By Evan Merrill
NKyTribune sports reporter
After dealing with postponements due to rain, Campbell County won the 10th Region baseball tournament with a resounding 17-0 victory over Montgomery County in the championship game on Saturday at Campbell County.
Originally scheduled for Wednesday, the championship game was postponed twice and took two days to complete once it did get started. But it all ended well for the Camels, who hope to continue their playoff run like the 2016 state runner-up team.
“The four seniors we have, (they’ve) all been there,” coach Scott Schweitzer said of returning to the state tournament. “They know what it’s like to go there. The big thing is, you go, you continue to play loose, you continue to have fun. It makes a huge difference in not getting star-struck. It’s still baseball,. It’s a big stage, but it’s still baseball.”
In the opening round of the state tournament, Campbell County (21-11) will face McCracken County (32-8), a team that’s been ranked among the top five teams in Kentucky all season.
That will be a big test for the Camels, who got off to a 5-8 start early in the season before getting their act together and winning 16 of their last 19 games.
“The 2016 team, we won our district and region,” said Campbell County senior Noah Brewer. “Because we lost district (this year), I think it humbled us in a way to get us back to where we are now. Now we’re as good as the 2016 team, and I think we’re going to do a lot of big things and make some big names.”
Brewer was named the regional tournament’s most valuable player after going 3-for-4 with a home run and three RBI in the two-day championship game. His homer came on Friday when the Camels jumped ahead 3-0 in the first two innings before heavy rain halted the game.
When the game was resumed on Saturday, Campbell County extended its lead to 9-0 before the second inning ended. The Camels batted through the order and five of their six runs were unearned during that elongated inning.
The home team scored four runs in each of the next two innings to open up a 17-0 lead. Umpires invoked the mercy rule and ended the game in the fifth inning because the margin was 10 runs or more.
Campbell County sophomore Brady Brooks pitched three scoreless innings in relief on Saturday to nail down the victory for Friday’s starting pitcher Austin Hoeh. Brooks also had a good day at the plate, hitting a three-run homer to finish with five RBI in the game.
The other Campbell County players named to the regional all-tournament team were Shawn Schnitzler, Carson Werrmann and Luke Oehrle, who also hit a home run on the first day of the title game.
“It was a whole lot of fun to see these guys, every one of them that played, get a hit in this regional,” coach Schweitzer said. “It’s fun when things like that happen.”