five playoff opponents in some one-sided dominance not seen in years in their region. They outscored 37th District competition, 18-0, and blanked three 10th Region opponents by a combined count of 15-0. That’s some staggering mathematical whiplash.
While the Camels are proving to be dangerous, their opponents are shooting blanks. Ask Tiemeier. He foretold the future in part because he’s a student of Camels baseball history.
The last time Campbell County did not have a 20-victory season was 2014. The Camels made it 11 seasons in a row with 20 or more this year. Campbell County went 12-2 against the 10th Region, and 6-0 against the 37th District with a fifth straight tournament title.
This is the Camels’ fifth state tournament appearance in Schweitzer’s 16 seasons as head coach. The Camels advanced to state four times in six seasons from 2016-22. They were state runners-up in 2016 with a 1-0 loss to St. Xavier in the title game.
But nobody on the 2026 Camels has played in a state tournament game. That’s going to change Friday at 10 a.m. against LaRue at Legends Field in Lexington.
There are 10 seniors on the Camels. Just two of them, Tiemeier and fellow standout Tyler Schumacher, have been with the team since they were freshmen in 2023. The rest of the current group filled in behind them, but Tiemeier and Schumacher have proved to be tough acts to follow.
Schumacher, the 10th Region player of the year and a first-team all-state pick, is a Marshall University commit. He’s batting a team-best .496 and has clobbered seven homers and 11 doubles. Quite remarkably, he has the second-most plate appearances on the team and the third-fewest strikeouts.
Schumacher, who plays shortstop, has been even better on the mound. He’s 8-1 with a 1.03 ERA in 13 appearances including 11 starts with 107 strikeouts in 61 innings pitched. He hurled a two-hit shutout with 10 strikeouts in an 8-0 win against George Rogers Clark in the regional semifinals. He had a two-hit shutout with 13 strikeouts vs. Scott in the district final. In Schumacher, Schweitzer has successfully cloned his own legendary two-way legacy.
“He’s helped tremendously,” Schumacher said. “He understands the game and he’s always positive.”
See that? Reality, truth, smile.
Backing up the ace’s efforts have been sterling playoff performances by Lucas Anthrop and Trip Mercurio. Anthrop started and Mercurio finished a five-hit shutout in the 2-0 10th Region final win over Montgomery County. Mercurio twirled a two-hit shutout in the 5-0 regional opening win against Bracken County. He’s 8-2 with a 3.43 ERA. Anthrop threw a three-inning no-hitter against Calvary Christian in the 37th District tournament opener. He’s 5-1 with a 2.93 ERA.
The Camels haven’t given up a run since May 14 in a three-week span of stinginess that makes Ebenezer Scrooge look generous. Helping the cause is Gavin Richardson with a 1.68 ERA in relief. William Peed has a pair of wins and a team-high three saves while splitting time as a starter and reliever. All of those pitchers, except for Mercurio, average well more than a strikeout per inning helping limit contact. They’re all seniors except for Mercurio, a sophomore who averages about a strikeout per frame.
Junior Gavin Kramer, a Wabash College commit, is hitting .419 with three homers and a team-best 12 doubles. Senior Jackson Bittner is batting .323 with a pair of homers. Other seniors include Gino Ramundo, Jeb Kessinger, Nolan Thomas and Benton Bowling.
That’s a lot of leadership. It’s the Camels’ happy reality, their unvarnished truth. In the end, they hope to leave their followers forever smiling with a first-ever state title.
