Leading 7-3 in the bottom of the 6th on Tuesday at Henderson County, the Christian County Colonels appeared to be headed for a second-straight 2nd-Region baseball title. However, walks caught up to Christian County, and Henderson took advantage to send the game to extra innings and ultimately prevailed 8-7 on a walk-off hit by pitch in the bottom of the 11th.
Henderson avenged a loss to Christian County in last season’s title game to claim the trophy for the first time in a decade. Christian County saw its six-game winning run come to an end to finish the season with a 25-12 record.
Christian started quickly with back-to-back singles to start the game, pushing runs across on a bases-loaded walk and Brylle Javier’s sacrifice fly.
Back-to-back RBI doubles by Aiden Lewis and Gage Montes made it 5-1 in the 2nd before Henderson got a run back on Brennan Cates’ run-scoring double in the bottom of the 3rd.
After the teams traded runs in the 4th, Elijah Underhill smacked his eighth home run of the season with one out in the 6th for a 7-3 Christian County advantage.
Underhill issued five walks over the first five frames and walked three, and hit a batter to hand Henderson a run in the bottom of the 6th. Lewis came on in relief with one out and the bases juiced but walked both batters he faced to allow Henderson to cut the lead to a run.
Christian County gave the ball to 8th-grader Eddie Davis with the bases still loaded and the game in the balance, and while Henderson was able to tie the game, Davis kept Christian on even terms with a double play to end the inning.
After a scoreless 7th, the game went to extra innings, with both teams loading the bases in the 10th but failing to push across the winning run.
In the top of the 11th, Lewis drew a lead-off walk and went to third on Preston Phan’s one-out single. But Javier’s hard ground ball to third caught Lewis in a rundown, and Christian County again came away empty-handed.
Henderson started the decisive rally with singles by Brennan Cates and Paxton Gardner and put runners on second and third after a sacrifice bunt. Davis issued Christian County’s 13th walk of the night to load the bases again, and his 3-2 offering hit Seth Galloway to bring in the winning run.
Davis took the loss despite allowing a single run on four hits with three walks and three strikeouts over five innings. Underhill surrendered seven runs, six earned, on five hits with eight walks and eight strikeouts over five and a third.
Underhill was three for three at the plate with an RBI, Lewis collected two hits and drove in a pair of runs, and Montes finished with two RBI.
Gardner got the win for Henderson, going four scoreless innings with three hits, four walks, and three strikeouts.
Cates had two hits and drove in two runs, and Bryce Hayden and Alec Satterfield each finished with two hits.
Henderson improved to 19-17 and will advance to the Clark’s Pump-N-Shop Baseball State Tournament Presented by UK Health Care on June 2 at Counter Clocks Field in Lexington.
