Peaking at the perfect time: Campbell County advances at state tournament

Campbell County continues to play its best baseball at the right time.

The Camels earned a 6-1 victory over LaRue County on Friday in the first round of the KHSAA state baseball tournament at Legends Field in Lexington.

They got another complete game performance from Tyler Schumacher and the Camel bats collected five extra-base hits in the victory.

“They know when to turn it on,” Camels coach Scott Schweitzer said. “We had a rough patch there going down the last week of the season and we had some key errors and we talked about that. They’ve cleaned that up since and I think it’s now seven in a row and we’ve outscored teams 59-2. Proud of the guys in how they’re finishing.”

The lone blemish was they allowed their first run all postseason, ending a 41-inning shutout streak in the seventh inning as the Hawks put together a two-out rally to avoid the shutout.

PHOTOS: Slideshow provided by Charles Bolton

Schumacher game for anything

Tyler Schumacher did what he usually does on Friday…lock the opponent down. Entering with an 8-1 record and a 1.03 ERA, Schumacher scattered six hits as he was one hit away from a third straight complete game shutout personally.

He found his ways out of trouble to get crucial outs when needed.

“He’s done it all year,” Schweitzer said. “He pitched himself into some troubles and he was able to pitch his way out. He just never really gets his feathers ruffled.”

His final line was seven innings pitched, six hits, an earned run, four walks and nine strikeouts in 113 pitches, 73 of them for strikes. He got eight groundouts and three flyouts.

“Defense has been amazing. I think everyone has been so locked in and everyone wants to go make a play,” Schumacher said. “It’s been working.”

He also did damage with his bat, driving in the game’s first run in the bottom of the first with an RBI double to score Jackson Bittner and singled and scored on Cam Tiemeier’s two-run blast in the fifth.

Tiemeier simply just drives people in

Cam Tiemeier now leads the state in RBI with 60 after driving in three on Friday. He trailed Harrison County’s Donovan Walker by one entering Friday’s state tournament bout.

His double in the third drove in Finley Schultz and hit a two-run blast in the fifth to give the Camels a 6-0 cushion.

“Lot of guys have got on in front of me all year,” Tiemeier said. “It gives me a chance to compete and it’s been there all year.”

He’s also had a front row seat to the Tyler Schumacher show on the mound as the primary catcher.

“He’s always there, he’s always in the zone, you know what you’re going to get out of him,” Tiemeier said. “You know you’re getting a dog mentality out of him on the mound. He’s going to come out and compete … He doesn’t care.”

Timely hitting, untimely hitting

Campbell County left just four runners on base in the game compared to LaRue County’s nine. In five of the seven innings, the Hawks stranded a runner on third base.

“You just got to stay in the game and know that your stuff is better than the hitter,” Schumacher said. “It doesn’t matter that a runner is on third base, you just have to get this guy out and put that in the back of your mind.”

The Camels found gaps in the game with three doubles, a triple and a homerun. Three of those five hits had runners on base to help drive runs in.

The streak ends

All good things must come to an end. The last time Campbell County gave up a run, it was in the first inning of a 20-1 victory over Lloyd Memorial on May 14 in the regular season finale.

Since then it was five straight postseason shutouts against Calvary Christian, Scott, Bracken County, George Rogers Clark and Montgomery County.

“Kudos to LaRue County, they battled and just continued the battle and they put good bat on the ball in the seventh,” Schweitzer said. “They scored a run, but you know, all good things come to an end. But as long as we’re still on the good side of things, we’ll be in good shape.”

Up next

Campbell County faces the winner of the Whitley County/Apollo game in Saturday’s quarterfinals at 5 p.m.

Whitley County is the No. 2 team in the state in the latest Kentucky Prep Baseball poll and won the state title in 2023. Apollo is the champion of the 3rd Region.

CAMPBELL COUNTY 6, LARUE COUNTY 1