St. Xavier vs. Hazard Predictions (KHSAA State Semifinals)

The other matchup is the main event Friday night but this one is the "David vs. Goliath" matchup that people love. The top team in the state against the small, Class A school. I don't know much about these two teams. Does Hazard have an ace that can keep them in it?

Devin Morris. Had 16 K's in their first round win. Fastball up to 90-91. St. X will have their hands full.

Only thing Saint Xavier will have their hands full of is the state championship trophy.

The Tigers 10, Hazard 2.

Baseball is a crazy game. X is very tough this year, with solid pitching and hitting. But if Hazard’s pitcher performs at a high level and doesn’t get caught up in moment anything can happen. At the end of the day X will probably pull away late.

Only thing Saint Xavier will have their hands full of is the state championship trophy.

The Tigers 10, Hazard 2.

St X has nice ball club, but I wouldn’t be so sure of yourself. Even if they get past Hazard, McCracken or Highlanda neither are a slouch. McCracken County is my pick to win State.

As a game, this game reminds me a lot of the 2016 game against Greenup County, coming in at 39-1, or 2014 against a really good Logan County team out of Region 4, which went 8 innings, with St X pulling out the win late. In 2012, we ran into Bishop Brossart with the undefeated senior pitcher, son of the coach to fall short. From what I have seen, Hazard is for real, especially after beating Greenup in the previous round. Hazard made it through the grind and lost the ALL A classic championship at Whitaker Bank park against Beechwood this year 3-1.

What is different about this St X team is there is no overpowering great pitchers like Ian Tompkins, Matt Spalding, Adam Elliott or Daniel Fischer ready to go pitch for Uof L or WKU or the Boston Red Sox. There are good pitchers and plenty of them with Burnett (7-2), Littlefield( 7-0), Nicholson(6-0) , Harkins ( 6-0 ), Sweeney, etc. totaling probably 6-7 deep. What is different is the defense is not quite at the level of the 2011-2017 teams but does not get rattled even if they are down. They can hit with any team going back to the Lexington Catholic teams with Ben Revere and PRP with Zack Cox and Adam Osborne.

More unique things about the Tigers this year- only 14 players on their roster this year and 3 have won state before in 2016. 9 have pitched. No worries about drama or roles- with 4 on the bench, they know their roles.

Expect that St Xavier could use 3-4 pitchers in the semi final game so if the starter or 1st reliever gets in trouble, here comes another pitcher of comparable skills. If Hazard starter can have some short quick innings early and not run up the pitch count, I can see Hazard advancing in a 5-3 like score. Earlier in the tourney, St X put 6 up on PRP's 3rd pitcher in the 7th and advanced 13-7, and if Hazard tires, I see St Xavier putting up at least 6 runs.

I like St. X bats to carry them to title game. Hopefully they don’t over look hazard who is very good despite the size of the school.

Following as much as I can of this X team, the thing I’ve noticed is their ability at the plate. As mentioned in an earlier post they have a good deep pitching staff but no “stud”, but their bats seem to be above than in years past. If X can gey Hazard’s bullpen I like their chances of adding runs late in the game.

Hazard is a very good team and well coached. I think X may have too much offensive fire power but the Morris kid is a big time pitcher. Both games should be good ones.

STX 10

HZD 8