The 2025 baseball season began with the Lyon County Lyons viewed by many as a team that could contend for a state championship. The Lyons will now get that chance.
Behind a superb effort on the mound from Peyton Williams and a couple of big blasts from Williams and Austin Spears, the Lyons knocked off University Heights Academy 5-1 Wednesday evening in the 2nd Region championship game at Lee S. Jones Park in Eddyville.
Unlike last the last time these two teams met, in the 2nd Region All A Classic championship, the Lyons would not need any late-game heroics just to get the game into extra-innings and then go on to claim the title. This time around, Lyon County was in control of the game essentially from the moment Williams took to the hill in the first inning.
Williams scattered five hits across seven innings with the only real blemish on his night being a solo home run off the bat of Jaiden Miles to lead off the bottom of the seventh inning. Williams did find himself in an early jam in the bottom of the second inning after Aiden Jones reached on a Lyon County error and then Jackson Flynn drew a walk to give the Blazers runners on first and second with no outs.
However, Williams set down the next three batters to get out of the inning and that lack of conversion on an opportunity against Lyon County’s flame-throwing right-hander would turn out to be costly sooner rather than later for the Blazers.
In the top of the third with two outs, Austin Spears broke the scoreless tie with a ball hit to center field that simply refused to stay in the park. When the ball came off the bat, it gave the initial appearance of being just a long out, but the ball kept going and going until it cleared the fence, giving the Lyons a 1-0 lead, a lead they would not relinquish the rest of the night.
The score remained that way until Lyon County broke things open in the top of the fifth. With two outs, Korben Lucas gapped a double to right-center. After the home run earlier in the game, UHA coach Scott Gentry decided he wanted no part of Austin Spears in this situation, so he had Jaiden Miles walk him intentionally. That would become, looking back, a decision that really did not go the way the Blazers would have liked it to.
The intentional walk brought Peyton Williams to the plate with runners on first and second. On the second pitch of his at-bat, Williams launched a shot to left field that may have landed in the woods at the park. And just like that, the Lyons had a four-run lead and were starting to think about making plans for a trip to Lexington.
Lyon County added an insurance run in the top of the 7th on an RBI single from Korben Lucas to push the lead out to 5-0 as the Lyons headed for their second regional title in school history, both coming in the last five seasons.
Lucas had a big game for the Lyons, going 3-4 with a double, an RBI, and a run scored. Peyton Williams was 1-4 with a home run, three RBIs, and a run scored. Austin Spears was 1-3 with a home run, an RBI, and a run scored. Eli Baker, Turner Hurst, and Brady Belt also had one hit each for the Lyons, who outhit the Blazers 8 to 5 in the game.
Five different Blazers had one hit each in the contest. Courtland Gibson, Hayden Hunt, Jaiden Miles, Ryan Luckey, and A.J. Hogart had the hits for UHA. Hogart was playing in his first game for the Blazers, becoming eligible Wednesday after transferring from Madisonville-North Hopkins and sitting out one calendar year.
Peyton Williams got the win on the mound for the Lyons with a big time effort, going all seven innings. He gave up one run on five hits, striking out 11, and walking just one.
Jaiden Miles went five innings for UHA, giving up four runs on six hits, striking out three, and walking one.
UHA finishes the season at 20-11 and figures to be the preseason region favorite in 2026 with only one senior on this season’s roster.
Lyon County improves to 21-7 with the win, which was the Lyons’ sixth straight and their 8th in the last nine games.
Lyon County advances to the state baseball tournament and will face McCracken County in the opening round on Friday, June 6th. McCracken won the 1st Region title Wednesday evening by knocking off Graves County 6-3.
The two teams last met in May 2023 with the Mustangs taking a 5-0 win.
