Covington Catholic 5 Franklin County 4

[Hard Court]

This was a very well played game to a degree, FC left numerous runners on the bases, FC really had no trouble getting the runners on, just different things took place that kept them from scoring, more to FC doing than CC, but CC did make the plays that were needed.

[MLB50]

CCH had a 11 hits according to theoldguy's statistics. Doesnt seem like they had to much trouble catching up to his fastball???

 

CCU had 7 hits.

 

3 hits by Isler and a mammoth home run by Maile on a deuce. The double referred to by TheOldGuy was an error on the 2nd baseman in the first inning. A popfly 5 feet behind the 2nd baseman and he turns to look at the cf and rf who ran about 60 yards and just missed it. Also, 3 other hits TheOldGuy recorded were errors on bunts by FC. At one point Thompson had given up 3 runs on 2 singles and no walks. You figure it out. The Thompson kid pitched a great game but give CC coaches and players the credit because they executed small ball to perfection and played terrific defense. The force out at home by the 3rd baseman was a huge play. Maile picked a bad throw out of the dirt and caught it on a hop off his chest protector. The turning point in the game was win FC was up 5 to 2 with bases loaded and 2 outs. Conner had a 2-0 count and ball 3 was just pitched. Everyone in the stands could hear the coaching staff yelling at the kids on base to NOT get picked off. Conner had already gone 2 for 2 with a double off the fence in left center. Maile caught ball 3 and threw a throw to first. While it looked like the player was safe, he was called out and the inning ended. Momentum took a huge turn at that point. IMO, the errors cost Thompson to throw an extra 20 pitches and he ran out of gas at the end. CC was able to put two early runs on the board with 2 bunts that FC fouled up. A third sac bunt, a strike out and a single in the 4 hole by Isler. This kept the game close until CC could make a last inning rally.

[Blue Magic]

CCU had 7 hits.

 

3 hits by Isler and a mammoth home run by Maile on a deuce. The double referred to by TheOldGuy was an error on the 2nd baseman in the first inning. A popfly 5 feet behind the 2nd baseman and he turns to look at the cf and rf who ran about 60 yards and just missed it. Also, 3 other hits TheOldGuy recorded were errors on bunts by FC. At one point Thompson had given up 3 runs on 2 singles and no walks. You figure it out. The Thompson kid pitched a great game but give CC coaches and players the credit because they executed small ball to perfection and played terrific defense. The force out at home by the 3rd baseman was a huge play. Maile picked a bad throw out of the dirt and caught it on a hop off his chest protector. The turning point in the game was win FC was up 5 to 2 with bases loaded and 2 outs. Conner had a 2-0 count and ball 3 was just pitched. Everyone in the stands could hear the coaching staff yelling at the kids on base to NOT get picked off. Conner had already gone 2 for 2 with a double off the fence in left center. Maile caught ball 3 and threw a throw to first. While it looked like the player was safe, he was called out and the inning ended. Momentum took a huge turn at that point. IMO, the errors cost Thompson to throw an extra 20 pitches and he ran out of gas at the end. CC was able to put two early runs on the board with 2 bunts that FC fouled up. A third sac bunt, a strike out and a single in the 4 hole by Isler. This kept the game close until CC could make a last inning rally.

 

In no way is that an error MLB. You might call that an unofficial "team" error but that is ruled a double. You might have missed the last play of the game which is technically a hit.

[2Short]

To MLB's point....it would be a little misleading to suggest to fellow posters that CCH was not having lots of trouble offensively against a terrific high school (jr) pitcher! He is the best I've seen this year so far.

 

CCH had only 4 hits thru 6, and one was a very high fly ball to short right that really should have been caught; one was a bunt, and Darner / Ice squeezed a base hit each in there (neither were ropes). It is accurate to report that no one was hitting this kid with authority, and most not at all. He was in total control, and several CCH batters were simply overmatched.

 

However, it is no insult to Thompson to say that the veteren members of CCH were not off by much and appeared to be poised to make a move.

 

The inability of FC to capitalize on opportunities with runners on base cold be attributed to mistakes by FC, but you could compliment CCH for some terrifice defense. The pick off was an out from my view; and the suicide with bases loaded was tipped off by the runner on third breaking a little too early as the entire CCH bench and field screamed "SQEEZE!", whereby Nute, (in mid windup), located the pitch in an untouchable location up and out to Maile who was also in instant sync with him...which left the runner dead to out and poured water on what appeared to be the makings of a huge inning for FC.

 

Nutini pitched well enough to keep his team in the game, but was the second best pitcher for sure. His defense stepped up on more than a few occasions.

 

Can't we just say that it was a tremendous baseball game, well played by both teams and headlined by an outstanding pitcher who threw a gem of a game and simply threw the wrong pitch, in the wrong location, to the wrong kid, at the wrong time. After the homerun, CCH went base hit, base hit, base hit, suicide to win.

 

Nothing about this game suggests that Thompson is anything less than a truly special pitcher! Velocity, location, good off speed stuff, poise, confidence, intimidation...he has it all, imo. At the same time, the core for CCH were not "out of their league" and drew from their vast experience against dominate pitchers such as this. Throughout the game, one just felt that FC and Thompson were going to win...BUT...there was a sense that CCH had a few big hits in them and weren't going to simply concede to his impressive stuff.

 

In short, it was just a spectacular baseball game!

[hja1224]

Well said. The best pitcher doesn't always win, even though their fans expect him to. Heck, the best teams don't always win either, and even though I was not at this game, I have a feeling the best TEAM did win. When you have a group of kids that play elite summer ball, they don't get overwhelmed by an elite pitcher and have confidence eventually they will get to him. Sounds like a great game and "small ball" has won a lot of games for Cov Cath's coach over the years.

 

Also, do you think Maile is ready for the SEC??? I think he will be just fine.:thumb:

[Theoldguy]

I am not the official scorer of CovCath and I have made that very well know if you read my posts, but in saying that, I know that CovCath gave him a double, and why not!

 

Wether or not a hit is a rope or a Texas league'r it's a hit. Many a no, no has been ruined by a seeing eye base hit, but none the less, it's still a hit.

 

I congratulated the young man and even tipped my cap to him on his effort today, but the meat of the CovCath order did indeed hit him, and that is nothing he should be upset about, as they hit a lot of outstanding pitchers.

 

I also wrote that even if CovCath had lost, it would have been a great game to watch and it was an outstanding game to see.

[Theoldguy]

CCU had 7 hits.

 

3 hits by Isler and a mammoth home run by Maile on a deuce. The double referred to by TheOldGuy was an error on the 2nd baseman in the first inning. A popfly 5 feet behind the 2nd baseman and he turns to look at the cf and rf who ran about 60 yards and just missed it. Also, 3 other hits TheOldGuy recorded were errors on bunts by FC. At one point Thompson had given up 3 runs on 2 singles and no walks. You figure it out. The Thompson kid pitched a great game but give CC coaches and players the credit because they executed small ball to perfection and played terrific defense. The force out at home by the 3rd baseman was a huge play. Maile picked a bad throw out of the dirt and caught it on a hop off his chest protector. The turning point in the game was win FC was up 5 to 2 with bases loaded and 2 outs. Conner had a 2-0 count and ball 3 was just pitched. Everyone in the stands could hear the coaching staff yelling at the kids on base to NOT get picked off. Conner had already gone 2 for 2 with a double off the fence in left center. Maile caught ball 3 and threw a throw to first. While it looked like the player was safe, he was called out and the inning ended. Momentum took a huge turn at that point. IMO, the errors cost Thompson to throw an extra 20 pitches and he ran out of gas at the end. CC was able to put two early runs on the board with 2 bunts that FC fouled up. A third sac bunt, a strike out and a single in the 4 hole by Isler. This kept the game close until CC could make a last inning rally.

 

So you give him an error? Do you think he might not have seen the ball in the lights?

[FANOFTHE11th]

CCU had 7 hits.

 

3 hits by Isler and a mammoth home run by Maile on a deuce. The double referred to by TheOldGuy was an error on the 2nd baseman in the first inning. A popfly 5 feet behind the 2nd baseman and he turns to look at the cf and rf who ran about 60 yards and just missed it. Also, 3 other hits TheOldGuy recorded were errors on bunts by FC. At one point Thompson had given up 3 runs on 2 singles and no walks. You figure it out. The Thompson kid pitched a great game but give CC coaches and players the credit because they executed small ball to perfection and played terrific defense. The force out at home by the 3rd baseman was a huge play. Maile picked a bad throw out of the dirt and caught it on a hop off his chest protector. The turning point in the game was win FC was up 5 to 2 with bases loaded and 2 outs. Conner had a 2-0 count and ball 3 was just pitched. Everyone in the stands could hear the coaching staff yelling at the kids on base to NOT get picked off. Conner had already gone 2 for 2 with a double off the fence in left center. Maile caught ball 3 and threw a throw to first. While it looked like the player was safe, he was called out and the inning ended. Momentum took a huge turn at that point. IMO, the errors cost Thompson to throw an extra 20 pitches and he ran out of gas at the end. CC was able to put two early runs on the board with 2 bunts that FC fouled up. A third sac bunt, a strike out and a single in the 4 hole by Isler. This kept the game close until CC could make a last inning rally.

 

Sounds like this was the defensive play of the game.

[Theoldguy]

Sounds like this was the defensive play of the game.

 

It indeed was. It took Franklin out of the game and pumped up CovCath.

 

BTW the Boyd County Scoreboard which is as nice as they come had CovCath with 10 hits at the end of the game and one of them wasn't Maile Double.

 

I gave a error on the play, but at the Hotel I was talking with some others (note not Maile Dad) and they as a group thought the 2nd baseman and the SS must not have seen the ball as both of them were closer to the ball when it landed than were the two outfielders who tried to catch the ball. BTW that pop up wasn't a normal HS pop up by any means.

 

Great game indeed.....