Owensboro Catholic battled it out against McCracken County for a spot in the state championship, but the Aces fell short in a close 9-7 defeat. Catholic fought back from a 5-1 deficit, but a 4-run inning by McCracken in the fifth was just enough to give the Mustangs the win. Brady Atwell and Barrett Evans were both named to the All-State team after the game as well.
The intense fifth inning began with OCHS trailing 5-2. Jaxson White and Brady Atwell both were walked to put runners in prime scoring position. Deuce Sims singled on a ground ball towards second to score White and cut into the lead. After a ground out on the next batter moved runners to third and second, Barrett Evans hit a line drive to center field, brought in 2 runs and tied the game at 5-5. A strikeout put two outs on the board, but the Aces kept things going at the plate as Mason Moser singled to put two on base. Eli Blair then singled on a fly ball to right field to give OC the lead at 6-5.
The Aces weren’t done yet despite sitting on two outs. Houston Flynn stepped up and took the lead to 7-5 after a line drive down center field. A line out right to the pitcher took the game into the bottom of the fifth where disaster struck for OCHS. Ben Hyland struck out the lead-off hitter, but McCracken bounced after having the next batter walked and a single to put two runners on. A ground ball to right field scored a runner and brought the game back within 1 run. Atwell made a close play at home plate to put McCracken on 2 outs, but Owensboro Catholic struggled to close out the inning.
A fly ball to left field narrowly stayed in bounds to allow the tying run to score. McCracken went on to take back the lead after the next batter hit a fly ball just out of the infielder’s reach to bring home the final 2 runs. The pressure was stacking against OCHS as it was three up and three down in the top of the sixth. McCracken had runners get on base, but Catholic shut them down to keep the score stagnant.
The final inning then started with a hopeful lead-off single by Parker Heistand. The next batter gave them their first out as a runner remained on first. A ground ball into a double play at second and first ended both the game and Owensboro Catholic’s run in the state championship. The Aces nearly made another one of their famous late-game comebacks, but their rocky start proved to come back and bite them.
Owensboro Catholic opened the game with a big lead-off triple by Flynn. White then hit a sacrifice grounder to run in Flynn for a 1-0 lead. This didn’t last long as McCracken scored 5 runs in the bottom of the first. OCHS racked up 2 outs allowing just 2 runners on base, but it spiraled after two key errors. A line drive to left field put McCracken on the board with their first run, and then a big hit into left field scored 2 more. An error on a fly ball to right field took the score to 4-1, followed by a 5-1 scoreline thanks to another error at third. OC head coach Jody Hamilton said the absence of these mistakes would have made for a different outcome.
“You take away the first inning, then we win the game,” he said. “We gave them those three runs in the first. The one was earned, but after that we gave them the other three. We made two errors in the first inning. The third miscue cost us with the tag. We didn’t get the tag down. He was out by a mile, but we just didn’t stay with it. We ended up giving them those three runs.”
OCHS also had to deal with McCracken’s star pitcher Miller Green. Green was named 2024 Mr. Kentucky Baseball, and he made life difficult at the plate for Owensboro Catholic. Green pitched for 4.2 innings and recorded 5 strikeouts. He helped hold OC to just 2 runs before their big 5-run inning in the fifth. On the mound for the Aces was Evans who pitched 1 inning and had 1 strikeout, Ben Hyland recorded 5 strikeouts across 3.2 innings, Luke Quinn pitched for 0.1 innings and White closed out the game in the final inning.
McCracken took the win 9-7 and will play for the state title today against Pleasure Ridge Park. Owensboro Catholic ends their season with an impressive overall record of 31-8. The deep run into the postseason began with their first loss of the year. Hamilton said he told his players from the start what was expected of them, but everyone worked hard to put the program back into their second state tournament in three years.
“Well, we expect to win,” he said. “That’s something I told them from the very beginning. As hard as we work, we expect to win. It wasn’t a one-man thing or a one-coach thing, we all bought in together. Everyone worked as hard as they could. It’s the first time here, and I thought we did a really good job of finding it out there. We were playing a good team. Fifteen seniors is sometimes a little bit harder to overcome, but it was a nice game.”
Hamilton said this year’s team stood out because of the unity and closeness each player had with one another. He said the leader’s leaving the team are all great kids, but he will need to start his search once they have had time to recover from this loss.
“It’s the unity,” he said. “We’re really close, and we’re just all friends. They really enjoy each other. They’re great kids, great people and above all great leaders. We’re going to have to come back next year and find some new guys. Right now is the time that you don’t have to say, ‘okay, look forward to next year.’ We’ll do that maybe next month and go from there.”
