By Thomas Grant Jr.
The Region 4-5A baseball title once again comes down to the battle of Lexington.
Archrivals Lexington and River Bluff entered this week tied for first place in Region 4-5A. On Tuesday, the two teams opened a crucial 3-game set to decide the champion.
Game 1 went in favor of the Wildcats 6-3. With starting pitcher Grant Kissner retiring the first eight batters, Lexington took a 2-0 lead on a sacrifice fly by Lincoln Hill and RBI single by Grant Coleman.
With two outs in the Bottom 3rd, Walker Godwin put the Gators on the board with an RBI double. Kissner held River Bluff scoreless over the next three innings as Toby Sobieralski helped extend the lead with two runs off an RBI triple and double.
“He’s as clutch as it gets,” Lexington head coach Brian Hucks said. “I felt like the zone was a little wide tonight and some of our hitters let it impact them and I though Toby made a good job of making an adjustment, hunting that ball off the plate out there and he drove two balls into right-center gap. Just a veteran player at the plate for us.”
River Bluff had a two-out rally in the Bottom 6th. After giving up a single to Ashley Powell and walk to Tripp Hutto, Kissner was relieved by Jack Cooper.
He hit Sam Turner, gave up an RBI walk to Jeremiah North and a wild pitch that scored Caleb Renwrick. Hucks quickly replaced Cooper with Jake Epps who recorded the final four outs.
“You’ve got to start with Grant on the mound,” Hucks said. “I just thought he gave us an incredible start. Competed his tail off and really gave us the length that we needed. We play those guys Thursday. We play them tonight. We’ve got two more with them right now. So we needed a really good start and I was really proud of Jake. That’s the first time he’s thrown in six weeks after coming off a little bit of an injury.
“We put him in a really tough situation. He came out there and he’s done what he’s done for us all year until he had a minor setback with the arm. He throws strikes and gave us a chance to play. And I thought we really did a good job of competing at the plate. We kept finding a way to score a couple of runs against some two-out hits. So a really big win for us tonight.”
Lady Wildcats wrap up region
The Lady Wildcats appeared headed to their first region loss of the season Tuesday night in Red Bank.
Instead, it scored seven runs in the Top 7th and held on for the 11-10 win over the Lady Timberwolves. The win clinched the Region 4-5A title for Lexington with one game remaining.
Trailing 8-4, the Lady Wildcats closed the gap to within a run following an RBI single by Grace Fonseca and a two-run homer by Livi Warren.
Lexington found itself down to its last out when it loaded the bases on three walks. Maya Drennon proceeded to make it four straight batters to reach on base on balls to tie the game.
Peyton Melinauskas then put the Lady Wildcats ahead 9-8 with an RBI single. Alaina Harry then followed with a 2-run double on which Melinauskas was thrown out at home plate.
Lexington recorded two quick outs to open the Bottom 7th. White Knoll stayed alive as Lillian Priest reached on a passed ball after a dropped third strike, Jaden Ekovich got on after an error and Gracie Fisher singled to load the bases.
Reginae Porterfield hit a two-run single to bring White Knoll within 11-10. The comeback hopes ended as Melinda Veler flied out to shortstop Sam Craig to end the game.
Feature photo by Thomas Grant Jr. – Lexington pitcher Grant Kissner
