It was worth the wait, the Frontier League Y’all-Star Game that concluded the midseason festivities Wednesday. Only it didn’t look or feel like an all-star game with the visiting Atlantic Conference guys prevailing 2-1 in a tight, taut thriller, very much not like your typical all-star game.
Maybe they’d hit all the home runs they had in them in Tuesday’s Home Run Derby. Except for one. In the ninth inning of a 1-1 game when MVP David Glancy, out of Neptune, NJ, who had his team’s lone RBI to that point. Lined a Junior Cerda fast ball over the left field wall at the 343-foot mark.
And that was it as the Midwest guys, home team for the seven Florence Y’alls all-stars, could not score in the bottom of the ninth. On a night filled with more fun again, with the entertaining Zooperstars’ between-inning comedy skits and the parking lot full of tailgaters and the petting zoo with horses – regular and mini – and all the tried and true Y’alls’ in -game entertainment, a regular-season pitcher’s duel broke out.
And yeah, instead of MLB 97/98-MPH fastballs, they may throw them up there at 89 although both Cerda and Chris Barraza were getting them up to 96. But it was the defense that kept this close with spectacular early leaping and diving outfield plays as any you’ll see in any MLB game.
Barrels planning to have A-team back for the playoffs
No surprise here that in their regular season finale in a road game at Beaumont, Tex., Saturday, the Kentucky Barrels’ B-team was routed, 50-20, by a Renegade team the Barrels had beaten, 55-36, May 17 at Truist Arena with the Barrels’ A-team. But almost all of those original Barrels were home last week after coming to a late agreement over additional money after so many changes in the second half of the regular season schedule.
The loss drops the 7-5 Barrels out of third place to fourth behind the 7-4 Minnesota Monsters, who have beaten the Barrels twice. But that won’t have any influence on a home game in the playoffs the Barrels would have earned since Truist Arena will not be available the week after next. So it’s on the road again for the Barrels against an opponent to be named, although while returning many of the players who led them to a 7-2 start as they delivered the only loss to the league’s No. 1 team, the Nashville Kats (11-1).
“Those guys will be coming back for the playoffs,” Barrels’ owner Corey Cunningham said. And with a bye week the final week of the season, Barrels’ coach Cedric Walker will have an extra week to get his team back together for the postseason. “We’ve just got to get through this year,” Cunningham said of all the unplanned trips, cancellations, player unrest and arena unavailability.
“I’m seeing the big picture for us in our first season,” Cunningham said. Next year, he says the issues for the league and the Barrels will be learning experiences in the rear-view mirror.
Home(s) of the UK Wildcats
Some interesting information from the Big Blue History folks about the hometowns for University of Kentucky basketball players all-time. Of the Commonwealth’s 120 counties, 84 have produced at least one UK basketball player in the program’s century-plus lifetime.
So how did Northern Kentucky do? Well, no place was going to equal the 85 players from hometown Fayette County or the 35 from Louisville/Fayette County. But from there, Northern Kentucky does pretty well. Kenton County produced 13 UK players not including the three from Walton, which calls both Kenton and Boone counties home.
Give those three – the DeMoisey brothers, All-American John and Truett to Boone County, along with Bill Smith, and it would more than double the two there although those two – Hebron’s John Crigler, who helped Adolph Rupp’s “Fiddlin FIve” to a 1958 NCAA title, and Boone County High’s Allen Feldhaus – make for a pretty good pair.
As for Kenton County, one of the earliest was Ludlow’s Layton Rouse, a heady guard for Adolph Rupp in 1939 who you could bookended with Covington Holmes’ Dicky Beal in the 1980’s, who with Simon Kenton’s Troy McKinley and CovCath’s Randy Noll out of Villa Hills, were the lone locals from our tri-county area in the last 50 years to suit up for the Wildcats.
Campbell County produced 10 UK Wildcats with eight coming from Newport – the same number as from Owensboro — along with Dayon’s Bob Davis.
Another big local Wildcat producer is Mason County with 12 – nine from the old Maysville High and three more from Mason County led by Deron Feldhaus.
CovCath’s Al H one of just 8 in the nation
It couldn’t happen to a better – and more deserving guy. Covington Catholic tennis coach Al Hertsenberg has been named one of eight finalists for the National High School Athletic Coaches Association National Tennis Coach of the Year.
His Colonels swept the singles and doubles titles in the Northern Kentucky regional for the sixth straight year this spring.
Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him on X @dweber3440.