By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter
As is often the case, there are two ways to look at this almost-impossible-to-describe first-round Ninth Region game between top dog Covington Catholic and challenger Highlands.
Here’s CovCath Coach Bill Krumpelbeck, with his nearly five decades of doing this: “Man, they made a heck of a comeback, down 9-1 and our No. 1 on the mound.” He was talking about Highlands.
Here’s the word from two-time state champion finalist coach Jeremy Baioni of Highlands: “They had the first hitter on every inning. They just put the pressure on you, that’s what they try to do.” He was talking about CovCath.
And then about his Bluebirds, who finish up the year at 22-17 after a 12-9 loss in a game that was tied at 9-9 going into the final inning. “We didn’t have our best day,” Baioni said. And against a now 31-5 CovCath team that was one of just three in Kentucky to win 30 regular season games, that’s not good enough.
Not when the Colonels managed to get the leadoff hitter on base literally every single inning. “I can’t remember that (ever happening,” said CovCath’s superb leadoff hitter, junior shortstop Jackson Reardon, who reached base all five times he came to the plate, scored three runs, had three hits and forced Baioni to intentionally walk him in that last inning with a man on second.
That Reardon would come around to score, with fellow Colonel Charlie Dieruf, who earned the save, and also was intentionally walked in the last inning with both scoring on an Alek Yuskevich game-winning triple in the gap, only shows how wacky CovCath’s 12-9 win was.
“Our kids are awesome,” Baioni said of his Bluebirds, “they have been all year . . . so proud of how they fought back.”
Krumpelbeck was more relieved than anything after managing almost more than a coach can, pinch-hitting for a batter after a first strike, using every player on his roster, starting a couple of freshmen and working around the shoulder injury that benched junior outfielder Ben McEvoy.
But Krumpelback had his No. 1, Eli Wagner (7-1 with an 0.89 ERA on the mound), and that 9-1 lead. And this was a CovCath team that had only given up more than five runs in a game once all season.
All Baioni could tell his guys, he said, was “Be the toughest out of your life.”
And darned if they didn’t do just that, scoring six runs in the fifth and two more in the sixth to tie this thing up with Nolan Schwalbach, Drew Barth, Brody Benke and Callum McAtee contributing big hits at the plate.
But that’s where you have to give a CovCath team that had lost two of its last three games (3-2 on a two-out walk-off home run to Ryle and then 14-3 in a district championship game to Beechwood) that may never leave the consciousness of the Colonels’ Krumpelbeck even if his players say they’ve already forgotten them.
“Bend don’t break,” Reardon said they told themselves as Highlands tied it. “Those games don’t really matter to us. You move on.”
Maybe the players do but Krumpelbeck said all he was thinking was that “We don’t want to lose . . . and don’t want to be embarrassed as a program (as they were in the Beechwood game).”
As they were not Monday.
Scared a bit, maybe. Pushed to the wall. Battling on a slippery turf that made the CovCath folks realize why the Florence Y’alls and Thomas More players, who call this home, “wear spikes,” Krumpelbeck said.
“Our pitchers were wearing ice skates,” Krumpelbeck said with a shake of the head. But both teams had turf problems – on the mound, in the outfield in a game that saw fly balls fall in the wind, in the sun – some after they hit the glove, others before.
Maybe it was only fitting that the hit that won the game, Yuskewich’s pop fly to a gap in right center, dropped harmlessly where no one could get to it as CovCath runners circled the bases – two intentional walks and one un-intentional to open the inning. All scored in the seventh.
And that was it. A CovCath team that had lost by 11 to Beechwood last week was still alive. And in an earlier game here, a Beechwood team that scored 14 on CovCath was a 2-0 shutout victim of Conner and was gone.
Just baseball being baseball. Especially in a one-and-out format.
“I’m getting too old for this,” said Krumpelbeck, whose 1,128 wins in 47 seasons is second-most all-time for Kentucky high school baseball coaches.
But these kids who combined for 21 runs were just doing what they do. “You do your best,” Baioni said. “I’m a high school baseball coach and these are high school kids.”
They’re going to make mistakes. They’re going to let fly balls drop. Or get picked off.
But they’re not going to quit. Neither of these teams. Each could have — Highlands down 9-1 and CovCath after giving up those late eight runs.
Neither did.
But only CovCath moves on, to face a Ryle team that beat St. Henry, 11-1, here on Wednesday at 8 p.m. in a series that has each team winning once against the other in the regular season — CovCath by 3-1, Ryle by 3-2.
SCORING SUMMARY
COVCATH 0 0 5 1 3 0 3—12 7 1
HIGHLANDS 0 0 1 0 6 2 0—9 10 2
WP: Dieruf 2-1 LP: Bottom 4-3
LEADING HITTERS: CovCath: Reardon 3-4, 3 runs; Yuskevich triple, 3 RBI; Suwinski 2-2, double; Highlands: Schwalbach 2-3, triple, 3 runs; Barth 3-4, RBI; Benke 2-4, double, RBI; Carner 2 RBI; McAtee, triple.
Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @dweber3440.