In the first round of the Second District tournament on Monday night, the McCracken County Mustangs defeated the Community Christian Academy Warriors in six innings by a score of 10-0. With the win, the Mustangs maintain their streak of never missing a district championship game, now with their 11th straight appearance.
“It’s great to get back there again,” McCracken head coach Zach Hobbs said. “Of course, last year we got beat in the championship game, so hopefully tomorrow that changes. We’re going to play a good Tilghman team, but win, lose, or draw, we’re going to the regional tournament.”
It took a little more time for the bats to get rolling for the Mustangs compared to their previous outings against CCA, but that was due to the performance of Carson Reed on the mound for the Warriors. He pitched the full 5.2 innings for his squad, and in that time frame, let up eight hits but just two earned runs, walking three and striking out five. He made it tough for the Mustang hitters to get moving, especially the times where he had solid defense to back him up.
“CCA played really well,” Hobbs said. “Their pitching threw a great game. It was a pretty good baseball game. They made some routine plays. We finally started relaxing a little bit and getting some hits.”
One Mustang that had no issue at the plate was Lane Grace. He went 3-for-3 with three RBI and scored twice on the day, and was locking down baseballs on defense at third base.
“Lane has done a really good job for us over there at third base. He’s competitive, he bounces back well. If he has a bad at-bat or bad stretch, he’s going to keep fighting through it. Really proud of Lane. He provided a spark for us, and we needed it to get us moving a little bit.”
With two outs in the bottom half of the sixth, Gage Reeves walked it off for the Mustangs with an RBI single into left field that scored Nate Bowling, the tenth run, sealing the win for McCracken.
They now move on to the Second District Championship game, where they will face Paducah Tilghmam for the fourth straight year. Last year, Tilghman spoiled McCracken’s nine-year stretch of district titles with a 10-6 win on their home turf, but the squads will face again on Tuesday at St. Mary High School in yet another bout for bragging rights in the district.
MCCRACKEN COUNTY 10, Community Christian Academy 0
CCA — 0 0 0 0 0 0- 0 1 4
MCHS — 0 3 2 0 4 1- 10 8 0
WP: Reeves; LP: Reed
2B: Grace 2, Kern
TB: Poyner 1; Grace 5, Kern 2, Truitt 1, Reeves 1, English 1, Gagnon 1
SB: Casebier, Kern, English, Mahan, Gagnon, Grace, Bowling
E: Helm 2, Walters, Gallagher