[Stardust]

LEXINGTON - After the Bishop Brossart baseball team spent the better part of the first eight innings of its state baseball tournament semifinal game on Friday night dodging Woodford County scoring opportunity after scoring opportunity, it finally couldn’t dodge one in the ninth.

Woodford County didn’t score over the first eight innings against Brossart starter Jesse Orth, but then scored six runs off reliever Conner Verst, all of which were unearned, in the top of the ninth and went on to a 6-0 victory at Whitaker Bank Ballpark.

Woodford County (33-6), which like Brossart is appearing in its first ever Kentucky High School Athletic Association State Tournament, advances to Saturday’s 7 p.m. championship game against Henderson County.

While Woodford County didn’t score off Orth through the first eight innings, Brossart (27-13) also struggled against Woodford County junior ace Clinton Hollon. He regularly hit between 89-93 mph with his fastball, but after Hollon left a runner at third in the bottom of the eighth, he reached his maximum number of innings allowed for the week at 15 per KHSAA rules. He didn’t allow a run in those 15 innings and struck out 25, including 11 against Brossart.

Woodford County’s winning rally started with one out when Justin Brown singled to left off a 2-2 pitch. Gage Beavers, the No. 9 hitter, followed by hitting a grounder down the third baseline that freshman third baseman Spencer Hackworth fielded, but then threw low and into the dirt to second baseman Jared Hahn leaving runners at first and second. Leadoff batter Rodney Gross then battled back from a 2-2 count to walk to load the bases.

Logan Parrett followed by hitting a slow chopper to Hackworth, who tried to scoop and throw to the plate for the force, but bobbled the ball instead for another error to give Woodford County a 1-0 lead. Eli Boggess followed with the big blow, a three-run double to right center, to make it 4-0 and Woodford County would go on to score twice more.

Brossart got only four hits in the game off Hollon, who threw 99 pitches, 79 of which were strikes, but had runners in scoring position in the second, fourth, fifth, sixth and eighth innings.

Senior Corey Kremer, the No. 9 hitter in the Brossart lineup, led off the bottom of the eighth with a bunt single, was sacrificed to second and advanced to third on a groundout bringing senior Zach Fardo to the plate. Hollon struck him out on three pitches, including a 91 mph fastball on his final pitch of the night.

“We had a couple of opportunities early in the game, but couldn’t get that big hit,” said Brossart coach Ron Verst. “I know that last inning we had Zach Fardo up. What guy would you rather have up there than Zach Fardo with a guy on third, but it just didn’t happen today. I’ll tip my hat to their pitcher. What an outstanding job he did.”

Orth was almost equally as good while at times throwing almost 30 mph slower thanks to an effective knuckleball.

“Not a lot of guys throw like Jesse,” said Verst. “He throws that knuckleball and it gets teams off balance and it’s worked for us this year and it worked today, but unfortunately we just couldn’t put a run on the board in the first eight innings.

“This was just a great experience for us. We accomplished more this season than ever before for our school. We’re such a young team and they get this game experience and we set the bar a little higher next year and see what we can achieve.”http://nky.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/...306090019/