The good news for young baseball teams is they do grow up. The even better news is that when they do, the older guys are still there to show them the way.
Which is pretty much the way things went down Friday at Covington Catholic with the host Colonels coming from behind to win the 35th District with an upset – and upsetting – 7-5 win over Beechwood’s top-ranked-in-the-region Tigers.
Not that you’d have liked CovCath’s chances before the game all that much . . . and certainly not in the first inning when Coach Bill Krumpelbeck was forced to pull starter Will Burke after giving up three bases on balls and a two-run-scoring double. 2-0 Beechwood and CovCath was going with a reliever with a long way to go.
Although not any reliever. Senior Luke Lenhof set the school record for lowest ERA last season as the Colonels’ closer. “It helped that I knew I was coming in if Will was struggling,” Lenhof said. Although not in the first inning, he said. That wasn’t part of the plan.
But in he came. And in he stayed, keeping CovCath alive against the big Beechwood bats, a Tiger team with the state’s top batting average.
What the lefty Lenhof did not know was that by the time this one was over seven-and-a-third innings later, he’d have thrown a personal record 123 pitches – 10 more than he’d ever thrown in a game until Friday, while also busting out a couple of crucial hits and earning the 35th District MVP.
“It’s crazy how things work,” he said. “This is my last game on this field.” And to be technical, with CovCath tearing up the grass infield after the season and installing artificial turf, the last game anyone will play on this exact field.
Which is why the finale was more than a little special. Having lost 1-0 to Beechwood here earlier this year and last year in the District, CovCath was no longer the dominant partner in this rivalry. The Colonels – Krumpelbeck’s “youngest team ever” in his 45 seasons at the Park Hills school – were in danger of ending the veteran coach’s streak of 34 straight 20-win seasons at 17-14 coming into this one, Beechwood was flying high at 25-5.
Both teams will move on to next week’s regional that opens with doubleheaders at Thomas More Stadium in Florence and Covington’s Meinken Field Wednesday with the semifinals and finals Saturday and Sunday in Florence.
The difference now is that CovCath will be matched up with a district loser Wednesday while Beechwood will face a district winner. Not the outcome anyone here would have expected in the first inning – or the seventh inning, when the Colonels were down 4-2 with two outs.
Then Nick Darpel and Owen Leen singled with Marcus Suwinski on through an error, followed by a Max Lawrie double to the center field fence to tie it. Beechwood junior Mitch Berger (6-0 coming into the game) had already busted a home run into the center field trees to help his own cause.
Before this was over, Sam Stacy and Torin O’Shea, the state’s leader in saves, would come on for the Tigers. But to no avail. Senior Evan Myers worked a base on balls to start things in the eighth. Burke doubled him to third and that’s when things got interesting.
After executing one perfect suicide squeeze earlier, Krumpelbeck tried again. But by the time Myers got halfway home, he realized “Uh oh,” no bunt. Ball is in the catcher’s hand. Suicide it is.
“I was just trying to get our guy (on second) over to third,” Krumpelbeck said, standing in the third base coach’s box. Myers was a goner. “He’s out,” the coach said of Myers. Myers wasn’t so sure.
“I was waiting for him to throw the ball,” Myers said, standing there in the basepath. “I was just trying to stay alive.” But the throw didn’t come right away and the rundown didn’t go the way it should and two throws later, the ball was closer to third base and Myers was running for his life to the plate.
And with a head-first dive and an outstretched right arm, somehow Myers beat the tag at the plate. The dead man was alive. The suicide squeeze had failed but the runner scored anyway.
“It’s a great feeling when you screw a play up and it works,” Krumpelbeck said. And instead of finding yourself dead in the water, as you were just an inning earlier, you now have the lead in extra innings. And inspired by what had just transpired, the Colonels went on to add two more runs.
“Survive and advance,” Lenhof said. “It means a lot with all our young guys,” Myers said of the five freshmen and sophomores in the CovCath lineup Friday. “They look up to us.”
And in this game, the seniors – Darpel, Lenhof, and Myers – gave them something to look up to.
One thing they’re not looking up to – one way or the other – is extending Krumpelbeck’s 20-win-season streak to 35. “All that’s on our minds is winning the region now,” Lenhof said. Nothing else.
“At this point, it makes absolutely no difference,” Krumpelbeck said. Of that number 20, well, it’s his jersey number, the one he brought from Xavier. But otherwise, “I don’t even know what the numbers are.”
Well, here’s a number. With this win, the 18-14 Colonels have a real shot to get to 20. Two wins in the region, getting them to the championship game, will do it. And starting against a district loser other than Beechwood won’t hurt their chances.
ALL-DISTRICT TEAM: In addition to MVP Lenhof, Beechwood’s Berger and Cameron Boyd were selected along with CovCath’s Leen and Lawrie, Covington Latin’s Landon Corry, Holmes’ Jonathan Lovell, and Holy Cross’ Jason Dorning.