Fast start too much to overcome as Apollo ends Campbell County’s state run

It was quite the opposite of what Campbell County postseason games have been like.

Apollo’s first seven batters reached base, they scored six in the opening inning and hung on to beat the Camels 14-10 in Saturday’s KHSAA state quarterfinal baseball matchup.

The game featured 24 runs, 29 hits, four homeruns, three errors and even an Apollo pitcher needing to be tended to on the mound for cramps.

“We chased six (runs) almost the whole game,” Camels coach Scott Schweitzer said. “Didn’t go our way right out the gate. Kudos to our guys, they really battled to come back and have a chance.”

Campbell County had allowed just two runs in the postseason in their prior six games leading up to Saturday’s quarterfinal bout and that came last game in the seventh inning of a 6-0 game. It was an uncharacteristic trend of their postseason run in issuing six walks and hitting two batters along with committing two errors.

Even with deficits of 6-0, 10-3 and 14-8, Campbell County kept finding their way back into Saturday evening’s contest.

They got the tying runner to the plate in the bottom of the seventh with one out, but a popout and groundout put an end to the Camels season at 26-14. A season where they were able to claim their first 10th Region title since 2022, their first state tournament victory since 2022 and a group of 10 seniors that laid some more groundwork for the future.

“At the end of the day, I don’t sit and talk about that one game, because that one game won’t define them,” Schweitzer said. “Almost all 10 of them are five-year players in our program. The thing of it is, 26-win season, Elite Eight, that’s carrying the torch and continuing to pass the torch.”

Standouts at the plate for the Camels were Jackson Bittner and Tyler Schumacher with four hits apiece, Schumacher a homerun shy of the cycle with a triple, double, two singles and two RBI. Gavin Kramer drove in five runs and Cam Tiemeier hit his second homerun in as many days at the state tournament, a two-run shot to left to make it 10-8 in the sixth inning. Jed Kessinger also took one deep to start the rally in the seventh while Micah Price also collected a multi-hit game with two hits.

Lucas Anthrop took the loss on the mound. After allowing the first seven batters to reach and six earned runs, he settled in from there to allow no runs and three hits over the next four innings and keep the Camels in it.

“He didn’t get ahead early and they didn’t miss a barrel,” Schweitzer said. “But then he just battled and battled and battled. He threw 92 pitches through five innings, and I don’t if he ran into any more trouble after that. Hats off to him.”

The Camels answered with two in the bottom half of the first to get it to 6-2 on a Schumacher RBI single and Kramer sac fly RBI.

Kramer added an RBI single in the third to make it 6-3.

After Anthrop was pulled with five innings of work, the Eagles scored four on reliever Trip Mercurio as Mercurio was unable to get out of the sixth, giving up three hits, two walks and four earned runs to make it 10-3 Eagles.

Campbell County responded with a five-run sixth to get within 10-8. Schumacher hit an RBI double followed by a Kramer two run single and Tiemeier’s two-run blast.

The Eagles then got to Camels reliever William Peed in the seventh as he allowed four hits and four earned runs with two of the hits being homeruns to make it 14-8.

Kessinger’s homer led off the seventh followed by back-to-back singles from Payne and Bittner started things off. Mercurio walked and then Schumacher’s lone at-bat without a hit ended in a strikeout with the bases loaded with one out. Kramer drew a walk to bring the tying run up, but Tiemeier popped out to second and Gavin Richardson grounded to third for a fielder’s choice.

“It would have been easy for our guys to roll over in the dugout,” Schweitzer said. “They had to bring their starter back in the game and then you watch him get two cramps in his calves and think ‘here we go, anything can happen.’ Hats off to him, he figured out a way to gut it out and get those last three outs. Ruined a lot of our dreams, but at the end of the day, that’s one and done baseball. I can’t say enough about our guys and the way they fought.”

Apollo faces the Beechwood-Trinity winner in Friday’s semifinals at 1 p.m.

APOLLO 14, CAMPBELL COUNTY 10