By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
The weekend started with Beechwood’s baseball team losing its first game of the season, but it ended with the Tigers winning the All “A” Classic state championship for the second straight year.
Beechwood defeated Kentucky Country Day, 8-1, in the title game of the small-school state tournament on Sunday at Chautauqua Park in Owensboro. The victory lifted the Tigers’ record to 23-1 with their only loss coming in a regular-season game against Highlands on Friday.
Freshman pitcher Brett Holladay went the distance in Sunday’s championship game. He held Kentucky Country Day (14-3) to one run on seven hits with the help of some good fielding plays by his teammates.
In the fifth and sixth innings, the first two batters for Kentucky Country Day reached base. But Beechwood pulled off double plays in both innings to limit the Wildcats to one run for only the second time in 17 games
Beechwood scored eight runs on nine hits. Three seniors – John Odom, Dylan Doverspike and Ayden Hutton – each drove in two runs for the Tigers.
Kentucky Country Day took a 1-0 lead in the third inning, but that was the only run the Louisville team was able to get off Holladay, who now has a 5-0 record and 1.34 ERA.
Beechwood got five runs in the bottom of the fourth to take the lead. The first one scored on a single by Doverspike and Odom capped off the inning with a two-run single. Doverspike drove in another run in the fifth inning and Hutton had a two-run single in the sixth that gave the Tigers an 8-1 lead.
Beechwood senior outfielder Logan Castleman was named the tournament’s most valuable player. The other Beechwood players on the all-tournament team were Odom, Doverspike, Hutton and junior outfielder Marcus Berger.
Castleman, the state’s leading hitter with a .680 batting average during his team’s 20-0 start, was 7-for-9 at the plate with eight RBI in three state tournament games. Over the last four years, he and Odom have played on three Class 1A state championship teams in football and three All “A” Classic state championship teams in baseball.
The Tigers won their first two state tournament games in five innings, knocking off Williamsburg, 15-3, and Lyon County, 11-1. They have scored 10 or more runs in half of their 24 wins this season and average 9.7 runs per game.
Beechwood coach Kevin Gray scheduled seven games during the first 10 days in May. That stretch begins with two home games — a district seeding game against Holy Cross at 5 p.m. Wednesday and a rematch with Highlands at 7 p.m. Friday.
Ayden Hutton was also all tournament team.
Congratulations to the Tigers! Great to see you’re still writing Terry.