Senior Andrew Mayes made sure Christian County didn’t need a ton of offense in the 2nd Region semifinals.
Mayes struck out nine and scattered six hits in a complete-game, 4-0 shutout of Caldwell County in Wednesday night’s game at University Heights Academy.
The Colonels (23-15) will face the host Blazers (28-8) in Thursday’s regional championship game in an All-8th District finale.
Caldwell (22-11) entered the regional semifinals hitting .356 as a team this season. But the Tigers never got a runner as far as third base against Mayes.
Caldwell pitching was also solid. However, the Colonels scratched out two runs in the fourth and two more in the fifth off Tiger starter Ari Wells to earn a berth in the regional championship game.
A hit batter, a stolen base, a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly to right by Gavin Mitchell put Christian up 1-0 in the fourth inning. Dylan Sweeney singled to left to drive in another run and stake the Colonels to a 2-0 lead.
In the fifth, a Mitchell groundout to short plated another run to give Christian a 3-0 lead. Another run scored when Sebastian Dazey’s grounder to short was mishandled, pushing the margin to 4-0.
That was more than enough offense for Mayes, who seemed to get stronger the deeper into the contest he pitched.
Caldwell had some baserunners early in the game, but twice hit into double plays that took the starch out of innings and kept the Tigers from getting on the scoreboard first.
Mitchell finished 1-for-2 with the two runs batted in for Christian. Sweeneywas 1-for-3 with an RBI.
Gage Montez, Chase For, Layton Creamer and Sebastian Dazey each singled.
For Caldwell, Presten Alfred and Wells were each 2-for-3. David Ginn doubled while Drew Stevens singled.
Wells suffered the loss on the mound. He went four innings, allowing three earned runs on five hits. He struck out eight and walked three.
Ethan Ramage went the final three innings, shutting out Christian on one base hit while fanning two.
Christian and UHA will be meeting for the fourth time this season when they square off in the 2nd Region championship game. The Colonels have taken two of three.
