With the end of the regular season fast approaching, the importance of getting district games played is high. For the McCracken County Mustangs, they have played three district games in the span of four days, getting victories each time.
The most recent came Thursday night when the Mustangs topped the St. Mary Vikings 4-1, the same exact score they beat them by on Tuesday night. And while the score was the same, how they got to the score was vastly different.
“Our strategy was the same tonight as it was on Tuesday; try to score more runs than the other team,” McCracken County head coach Zach Hobbs said. “Brett Haas pitched a really good game for them and Caden Kern pitched a really good game for us too.”
It took the Mustangs a little while longer to find their runs Tuesday night, but the opposite was the case Thursday as they played three of their four runs in the first two innings of the ballgame.
“Offensively I thought we had a really good approach early,” Hobbs said. “We were sure, we were compact with the ball, but when Brett started throwing his breaking ball we tried to do a little too much.”
Those first three runs came courtesy of Kendrick Dunning when Will Fox drove him home and a bases loaded walk pushed Braden Truitt home to go up 2-0 in the first. Braden Casebier would make it 3-0 as he sprinted home on a passed ball at home plate.
The Mustangs defense took care of business until the top of the fourth inning when the Vikings found their one and only run. A Kolson Durbin single would bring Andrew Buckett with the bases loaded and no outs on the board. McCracken would quickly change that with an infield fly in the next at-bat and a double play at second and first to escape the inning without any further damage.
Scoring would slow through the middle innings of action for both teams, leading to so sluggish ball.
“The game kind of stalled out a little bit and the pace got really slow,” Hobbs said. “We lost focus a little bit and there was just a strange flow to the game for both teams. But, we found a way to win and competed.”
The Mustangs would put the icing on the cake in the bottom of the sixth when Truitt hit a ground ball and reached on an error at first. The mistake game Dunning the room to move on home and take the 4-1 lead and eventual victory.
With the loaded district schedule the Mustangs have a decent idea of what to expect for the Second District tournament, but they have bigger things ahead of them before that tournament comes. They will travel to Louisville on Friday for a busy weekend against some of the best talent in the commonwealth.
“We’ve got the defending state champions, PRP tomorrow, the number one team in the state on Saturday against St. Xavier and Warren East as well,” Hobbs said. “I heard someone say it sounds like a tough weekend, but I think it’s an awesome weekend. Win, loose or draw, whatever happens we get to go play some good baseball and that’s what we want to do so we can be prepared for the postseason.”
The last time McCracken took on PRP was in the state championship game last season where the Mustangs came up short 4-1. And, while the Mustangs hit the road, the Vikings will stay local and play another district game of their own, taking on Community Christian Academy on Friday.
MCCRACKEN COUNTY 4, ST. MARY 1
STM 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 — 1 6 1
MCCR 2 1 0 0 0 1 X — 4 7 1
WP: MCCR — C. Kern
2B: MCCR — K. Dunning
TB: MCCR — K. Dunning 3, W. Fox 2, B. Casebier 1, J. English 1, L. Gagnon 1; STM — J. Morris 2, A. Puckett 1, B. Haas 1, K. Durbin 1, L. Sims 1
SB: MCCR — B. Casebier 2, K. Dunning 2, B. Truitt, K. Mahan, L. Grace, N. Short; STM — L. Sims
E: MCCR — L. Grace; STM — A. Puckett
RECORDS: MCCRACKEN COUNTY (20-6), ST. MARY (14-6)