MURRAY — After watching his team spot Hopkins County Central a 2-0 lead on the first at-bat of today’s Kentucky 2A Championships Sectional 1 Baseball Tournament semifinal matchup, Murray High Head Coach Sam Rushing sensed an opportunity for a reminder session.
His team had not looked solid defensively and he wanted to make sure they understood the situation. So he gathered his entire squad in a circle and asked the following question.
“When I was talking to you earlier, what did I say was guaranteed today? Nothing! Nothing was guaranteed!” Rushing’s voice boomed as he snapped his team back to attention.”
The Tigers responded with six runs in the bottom of the first and, except for a few other slightly-rough moments, maintained command in a 13-3 run-rule knockout win at Alumni Field/Cary Miller Park that “guaranteed” a spot in Saturday’s scheduled sectional title game against a Paducah Tilghman program that has won this event every year since its inception in 2021.
That game is in doubt due to a weather forecast that is calling for rain. At last check, first pitch is still set for 6 Saturday night at historic Brooks Stadium in Paducah.
“We want the championship,” said Rushing, whose team (6-4) had Tilghman (state 2A champion in both 2021 and ’22) seemingly beaten in last year’s semis in Murray, only to lose a seventh-inning lead and ultimately fall, 8-6, in eight innings. “So we wanted to play another game in this thing.
“(Guarantees) is what we talked about today. We talked about being prepared, the work we’ve put in every single day … but that doesn’t guarantee anything. The rent is still due every day.
“I don’t think it was so much they were playing like they were trying to guarantee anything, we were tight, plus (Hop Central, now 5-5) did a good job of coming out in the first inning and they punched us. They’re a good team and they were confident coming in here today.”
A lot of stress was alleviated in the bottom of the first as the Tigers took advantage of a rash of Hop Central miscues. A bad pickoff throw allowed Avery Starks to score from third and a wild pitch as Colin Winters walked led to a bad throw that allowed Simon Rickman to tie the game from second base.
Knox Tabers’ single to right field then gave the Tigers a 3-2 lead and Liam Ryan’s bases-loaded infield single that led to another error upped the lead to 5-2. Jacob Crady then ended the inning by scoring on the back end of a double steal with Ryan.
Hop Central remained dangerous and did score once in the fourth as Crady struggled with command and had to deal with several innings with multiple baserunners.
However, the lefty did manage to avoid lots of runs by making big pitches at big times. He escaped a dangerous third inning with a strikeout with runners at the corners. He finished the fourth with a bases-loaded strikeout to end his day with 88 pitches.
“Something we talk a lot about is how you won’t have your best stuff every day. Can you still have a quality start? He found a way to give us four innings and that was huge,” Rushing said of Crady, who emerged having scattered eight hits.
Inspired by their pitcher, the Tigers then finished the job by doing something Rushing said has been a bugaboo for this team most of the season — not leaving runners on base.
Starks scored on an Asa Munsey fielder’s choice, followed by Crady’s RBI single, Tabers’ RBI fielder’s choice, Winters scoring on a wild pitch and Nick Bell’s RBI single. Now, the Tigers were only two runs from an early end to the game.
After Tabers pitched a hitless fifth inning, the end was not long in coming. Starks’ leadoff double was immediately followed by Simon Rickman’s long triple to center field. Parker’s fly ball to center then was lost in the lights by the Hop Central outfield and became the game-ending single.
Murray High ended the day with nine hits with Starks 3-for-3 with two runs scored. Bell had two hits and two RBIs, while Tabers had two RBIs. However, the Tigers caused a lot of Hop Central’s problems by simply getting the ball in play, along with keeping the basepaths occupied. Bad throws off stolen bases and attempted pickoffs, along with several ground balls resulting fielder’s choices and errors were the payoff.
“I’m just really excited that our bats showed up. I think we’ve left, like, 87 runners in scoring position just this week,” Rushing said of how this was an issue in close losses to Kentucky Region 1 stalwarts Graves County and St. Mary (Paducah). “Tonight, we were able to get a few in and that’s contagious. We want to keep doing that.”