The South Oldham Dragons (9-10) edged out a 4-2 road win against their county rival, the Oldham County Colonels (15-5), in extra innings in game one of their two game series on Monday, April 22.
“It’s a big win. Anytime you can beat a pitcher like Coen [Ball], it’s a big deal,” South head coach Troy Blakely said. “That kid, he’s really good. He’s probably the best we’ve seen all year so hats off to him. He threw a heck of a ball game. We got lucky and broke it up there late. Once we broke it up, we got a little confidence, and things started going our way. The win is huge, and any win in-county is big.”
Oldham County head coach Bo Akers thought his team played well throughout the game.
“I thought our kids played really well,” Akers said. “Coen [Ball] threw great. I thought we took good at bats all day. They did a good job.”
South Oldham senior Davis Gunn threw six innings, allowing one run with seven strikeouts. Freshman Hayden Barnett came into pitch, and junior Davis Larsen closed out the game with two innings of work, striking out three.
“They’re a great hitting team, and I knew that going into the game,” Gunn said. “I knew I couldn’t float anything in or throw it down the middle, because they were going to hit it. Luckily [Monday], I kept the fastball outside, ran it in when I needed to. The changeup wasn’t really working as it usually does. The curveball was good but not great. I battled through it.”
Oldham County senior Coen Ball started the game, tossing six innings and allowing no runs to go along with nine strikeouts. Juniors Logan Slechter and Clay Cartledge pitched one inning each. Slechter struck out three batters while Cartledge struck out two.
“[Ball] was in control of his stuff today,” Akers said. “We think he’s one of the best pitchers, if not the best pitcher in the Eighth Region. I think he showed with another start [Monday] that he’s really, really hard to hit against, and we know when he’s up there we feel really good. Part of this stings more, because we want to get that win for him.”
Senior Aaron Frantz hit the game-winning, two-run double in extra innings. Senior Kian Vorster came away with two singles while also breaking up Ball’s perfect game reaching on an error and no-hitter on a single.
“A big thing for us is our coach really beats down on it to just get short swings on the ball, don’t try to do too much with the ball,” Vorster said. “I feel like that really led to success, because if you just put the ball in play, it leads to success. I just kept my swing short, tried to battle and make the pitcher work. That really worked for me.”
Senior Jaxon Perkins had three hits, a double and two singles, with one RBI for Oldham County. Junior Josiah McCall crushed a solo home run while Cartledge hit a double and single on the night.
“[Perkins] stayed aggressive [Monday],” Akers said. “He’s a college baseball player. He’s a great baseball player. When he stays aggressive, he’s really, really good. We’re glad he plays for us. He was back in an aggressive mindset [Monday] and looked great at the plate.”
Ball and Gunn started the game with a dominant showing. Ball struck out the side to start in the top of the first inning. Gunn allowed a lead off double to Perkins to open the bottom of the first but struck out two and forced a ground out to end the first inning.
“Davis Gunn threw really, really well [Monday],” Blakely said. “He was a warrior out there. We’re getting to the point of the season where we’re finally starting to run some pitch counts up a little bit, get some guys in shape for the postseason. We hung him out there, and we challenged him.”
In the second inning, Ball threw another three up, three down inning with one strikeout in the top of the second. Gunn allowed one base runner on a walk but stranded him on a fly out. Ball struck out two more in another three up, three down in the top of the third. Gunn allowed a single to Perkins and a walk in the bottom of the third. He stranded both on a ground out.
Ball’s perfect game ended on an error hit by South Oldham’s Vorster. After two outs, Ball walked a batter to put two Dragon runners on base, but a pop up in foul territory ended the top of the fourth inning. Gunn threw his first 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the inning to end the fourth.
The no-hitter for Ball continued in the top of the fifth, striking out the side. Cartledge led off the bottom of the fifth with a double down the left field line. McCall bunted him over to third before Perkins batted him, giving the Colonels a 1-0 lead.
Perkins was caught stealing by Dragon junior Caleb Jones. Colonel sophomore Logan Edsell singled, but Gunn ended the fifth inning with a strikeout. With one out in the top of the sixth inning, Vorster hit a single, breaking up Ball’s no-hitter. Gunn reached on an error, moving both runners to scoring position with two outs. Ball kept South Oldham scoreless with a pop up.
“When our guys work that plan and they stick to it, it usually shows up at the end of the game as we get deeper into the pitcher’s pitch count, and that’s kind of the way it worked out a little bit,” Blakely said. “Coen was in cruise control for a while, and Kian came up and broke up his no-hitter there…From there, the confidence starts to come in and your quality of bats step in and good things start happening for us.”
Ball hit a single to lead off the bottom of the sixth. Gunn walked a batter two at bats later to put Colonel runners on the corners. Gunn kept it a one-score game with a strikeout and ground out.
Slechter entered the game in the top of the seventh inning to close out the game. Junior Ethan Arnold reached on a dropped strikeout. A walk and a double steal put both runners in scoring position before Slechter threw another strikeout.
Larsen laid down a bunt, scoring Arnold, but an error on the throw to home allowed another run to score, giving South a 2-1 lead. Sletcher threw another strikeout before sophomore catcher Daniel Stewart caught Larsen stealing third base to end the top of the seventh.
Oldham County responded on a no doubt solo home run by McCall to tie the game at two apiece. Perkins walked before Larsen went on the mound. He struck out his first two batters while Perkins stole second base.
“It was such a cool moment for [McCall],” Akers said. “He works so hard, and he’s got a lot of ability too. He’s figured it out. We needed a run, and he got us a run in one pitch basically. That’s a big deal when you put a swing on a ball and tie the game up. I’m super thrilled for him to see the hard work pay off.”
A controversial ruling on a re-entry rule cost Oldham County its last out of the bottom of the seventh and put the game in extra innings. The ruling dealt with Ball after he was taken out of the game as a pitcher and re-entering the game as the designated hitter.
“The way the rule has been explained to me in the past, and it’s still a fairly new rule, but we’ve run that for multiple years now, as soon as it came out,” Akers said. “We had Noah [Stinson] come in as a courtesy runner, and they had it marked as a substitute. With the re-entry rule, we were off by one. It’s on me.”
Cartledge pitched to start the top of the eighth for the Colonels. Vorster led off extra innings with a single before an error put runners on first and second base. A double steal put both runners in scoring position before an intentional walk loaded the bases. Frantz hit the go-ahead two-run single to give the Dragons a 4-2 lead.
“I really think what plays into that is our coaches always telling us, ‘stay in the game,’ ” Vorster said. “There’s some games where energy gets down, but this game we really had our energy up, and everyone was focused, ready to go in and do whatever needs to be done.”
The bases loaded again before Cartledge ended the top of the eighth on a ground out. A hit by pitch opened the bottom of the eighth, and a wild pitch moved the runner in scoring position. Larsen picked up the first two outs on a strikeout and line out. Cartledge singled to put runners on the corners.
With the winning run at the plate, McCall hit another ball hard to the warning track, but the ball was caught for the third out. South Oldham won 4-2 with a chance to clinch a regional berth on Wednesday night.
“It feels great. It’s really nice because knowing that winning this game on the road is huge,” Gunn said. “After winning that, we have great confidence going into Wednesday. We’re a great team. We’re going to keep winning. We’re doing good.”
Game two between the rivals will be played at 6 p.m. on Wednesday at South Oldham High School. Blakely wants his team to execute their plan.
“Baseball’s the same every day,” Blakely said. “We’ll go in with our plan, executing our plan, and we’ll see how it comes out. They’re a really good baseball team. Oldham County is a really good baseball team. Bo does a really good job with these guys, and their swings are really good. We’re going to roll some guys out there and play baseball Wednesday and see how it works out.”
With the tough loss, Akers feels good about his team going forward and building toward the postseason.
“The tough one is when you feel like that win is right there in front of you, that’s tough, but we still have everything in front of us that we want,” Akers said. “We’re still in control of our destiny. Our kids will respond.”