The opening round of the KHSAA State Baseball Tournament came and went without much issue for the McCracken County Mustangs. To start off their 12th straight trip to the tournament, the Mustangs turned in a total team effort to down another contender in the Bowling Green Purples, extending their stay until Saturday with a 6-0 win.
Now, following a quick practice at George Rogers Clark in Winchester, attention for head coach Zach Hobbs and his squad turns to the Sayre Spartans, after the 11th Region champions’ 13-4 win over Johnson Central that same night.
“We’re keeping practice short and focused, getting us in and out, and the guys know what we have to do,” said Hobbs. “We want to stay focused and locked in. We are who we are at this point in the season, so we just have to stay fresh.”
The Spartans and Mustangs are no stranger to one another, having met early on in the season. Down in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, McCracken were able to get the better of Sayre, collecting a 7-2 victory in the ninth game of their season. However, even with that win over the Spartans already on their record, don’t expect to the Mustangs getting complacent or underestimate their opposition on Saturday, as they view both themselves and Sayre as completely different teams from the ones that met in early April.
“They’re a great club, they’re well coached and have a lot of great offensive weapons. We’re seeing the same pitcher that we saw in Florida, and I think he’s a better pitcher now than he was then,” Hobbs said, on the Spartans.
“We saw them earlier in the year, they’re a great team, and I don’t think that game really showed either team’s full potential,” added senior Josh Penrod, who is expected to be on the mound for McCracken on Saturday. “That was early in the year and this is over 20 games later. It’s going to be a good matchup, I think we’ll be ready for it, and we’re super excited to play.”
As for Penrods’ pitching matchup, the Spartans are expected to throw right-hander Banks Heinrich, who led Sayre’s staff with a 1.16 ERA across a team-high 60.1 innings. In his last time out against McCracken, the Mustangs were able to chase the senior arm in five and a third innings, picking up three earned runs on six hits.
“We’re expecting to face a lot of good right-handed pitching, [Heinrich] is a guy that sits around 89 to 91 on his fastball with a good slider, and can throw a change-up to the lefties. Hopefully we can spit on the breaking balls, be ready to hit the fastballs and not be late when we get those opportunities,” said Hobbs.
On the other side of the ball, the Spartans pose plenty of threat, boastin a team average of .326 and six individuals batting above the .300 mark, with Heinrich (.356, 32 RBI), Joaquin Avecedo (.400, 23 RBI), and Gary Gibson (.426, 7 HR, 28 RBI) being just a few names to look out for.
As for the Mustangs themselves, the sheer amount of postseason experience within the lineup has already began to pay dividends in Lexington. For Hobbs, the calm, confident nature of his team allows them to take weight off of themselves in high-pressure situations, and can be traced back to the way they approach practices.
“Whether we get up on a team or go down a run or two, they stay level-headed. There’s no panic in our dugout, I’m probably the most panicked guy there while these guys are all focused. They know what they need to do every day, and come in ready to roll,” Hobbs concluded, on the Mustangs’ mentality. “We put pressure on them and create chaos in practice so that the games becomes the fun part. They signed up for this because they love to play baseball, this is the part where we get to do that, and we try to enjoy every moment of it.”
First pitch between the Mustangs and Spartans is set for 10 a.m. CST, back at Legends Field in Lexington.