Lucas Kaetzel homered and two pitchers combined on a three-hitter to lead Hopkinsville to a 5-0 win over Estill County in the opening round of the Clark’s Pump-N-Shop State Baseball Tournament on Friday.
The win is Hopkinsville’s first in the state tournament since 1986 when the Tigers defeated Daviess County in the semistate round.
The Tigers move into Saturday’s quarterfinal against Region 3 champion Owensboro Catholic.
Andrew Mayes got the start on the mound for Hopkinsville. He was the winning pitcher in the region championship game against University Heights Academy and was the pick of Hoptown coach Malcolm Tipler early in the week.
Mayes pitched in and out of trouble for five innings but the sophomore continually made the key pitch when he needed to.
After a 1-2-3 first inning, Estill County got a one-out double and walk. But Mayes used a strikeout and groundout to get out of the second.
In the fourth, an error and a walk put two Engineers on base. They moved up 90 feet after a wild pitch. But Mayes again channeled his inner Houdini and got two strikeouts to end the threat.
Estill got another runner into scoring position with one out in the fifth inning before Mayes coaxed two more outs.
Hoptown gave Mayes all the offense he needed in the first inning. Dylan Sweeney drew a two-out walk and Gavin Powell followed with an RBI double.
The Tigers added a run in the third when a hit batter, walk, and passed ball preceded a sacrifice fly by Gavin Mitchell.
Hopkinsville loaded the bases in the fourth inning. After watching Estill County intentionally walk Thompson ahead of him to pack the sacks, Zach Moss followed with a sharp single off the glove of the third baseman to plate Kaetzel, who led off the frame with a single.
Kaetzel greeted Estill reliever Friend in the fifth inning with a frozen rope over the 320-foot sign in left field for a 5-0 Tiger lead.
In the sixth inning, Mayes walked the first two batters and gave way to Thompson.
Originally, Thompson would have been unavailable for Friday’s game unless absolutely needed, with Tipler hoping to save the southpaw for Saturday’s quarterfinal.
However, Tipler said Friday’s coaches were notified that Friday games would count as a Thursday game for pitch count purposes. Normal rules prohibit a pitcher from throwing on consecutive days if they throw more than 26 pitches. But Tipler said that rule was bumped to 50 pitches on Friday which allowed Thompson to close the game and still be eligible to pitch on Saturday.
Thompson got out of the sixth-inning jam with three strikeouts on 13 pitches. Except for a Hayden Woolery single in the seventh, Thompson struck out the side to preserve Hopkinsville’s first state tournament win since 1986.
Kaetzel and Chase Fort finished with two hits. Fort tripled ahead of Kaetzel’s fourth home run of the season.
Mayes walked six and struck out seven to improve to 7-3. It was the tenth shutout of the season for the Tiger pitching staff. Their team ERA dropped from 1.95 to 1.88.
Estill County (16-18) was making its first state tournament appearance since 2009. Junior left-hander Jax Niece, who won two games in the 14th Region Tournament, allowed five hits and two earned runs in 4.2 innings of work.
UP NEXT: Hopkinsville (23-9) will play Owensboro Catholic (30-7) in Saturday’s quarterfinal at 5:00 (ET) at Legends Field. It’s the first meeting between the schools since 2021, and the Aces have won three straight over the Tigers dating back to 2006. Hopkinsville’s last win over Owensboro Catholic came in the second game of a doubleheader on May 8, 2004. Jeremy Wardell pitched a four-hitter that day to help Hoptown to the win.
Owensboro Catholic needed nine innings to beat Corbin 5-4 earlier Friday. OCath is 4-0 against Region 2 teams this season.
