Owensboro Catholic (7-2, 1-0) and Apollo (11-3, 0-1) faced off in a heavyweight battle at Independence Field on Friday night and having lost out on an entire season last year due to Covid-19, both teams and their fans were ready to rock, as Luke Scales and Nick Judd toed the rubber for their clubs.
The two dueled for the majority of the game until Catholic pushed through in the final few frames for the 7-2 win over the Eagles.
The fireworks started early for a standing-room-only crowd, as Tanner Klee managed to find his way on base in the opening frame. With two outs, Klee was waved home on a Max Holder single up the middle, but the senior center fielder was caught in a rundown between third and home, and the scoring opportunity was squelched.
The Aces managed to fare much better in the home half of the first, as Luke Scales helped his own cause with a single to plate Sam McFarland on a ground ball through the left side of the infield. Catholic held a 1-0 lead as Judd settled in on the mound, until the third inning.
Again Klee found himself in on the action in the third, as his choppy contact forced an Owensboro Catholic error, which allowed Cayden Crabtree to score for the Eagles. With the score tied at 1, both teams struggled to mount any sort of rally against the opposing team’s ace.
Finally, in the bottom of the sixth inning, Owensboro Catholic’s bats came alive. Though the Aces managed only three hits in the contest, a combination of wild pitches, walks, hit batsmen and errors from the visitors led to a six-run sixth to put the game out of reach.
Following the outburst from the offense, Luke Scales shut the door on any Apollo rally.
After Dan St. Clair singled and came around to score on an Aiden Wells groundout, the Owensboro Catholic hurler retired the side, with a final score of 7-2 in the win.
After the game Scales was complimentary of his team’s defense and their approach at the plate in the victory.
“Having a team like ours behind me when I’m on the mound allows me to have great confidence to throw strikes and trust that the defense will do their jobs,” Scales said. “It was beautiful to pitch with a six-run lead to close out the game, too. I could not have asked for more than that at the end of a tough game.”
Owensboro Catholic head coach Derek Hibbs was complimentary of Apollo starting pitcher Nick Judd’s effort in the game.
“Judd is a guy to be reckoned with and he proved he is a number one tonight,” Hibbs said. “When we get to district tournament play, whoever he is facing will have a tough night ahead of them. Definitely kudos to him. He kept us off-balance all night. Thankfully, there towards the end we were able to take advantage of some balls in the dirt and some missed locations on some off-speed pitches and we were fortunate to get the win in the end.”
Hibbs also recognized the importance of a great environment in a big district matchup.
“It was electric tonight. Having coached here for 14 years and after attending Daviess County as a player, the 7 p.m. district games, no matter who you’re playing, are always great atmospheres,” he said. “With us having not been able to play last year, this is the type of night that you miss. It was nice to get a good crowd to push both teams along and I’m glad we got a win.”
In the opposite dugout, Apollo head coach Mason Head said he felt as if there was one person in particular who deserved to carry the responsibility for the loss.
“The atmosphere was electric and tonight felt the way baseball around here should,” Head said. “In the end, though, it’s tough to win a game when your coach runs you out of two innings. Nick pitched a heck of a game and tonight’s loss is 100% on me. We certainly could play cleaner, but I need to do a better job of managing and coaching base runners.”
Up next for Owensboro Catholic is a matchup with Clinton County at Owensboro on Saturday in the All “A” Classic. The first pitch in that game is set for noon. Also today, Apollo welcomes Henry Clay to town at 4 p.m.
