Brady Belt improved to 5-0 with a complete-game four-hitter for Lyon County at the All A Classic quarterfinals on Saturday. (Ashlyn Brown photo)
Expectations for Lyon County at this weekend’s All A Classic State Baseball Tournament are higher than the team’s last trip in 2022.
The Lyons jumped ahead early and defeated Wolfe County 8-2 in Saturday’s quarterfinal at Eastern Kentucky University’s Turkey Hughes Field.
Lyon County advances to Sunday morning’s 10:30 semifinal where they will play Sayre, a 4-1 winner over Bracken County.
Brady Belt’s 1-2-3 top of the first on the mound set the tone for the Lyons, who scored four times in the home half of the first with some help from the Wolves.
Eli Baker led off with a triple and scored when John Bingham reached on an error. Austin Spears beat out an infield hit, and Korben Lucas reached on another Wolfe County error for a 2-0 lead.
Turner Hurst drove in a run with a single, and Hudson Phillips plated a run when his grounder was misplayed for Wolfe’s fourth error of the first inning.
The errors drove up the pitch count of Wolfe County sophomore ace Max Whisman, who threw 37 pitches in the first inning.
The righty settled down and kept Lyon off the scoreboard for the next two innings.
Wolfe got two back in the third when Camden Oliver laced a one-out double to right. A perfectly placed squeeze bunt by Cam Hollon plated Wolfe’s first run. Whisman added an RBI single to cut the Lyon lead in half.
However, Belt buckled down and retired 12 of the next 15 batters, only allowing a fifth-inning infield single to Whisman.
The junior lefty improved to 5-0 even though his season ERA ticked up slightly to 0.84. He struck out ten and only walked three. Belt held a Wolfe County offense averaging 7.3 runs and 8.8 hits a game to two runs on four hits.
Peyton Williams smoked a triple to the wall to lead off the fourth inning. Drew Richie followed with an RBI groundout. Baker then followed with his second triple of the day and third for the Lyons, who came into the game with five all season.
Belt helped his cause with an RBI single to left.
A bases-loaded walk to Richie and a single by Baker accounted for Lyon’s final two runs.
Baker finished with three hits and two runs, and Turner Hurst added two of Lyon County’s eight hits.
Whisman, who came into the game with a .465 average for Wolfe County, went 2-for-3.
The Wolves saw an 11-game winning streak end and their record dropped to 13-5.
Lyon County is 14-4 with a school-record 14th straight win. They have held their opponents to two or fewer runs in 10 of those wins.
All three of Lyon County’s All A Classic state semifinal appearances have come in the last six years. They will be looking to advance to its first championship game, which will be played at 1:00 on Sunday.
Lyon County 8, Wolfe County 2
Wolfe County 002 000 0—2 4 4
Lyon County 400 200 X—8 8 0
WP – Belt (5-0), 7 IP 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 10 K, 3 BB
LP – Whisman (4-2), 5 IP, 8 H, 8 R, 3 ER, 3 K, 3 BB
2B – Oliver (WC)
3B – Baker 2 (LC), Williams (LC)
