SHEPHERDSVILLE – It wasn’t a perfect week as there was a bitter loss to North Bullitt on Tuesday, but the Bullitt Central Cougars bounced back to win two games, including a victory over the defending Seventh Region champions before a bizarre loss on Saturday at home to Oldham County.
With just a few things going the other way, the Cougars could have been 4-0 for the week. There was the 3-1 loss to North Bullitt (see story at the top of the page), but then on Thursday the maroon and gray bounced back and beat visiting Eastern 8-7. On Friday, there was a second easy win this season over Doss, a place where Cougar head coach Chris Ryan started his head coaching run. Then on Saturday it was a good thing that the game started in the middle of the day as the Cougars and Oldham County combined for 35 runs and 30 hits in one of the highest scoring games in the state this season, a game that the Colonels finally won 19-16.
That flurry of games left Bullitt Central with a 10-14-1 record to start this week.
The win over Eastern on Thursday came down to the bottom of the seventh inning when Bullitt Central scored twice to grab the 8-7 victory.
After the Eagles had scored single runs in the sixth and seventh innings to move ahead 7-6, Bullitt Central pulled victory from the jaws of defeat in the last at-bat of the game. Both of the seventh inning runs scored with two outs on bases loaded walks.
The late heroics started when Anderson Smith singled to open the bottom of the seventh. Next, Logan Leber walked on a full-count. After Eastern made a pitching change, Henry Zimmerman got the sacrifice bunt down to advance the runners to third and second. Beau Cook got the bunt down next, but he was out at first with the runners staying where they were. Jordan Powell then walked on four straight pitches to load the bases.
Again, the Eastern pitcher could not find the plate, walking Cougar senior Dylan Pierce on four pitches to bring in the tying run. That brought Grayson Reichert to the plate and the senior worked the count full, including a foul ball with two strikes, before he took the next pitch for a walk to score Leber with the winning run.
Bullitt Central had eight hits in the game, five less than the Eagles, but they were helped along by four Eastern errors and nine walks. The only extra base hit was a double by Powell. Pierce drove in four of the runs as he had three hits. In fact, Powell and Pierce combined for six of the eight hits by the Cougars.
The starting pitcher for Bullitt Central was sophomore Mason Burton, but he lasted just three innings, giving up five runs with only two being earned. Collin Waltrip then pitched 2.1 innings of one-run baseball before Henry Zimmerman came on to get the win after recording the last five outs of the game with only earned run.
Bullitt Central had opened the season with a 25-0 win over Doss and so when the teams met again on Friday, Ryan tweaked his lineup and gave a few players the day off. Still, the Cougars pounded out eight hits while the Dragons made seven errors.
Of the eight Cougar hits, there were doubles by freshman Jordan Christian and junior Cole Halbrook.
On the mound, Halbrook pitched the first five innings and did not allow a hit. Leber worked the last two innings and also did not give up a hit.
The game on Saturday was one for the record books before Oldham County outlasted the Cougars to win 19-16. Besides the 35 runs, the two squads combined for 30 hits, six home runs, six errors and 16 walks.
Bullitt Central was actually down 14-2, but kept the game alive by scoring six times in the bottom of the fifth and then pulled within 15-12 with four runs in the bottom of the sixth. Each team scored four runs in the final frame. The Cougars had the bases loaded when the final out was made.
Of the 12 hits by the Cougars, Reichert hit a pair of home runs while Henry Zimmerman had one. Reichert also had a double as did Cook, Shane Carnes and Powell. The three hits by Reichert accounted for five runners scoring while Zimmerman drove in four runs with two hits.
Bullitt Central used six pitchers in the game with none of them working more than three innings. Starting pitcher Jordan Hodge took the loss.
Oldham County had 18 hits with three home runs and trio of doubles. The Colonels used five pitchers in the slugfest.
Bullitt Central had a 23rd District game on Wednesday of this week against Southern. The two teams already know that they will meet in one of the semifinals of district play. The only thing decided this week is that the winner of the meeting will be the home team in the district tourney game.
Derby Week will end early for the Cougars as the final game of the week will be road trip to Dixie Highway on Thursday for a meeting against Pleasure Ridge Park, the top-ranked team in the Sixth Region with a 23-2 record. The Panthers only loss to a Kentucky team this season was the third game of the season when they fell to McCracken County 7-5. Bullitt Central has not beaten the Panthers in five previous encounters but the last three meetings have been decided by a combined five runs, including a pair of extra inning contests.
