The Owensboro Southern 11U All-Stars are on the verge of bringing home a Little League baseball state title. After a revenge victory in Friday night’s tournament semifinal, Southern advanced to Saturday morning’s championship game in Prestonsburg.
Southern rolled past Ashland 13-2 in five innings on Friday, and they’ll now take on Eastern (Lexington) — who is 5-0 in the state tournament — at 9:30 a.m. CST on Saturday. Eastern is 5-0 in the state tournament.
While the ultimate goal is to win the title, Owensboro manager Todd Lillpop always keeps the bigger picture in mind.
“I’ve been doing this long enough to understand that the only thing that matters in this whole thing is that the kids learn lessons — life lessons, how to play baseball the right way, how to carry themselves, how to become good teammates,” he said. “Every game we get to play helps continue that building.”
Ashland — who beat Owensboro 20-8 on Wednesday — struck first Friday, scoring a pair of runs in the first inning. Southern didn’t waste time turning the tide, using a hot offense and dominant pitching performance by Ty Lillpop to put the game out of reach after a few more frames.
“It’s an impressive performance all the way around,” Todd Lillpop said. “We pitched unbelievable. We didn’t have to make a lot of plays because we struck a lot of guys out. We answered the bell. They scored two in the first, and it was all Southern from that point on.”
Ty Lillpop finished with 11 strikeouts and a lone walk while allowing one earned run on five hits in 4.2 innings. Brayden Burger needed only two pitches to induce a game-ending flyout.
In the top of the second, Nolan Johnson drew a bases-loaded walk for the first Southern run. Jayden James then cleared the bases with a two-out double for a 4-2 lead, and Owensboro never looked back.
Southern used seven runs in the fourth inning to really pull away, scoring six of the runs with two outs. Ryleigh Logan, Daveon Hinton, Geordyn Stevens and Ty Ashley each had an RBI single, while Johnson drove in two runs with a hit. Hinton and Stevens each added another RBI in the fifth inning.
Nearly the entire roster chipped in as Owensboro finished with 12 hits while drawing 10 walks. Hinton went 3-for-3, scoring twice and driving in a pair of runs. Stevens and Ashley each finished with two hits.
Johnson scored three times and drove in three runs. James had three RBIs and Stevens had two. Ashley and Lane Hundley each scored twice.
With the state tournament being the highest level and 11U team can advance, the championship will be the final game no matter the result.
“I just want them to give everything they have,” Todd Lillpop said. “If that’s not good enough, so be it. Our thing is go play Southern baseball. Go put pressure on the opposing team early and let everything else take care of itself. Play as hard as you can, give maximum effort and play for the name across your chest.”
