goallout25

Very impressive showing by Dixie. Guess they had a little more after Nichols than most thought. While errors led to a lot of runs in this game, Smallwood seemed to have the Cov Cath hitters off balance for a lot of the game. Gutsy performance by Cov Cath though to rally late and never get rattled to get the runs across that they needed. Congrats to Matt Nichols on a very impressive showing in the tourney (on the mound but especially at the plate!!!) and a great high school career. Good luck at Morehead! Congrats as well to Cov Cath for advancing! I'd like to thank Mark Wehry and the rest of the Cov Cath radio team for providing coverage for this game. Knowing Mark personally, it was a lot of fun to listen to him and the rest of the announcers along with their passion not only for baseball but for Cov Cath as well! Kudos to you!

I believe it is still Isler for Cov Cath and Smallwood for Dixie.

Connor pitched all 7 innings against Lloyd which would only make him eligible to come back on Friday and not for tonight's game. Best of luck to all the teams tonight.

It did not appear to me that Nichols had his best stuff today, but being the great pitcher he is, he found a way to gut it out and make quality pitches when he needed to in order to get big outs. Also, plenty of offensive support today for him as well allowed him to not have to be as sharp as I've seen him in the past! Tomorrow could be dangerous though for Cov Cath, if Dixie's bats continue to stay as hot as they have been the past couple of games!

Very likely that it won't. I think that is exactly what breds balla was implying because that would make it the most surprising!

Campbell will be able to get by without Woodruff, Estes, or any other of their top pitchers in the first round against St. Patrick, so they should be set up with all of their aces in the hole to face either Harrison or Clark who will play a much tougher game, not just physically, but mentally the day before. Campbell will breeze into the second round and should be well rested and ready for the challenge. That semi-final game should be a great one between Campbell and the Harrison/Clark winner!

I think Max learned his lesson a few years ago when he threw off and got beat by Lloyd in the first round in 2006. Have to win the first one then let the chips fall where they may. Should be a great championship game tomorrow night! Add Reser and Kreinest to those Villa seniors as well. Definitely great kids, who played their hearts out for the Blue Lightning during their careers!

I'd agree that if those two are playing their best they will be hard to beat, but if anyone is off their game a lot of these other teams could come in and walk away with a regional championship.

If I had to guess, I would say that Bellevue will throw Piper. But that's just based on the fact that he has seemed to pitch all the big games for them this year and faired pretty well.

They definitely did. Villa responded the second time through the lineup after they went down to 9 straight strikeouts for the first 3 innings but Dixie just had another answer for both times Villa tied the game at 1 then at 2. Senior Will Ries threw a great game on the mound for the Blue Lightning and had the Dixie hitters off balance for most of the game.

Nichols had 18 strikeouts of the 21 outs. The three other outs came from a caught stealing, a popup to the pitcher and a lineout to right field.

Dixie and Lloyd will play for the championship in the 34th. Lloyd beat Ludlow 5-2, and Dixie beat Villa 4-2.

He will definitely have to compete with a couple of younger talented catchers that TMC has but a great chance to contribute to the program if he can put up some offensive numbers and be impressive in the fall. TMC always does a great job at recruiting local talent and this year has been no exception. The program has a great tradition and is working on building to become a perennial contender in the PAC conference. Best of luck to Johnny as he continues at a great college program!

It should also be noted that Thomas More does offer the chance for players who did not get recruited to come and walk on and then if the coaches find them to be good enough they could make the team in some capacity. But as said before, they definitely know who will be a part of the team for the most part before the season even starts. Congrats to Jordan, I wish him the best of luck in a great program!

Do you larger schools have to pay admission when games are played out there? Aside from regional games of course because I know there is an admission cost for those games.

Is Cov. Cath's field dry enough to play?

what is the status of the field for tonight's game? did they tarp it? do they have it ready? anyone know? thank you!

how would this district have seeded out if there wasn't a blind draw?

I'm pretty sure of the three, Welte would win that race (running of course!) Congrats Coach Sawyers and keep up the good work!

Congrats! He's definitely a great kid and very deserving.

Hammonds started and then I believe it was Rouse after that and I'm not sure who came in to finish.

Wehry with two complete games in 12 innings on 136 pitches. That is pretty efficient. Looks like he is making a push at getting some more innings late in the season. When you don't walk any batters and locate like he does, you don't necessarily have to be overpowering. Kudos on another solid outing!!!

That should take nothing away from a good victory for Lloyd, who threw a pitcher with only 1 start on the year and had seen minimal relief work. No doubt Boone Co. played a string of games in not so many days, missed Reed's presence in the lineup, and was thin on pitching, but on this day, Lloyd was the better team. As for how this plays out later in the season, time will tell. Congrats to the Juggernauts and good luck the rest of the way.

I couldn't agree more. I also feel that he handles himself with a tremendous amount of poise that is hard to find in most high school juniors. The kid gets so much hype but just from watching him go about his business on the field, he doesn't seem to let it go to his head. That fact can say a lot for his parents and his coaches, but it also just illustrates what a great kid Luke really is.

Consider this situation: runner on 2nd with 2 outs in a close ball game. Why wouldn't you walk him to take your chances with the next hitter (who may still be a very good hitter, but not the quality of Maile)? Sure that may seem like you are scared to pitch to him, but it is also a good coaching strategy. Baseball is a numbers game and in looking at the numbers, in that situation, I'd take my chances with the next hitter and not Maile. You see this happen all the time in every level of baseball.