Owensboro Catholic and Apollo met on a beautiful Sunny afternoon at Shifley Park as the two battled it out for a 9th District Tournament championship but it was the Aces that turned it into a beautiful evening when they grabbed their second-straight title.
Starting pitching was all the talk after Saturday’s semifinals and that continued into Sunday with both starters putting their talents on display for the first several innings but it was when the OC found the relievers that the Aces reigned supreme in the 7-2 victory for Catholic.
Owensboro Catholic’s Hunter Small and Apollo’s Harrison Bowman combined for eight strikeouts, one hit and just two earned runs (both Harrison Bowman) but the duo also combined seven walks as Bowman also hit two batters.
Catholic coach Derek Hibbs said Bowman still gave them fits in the first few frames.
“Harrison did a good job in those first four innings,” Hibbs said. “He had some good stuff. Kind of like Saturday, we had some chances to put more runs across and the pitchers did a good job keeping us from doing it. Harrison did a good job there. Once we got down 2-0, we tried to find a spark. We scored one run Saturday and our offense has but shut out until then, our offense is too good for that. Tried to light a little fire in them and we got some guys on base.”
It was Apollo who got on the board first when Max Holder scored to make it 1-0 in the top of the second. The Eagles added another in the top of the fifth when Bowman had a sacrifice fly to make it 2-0.
But that’s when the Catholic offense took advantage of the Eagle pitching. Despite only two hits in the frame, the Aces scored five runs in the bottom of the fifth and it started with the leadoff man Sam McFarland.
“Once we got the top of the order up … We put some pressure on the pitcher and put that five-spot on there,” he said. “Then the two-spot in the sixth, I think that was big for us to put the nail in the coffin. Guys did a good job answering back. That’s a tough game, Apollo’s got a really good team. They’ve got a chance of making a good run in the region next week as well.”
Catholic added two more in the sixth to make it 7-2, the last lead they would need.
Small went 3.1 IP and allowed one earned run and struck out five but walked three.
Once Small’s day was done, Hayden Ward threw 1.2 IP and got the Aces out of a jam before Luke Scales threw the final two frames.
“We have faith in all of our guys where they’re out there to compete and to get guys out,” Hibbs said. “Small had good stuff, kind of was a little off in the zone. Hayden Ward did a good job in that one inning of shutting it down completely and keeping them from adding more runs. Doing that helped us to get more runs later in the game and take the lead.”
In the bottom of the fifth, when the Aces made their move, Apollo coach Mason Head made a pitching change to replace Bowman with Tyler Payne as the two existing runners were Bowman’s responsibility.
Catholic struck for five in the frame and Head admitted he could have gone another direction.
“I’m not taking anything away from what they did, Catholic capitalized and did a great job and pitchers did well but better game management on my part,” he said.
The Eagles scored twice in the first four innings and used two Catholic errors to do it.
Head said his team already knows they they put the ball in play, it puts pressure on the defense.
“Early in the season, it was tougher to get them to buy into but at this point, that’sa philosophy they’ve bought into,” he said. “It’s not so much getting them to realize as much as them continuing to develop a skillset that enables them to execute that in the moment.”
When asked if his team learned anything from the loss, Head was quick to confirm.
“We played baseball today,” he said. “There’s always lessons to learn in baseball.”
Finley Munsey led the way at the plate for Catholic with his single and two RBIs while Luke Evans and Scales each scored twice in the win. E Munsey, J Crabtree and Jamison Wall each added RBIs.
Dan St. Clair and Nolan Millay had the only hits for the Eagles in the game.
Catholic and Apollo now advance to the 3rd Region Tournament at Grayson County.
Despite not making a region tournament in the last few years, Head said his team is ready for the challenge and he’s excited to spend more time with his team.
“That’s why I made the schedule I made,” he said. “Knock Covid out and shrink the season down, we played five or six games a week, three out of four weeks. That’s why. To win region, you’ve got to win three games in three days … We’re doing us. It’s what we’ve done all year. We’ve got to go get three wins in three days.”
Hibbs said he’s also excited to be with his players for at least another week.
“With Covid year last year, we felt for everybody, it wasn’t just us. It was everyone,” he said. “We were fortunate that we actually didn’t lose a single senior from last year. From that aspect, a lot of those guys played a lot before that too. We were pretty fortunate to return a lot of guys that still had experience, even after losing a season. But that group also works hard. Even in the season that we missed, they constantly do what it takes from a strength and skill perspective.
“I’m very fortunate for the group that I’ve got and I always admit that. It’s a fun group to coach and it’s a fun group to come work with every single day.”
All 9th District Team
Harrison Bowman (Apollo)
Luke Evans (Catholic)
Ethan Gibson (Owensboro)
Max Holder (Apollo)
Nick Judd (Apollo)
Jackson Loucks (Daviess)
Sam McFarland (Catholic)
Braden Mundy (Catholic)
Finley Munsey (Catholic)
Decker Renfrow (Daviess)
Cason Troutman (Daviess)
9th District Player of the Year: Luke Scales (Catholic)
