Owensboro Catholic’s Luke Scales flexed a tremendous amount of power on Friday night in a district matchup at Daviess County as the junior shortstop demolished a pair of fastballs in the game, hitting two towering home runs over the left-field wall to jumpstart a big district win for the Aces
Though the home team fought hard to stay in the game for the better part of five innings, untimely walks and errors eventually led to the demise of the Daviess County Panthers as they fell in the contest 12-3.
Scales ended the ballgame with four hits, including a double off the wall to lead off the top of the seventh, narrowly missing out on a third home run. After the game, he was proud of how his plate appearances paid off, something for which he gave his teammates the credit.
“My confidence was through the roof tonight,” Scales said. “I was seeing the ball really well, and I was just hoping to get back in the batter’s box any chance I could. Credit to my teammates for getting on base and making the pitchers uncomfortable. That makes my job easier to just see the ball and do damage.”
Though the final score ended up being a large deficit, Daviess County starting pitcher Hunter Payne did all he could to help keep his team in the game. When Payne exited following the fourth inning, his team trailed just 5-2. On the night, the Aces scored in every inning, something that ensured the gap between the teams never closed.
For the Aces, Scales’ hitting display capitalized a total team effort at the plate. In seven innings the visitors tallied 13 hits, 11 walks, and 12 runs.
Following the victory, Catholic head coach Derek Hibbs underscored the joy of going undefeated in district play during the regular season for what he believes may be the first time in school history.
“We scored every inning tonight, which I was really happy about,” Hibbs said. “County was able to stay in it for a while and our pitchers threw quite a few pitches. It was a good game in the end, though, and for us to complete a 6-0 record against district opponents this year is a big accomplishment. We know it’s not the end goal heading into the state tournament, but we do believe there are some really good teams in the district, so we’re happy to be undefeated against them.”
On the flip side of the scoreboard, the Panthers were plagued by four errors and 11 free passes issued by their pitchers, something head coach Austin Clay bemoaned after the game.
“They’re a tough out one through nine, and they capitalize on a lot of the pitching mistakes,” Clay said. “I definitely want to reiterate to the guys that we need to get out of our own way. We’re a young team and sometimes we can fail to let the routine plays be routine. I want all of our guys to want the ball hit to them, and if they can stay in the game mentally, we will get where we want to go as a team. We just need more games to improve that.”
Sophomore Panther Decker Renfrow was a bright spot in the contest for the home team, as he reached base three times, twice by way of the walk and once on a base knock. Coach Clay will look for more of the same from his young players moving forward, as Daviess County prepares to play the underdog in the district tournament in a few weeks’ time.
Up next for Daviess County is a trip to Ohio County to play the Eagles at noon on Saturday. Up next for Owensboro Catholic is the Fayette County Invitational Tournament. The Aces will matchup with Rockcastle County in their first matchup at 1:30 p.m. EST on Saturday.
