A mishandled ball hit back to the pitcher with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 7th allowed Lyon County to score the only run of the game and walk off a 1-0 win over Walton-Verona in the quarterfinals of the All A Classic state baseball tournament Saturday night at Daviess County.
Bearcats pitcher Aiden Kerns entered the game in a tough situation in the final inning. Kerns, who came in to relieve Walton-Verona starter Bronson Corpus, was facing runners on first and second with no one out. He managed to strike out Austin Spears for the first out of the inning.
After a wild pitch allowed the Lyon County runners to advance to second and third, Kerns intentionally walked Peyton Williams to load up the bases and set up the force play at home, and bring Brady Belt to the plate. With a 1-1 count, Belt hit the ball back up the middle. Kerns got his glove on the ball but could not pull it in in time to toss the ball to the plate for the force out, allowing pinch-runner Cohen Wiggens to score the game-ending run and send the Lyons on to Sunday morning’s All A Classic semifinals.
The Lyons scored the winning run in the bottom of the seventh after leaving runners on second and third in both the bottom of the fifth and the bottom of the sixth.
The game was a great pitchers duel from the beginning. Lyon County’s Brady Belt and Walton-Verona’s Bronson Corpus put on a great pitching display as both teams looked for a way to push a run across the plate.
Corpus went six innings, giving up one run on 8 hits. Two of those hits came in the seventh inning after Corpus’ pitch total passed 100. He struck out nine and walked two.
On the other side, Lyon County’s Brady Belt was locked in as well. Belt went all seven innings, giving up just four hits, striking out eight and walking two.
Korben Lucas led the Lyons at the plate, going 3-3. Turner Hurst was 2-3 with a double. Four other Lyon County batters had one hit each.
With the win, which was the Lyons’ seventh in the last eight games, Lyon County improves to 10-5 and moves on to face Beechwood in Sunday morning’s second semifinal game. Beechwood advanced by stunning Sayre 7-0.
Sunday morning’s first semifinal will have Owensboro Catholic taking on Raceland.
