News sports 2008-05-14 Andanh.com

Lady Gators pick up 5-0 win over possible postseason foe Wed, 14 May 2008 10:44:59 -0500
After falling 5-0 at Greenwood on Tuesday, Christian County coach Tony Burkeen said he wouldn’t mind facing the Lady Gators again in the opening round of the state tournament. Still, he could do without seeing GHS pitcher Rachel Riley. In a possible prelude to a first-round state tournament game, Riley threw five shutout innings and allowed only two baserunners. “Everybody knows what a difference she makes to the team,” Greenwood coach Penny Reece said. “She’s the best pitcher in the state of Kentucky.” Another meeting with Christian County is hardly a far-fetched idea. Both teams are the favorites in their respective regions, and Regions 2 and 4 are bracketed together in the state tournament. Greenwood (25-9) has handled Christian County (24-9) in recent meetings. Along with beating them by a combined 16-0 in two games this year, Greenwood beat Christian County 1-0 during its march to the state championship last year. “Hopefully we can face them again,” Burkeen still said. “That’s just my competitive spirit.” One more meeting next month in Owensboro would also probably include a stronger Riley. Riley was limited to a pitch count Tuesday while she still recovers from a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her knee. After allowing a first-inning walk to Stacey Harbold, Riley retired 10 straight batters before Griffin Joiner’s leadoff single in the fifth. “Hopefully everything just keeps going and keeps improving,” Riley said. “We’ll just have to see how it goes.” During one stretch, Riley struck out seven batters in a row. She finished with nine strikeouts. “They’re a tremendous ballclub,” said Burkeen, the brother of East coach Phil Burkeen. “You’re going to have to pitch a perfect game and play a perfect defensive game. But at the same time, if you can’t score runs, you can’t win.” Riley was also 2-for-4 at the plate and her courtesy runner, Chelsea Birchell, scored a pair of runs. The Lady Gators took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second on Jessie Dunning’s opposite-field home run. It grew to 2-0 when Amanda Bailey’s bases-loaded walk forced in Birchell. Christian County relief pitcher Stacey Harbold kept the deficit at 2-0 with back-to-back strikeouts. “That’s where you want your hitting to step up a little bit and get those in,” Reece said. “And we didn’t, so we’re still looking for that consistency throughout the lineup and making sure we don’t keep those runs standing on third base.” But one inning later, Greenwood capitalized. Amanda Walden’s triple to right field scored Laura Smith and Birchell, while Dunning capped the scoring with an RBI single. Greenwood hosts John Hardin on Thursday before closing the regular season this weekend at North Hardin. “This is the time where we want to turn it on,” Reece said. “That’s what we did last year. This is the week we come into our own little groove.” CCHS 000 000 0 - 0 3 0 GHS 010 130 x - 5 8 0 W: Riley; L: Driver

Vaughn leads BGHS past former school, 4-1 Wed, 14 May 2008 10:44:59 -0500
During basketball season, Brittany Vaughn was a big part of the success of a Glasgow team that made it back to the Region 4 Tournament. On Tuesday, Vaughn - who transferred to Bowling Green earlier this year - was a thorn in the side of her former school, helping lead the Lady Purples to 4-1 win over visiting Glasgow. Vaughn had two hits, including the go-ahead RBI, to celebrate her 13th birthday in style and give Bowling Green (20-7) its 11th straight victory. “It was pretty hard,” Vaughn said. “I haven’t really played against them. I’ve just played with them. It was hard on me and I know it was hard on them, especially playing me on my birthday. They fought, but we pulled it out in the end.” Bowling Green coach Roscoe Echols said Vaughn had the right approach in an obviously emotional game. “It was special deal for her,” Echols said. “I know sometimes when you get in that situation, you put too much pressure on yourself. I think Brittany survived that.” Glasgow (11-17) held a lead briefly, jumping ahead 1-0 on an RBI single by Haley Perkins in the third inning, but Bowling Green quickly answered with a pair of unearned runs. Seniors Meagan Randolph and Sarah Poston both reached base on errors and Randolph eventually came home on a passed ball that tied the score at 1-1. Vaughn then delivered a one-out RBI single up the middle, the first hit of the game for BG, giving the Lady Purples a 2-1 advantage. Both teams threatened over the next 2 1/2 innings before the Purples added two more unearned runs in the bottom of the sixth. Bowling Green starter Kathryne Downing got in a slight jam in the ninth, with two runners on and two out, but pitched out of it to improve to 11-3 on the season. “She’s something special,” Echols said. “She’s got a good defense behind her and she’s only going to get better.” The win capped a special night for Bowling Green’s six seniors, who were honored in a pregame ceremony. “I’ve had the majority of the seniors for a long time here,” Echols said. “Our focus is to be one of the top teams in the region and compete at a high level. I think we’ve made strides to do that.” Vaughn said the rest of the team was determined to get a win for the seniors. “I’ve only been here for this season, but I’ve really grown with and gotten to know (the seniors),” Vaughn said. “It felt really good to get a win on their senior night.” Senior Chelsea Kovanda equaled Vaughn’s night at the plate with two hits. The Lady Purples finished the night with six hits total off Lady Scotties starter Blair Dennison. Glasgow finished with four hits but stranded nine base runners. “That has kind of been our story all year long,” Glasgow coach Steven Murphy said. “We’re just a play or two away from winning a lot more ballgames. We just have to get to a point where we make teams earn runs and we can’t get the key hit when we need it.” Bowling Green will wrap up its regular season when it hosts Edmonson County at 5 p.m. Friday. Glasgow will host Metcalfe County at 5 p.m. Thursday. GHS 001 000 0 - 1 4 4 BGHS 002 002 x - 4 6 1 WP: Downing; LP: Dennison

Raiders send seniors out with 10-run romp Wed, 14 May 2008 10:45:01 -0500
Like most baseball teams, Warren East has faced its share of ups and downs this season. But on senior night Tuesday, the only path the Raiders followed was one way - straight up. Senior Josh Murphy hit a solo home run to lead an offensive outburst from East, as the Raiders sprinted past visiting Caverna to send its seniors out in style, 11-1 in five innings. “With it being senior day and everything, it was real great to get this,” said Murphy, who was honored before the game along with fellow classmates Matt Downey, Landon White, Hunter Studle and Josh Hayes. “Especially getting the win, we really needed that with only six days coming up until districts. We just really needed it. “Senior day is just a day for our seniors, especially the ones that don’t normally get to play and we came out and had a lot of fun and were able to get the win.” Warren East coach Wes Sanford agreed with Murphy, saying that while this group has experienced growing pains over the years, it was nice to send them off with a big win. “These seniors are a bunch of good guys,” Sanford. “We’ve struggled and had some problems like any team will, but they’re a good group of kids and I’m glad they got a win on their night. “We do have another home game, but this was their day, and it was good to get one on their night.” After Caverna staked a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning, the rest of the evening belonged to the Raiders. They grabbed a slight 2-1 lead heading into the third inning before blowing up for three runs each in the third, fourth and fifth innings to close things out and bring the mercy rule into effect. “The bats really came alive tonight and we really needed that this close to districts,” said Murphy. “We have potential to have great bats and we showed it tonight that we really do.” Sanford said he was pleased to see a solid offensive effort from the top to the bottom of the order, as well as his team’s patience at the plate. “Their guy was struggling a little bit throwing strikes and we did a good job of being patient and making him hurt whenever we did get something to hit,” Sanford said. “We made the plays and came out and hit the ball and did a great job of coming out and scoring in every inning.” Caverna coach Simon Ford said his pitching staff was struggling to throw strikes, but the Colonels were still in position to contend in the third inning. But they couldn’t quite piece together a rally in time. “That’s what happens to you when you’re always pitching behind in the count, you get behind and then they’ve got some kids that come up and get big hits,” Ford said. “We were playing right with them, out for out early, but we just made a couple errors, let up a couple of walks and they had some big innings. “At one point my number six hitter came up and I wanted to squeeze with him, and then he hits into a double play - maybe a second guess thing on my part, but we had opportunities and just didn’t take advantage of them.” Starter Josh Lamastus earned the win for Warren East (13-16), allowing just one run on five hits over five innings of work. Joseph Stumph was saddled with the loss for Caverna (4-15). With the District 14 Tournament right around the corner, Murphy said he is starting to sense a positive attitude emerging among his teammates. “Everybody’s starting to feel it,” Murphy said. “It’s within a week now, and everybody’s starting to get in that district sort of mindset.” CHS 100 00 — 1 5 2 WEHS 113 33 — 11 7 1 WP: Lamastus; LP: Stumph.

Trio of Greenwood hurlers push Gators to win Wed, 14 May 2008 10:45:02 -0500
With district tournaments approaching, the final week of the regular baseball season is a tricky time for coaches to find pitchers. On Tuesday, Greenwood and visiting Logan County got different results from their stables of little-used hurlers in the Gators’ 6-2 victory at Greenwood High School. Three Greenwood pitchers - led by starter Johnathon Williams - combined to allow just three hits. Meanwhile, the Cougars’ four throwers gave up eight hits, hit five batters, walked three and threw two wild pitches. The Gators used a four-run first inning to take control of the contest. “We didn’t really do anything spectacular tonight,” said Greenwood coach Chris Decker. “We just put the ball in play, and after the first inning we kind of shut it down offensively, it seemed like.” Logan County (10-16) struck in the top of the first inning, when second baseman Tyler Spain - who originally reached on an error - later scored to give the Cougars a 1-0 lead. Greenwood (18-6) pushed ahead in the bottom of the first, however, scoring four runs on four hits to take a 4-1 cushion. Cory Henon, Bradley Vanderglas, Dillon Graham and Chris Page all plated for the Gators, who were aided by two walks and two wild pitches from Logan County starter Brett Sowell. Sowell was relieved late in the first by Dustin Lee, who put four straight Greenwood batters on base in the second inning - one by walk and three by hit batsmen - to push Greenwood’s lead to 5-1. “I think the kid that started the game, Sowell, was making his first start of the year,” said Logan County coach Ethan Meguiar. “Sophomore, inexperienced, couldn’t get it done there. We went to the bullpen, and the second guy we brought in was hitting everybody. After that, we settled down a little bit.” Greenwood added its sixth run in the fourth, when first baseman Ricky Adams knocked in Vanderglas for his game-high second RBI of the game. In the top of the seventh, Spain doubled home left fielder Cody Holley, who had reached on an error, to set the final 6-2 count. Williams pitched five innings for the Gators, collecting the victory after allowing two hits, striking out two and walking three Cougars. Patrick Conley and Cody Jackson tossed the final two frames for Greenwood, combining to give up one hit and one walk. “We’ve set up for the (District 14 Tournament),” Decker said. “At the same time it’s good to see these guys who hadn’t got a lot of innings come in there. We’ve got confidence in them, and it bodes well for our future.” Hunter Thompson went 2-for-2 at the plate for the Gators, while Graham finished 2-for-3. The victory was the fifth straight for the Gators, who will take the No. 2 seed into next week’s district tournament. Decker said he feels good about Greenwood’s postseason chances, but he hopes the team has a chance to continue working out before tourney time. “We’ve got to pray that the rain’s going to hold off a little bit so we can get some games in,” Decker said. “We can’t go in next week with only one more game this week. “We got to get some games in and not worry so much about the results of the games, but just worry about each at-bat and hope that we’re getting better.” LCHS 100 000 1 - 2 3 1 GHS 410 100 x - 6 8 2 WP: Williams; LP: Sowell

Purples blast ACS, 10-0 Wed, 14 May 2008 10:45:02 -0500
SCOTTSVILLE — Brandon Higdon had a triple, a home run and three RBIs on Tuesday as Bowling Green blew past host Allen County-Scottsville 10-0 in five innings. Ben Rauh added two hits and two RBIs for the Purples (16-7), who jumped out to a 6-0 lead after just two innings. Caleb Hanes and Austin Beard each added two hits and an RBI as well. Ryne Taulbee allowed just three hits over five innings to earn the win for Bowling Green, while Devin Stovall was saddled with the loss for the Patriots. BGHS 420 04 — 10 11 3 ACSHS 000 00 — 0 3 2 WP: Taulbee; LP: Stovall.

Lady Raiders sneak past Edmonson County Wed, 14 May 2008 10:45:03 -0500
It took 10 innings, but the Warren East softball team broke through for a 2-0 victory Tuesday at Edmonson County. Warren East (11-17) scored the first run when Sarah Coulter came home on a wild pitch and added another run on a sacrifice fly by Kate Holmes. Edmonson County (14-8) had runners at second and third in the bottom of the 10th, but were unable to rally. Laura Creek threw a complete game for Warren East, allowing five hits and striking out five. Katie Bonds had two hits to lead the offense. Both teams return to play Thursday. Warren East will play at Barren County while Edmonson County will be at Franklin-Simpson. WEHS 000 000 000 2 - 2 9 1 ECHS 000 000 000 0 - 0 5 2 WP: Creek; LP: Parsons

Steady wins the race Wed, 14 May 2008 02:50:00 EST
After 2,000 wins, Churchill Downs-based trainer Tom Amoss can be confident that he made the right career decision. Many times he didn't feel that way.

Theriot happy in his new Kentucky home Wed, 14 May 2008 02:09:00 EST
Jamie Theriot moved to Kentucky last spring so he could get opportunities like he'll have Saturday, when the 29-year-old jockey makes his Triple Crown debut aboard Kentucky Bear in Pimlico's $1 million Preakness Stakes.

Great sire Storm Cat retired from stud duty Wed, 14 May 2008 02:38:00 EST
At 25 years old, the great American sire Storm Cat covered 32 mares this year. But he impregnated only three of them.

Ill-advised coaching hire should cost IU Wed, 14 May 2008 03:16:00 EST
Eric Crawford asks: How many times have you heard this? Everybody who broke the rules has moved on, and the ones being penalized are the innocent people left behind. YouVote: NCAA sanctions

Dominguez's 2 homers, 6 RBIs push U of L past Ball State Wed, 14 May 2008 02:38:00 EST
Chris Dominguez hit two home runs and had six RBIs to lead the host University of Louisville baseball team over Ball State 9-3 last night.

Janish gets the call after Bats win 5-3 Wed, 14 May 2008 02:39:00 EST
Louisville Bats shortstop Paul Janish was a bit surprised when manager Rick Sweet pulled him from last night's 5-3 victory over the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees before he could bat in the eighth inning.

Ballard girls impressive in meet at Male Wed, 14 May 2008 02:39:00 EST
Ballard senior Lutisha Bowen liked what she saw last night at the annual Jefferson County Meet of Champions festival at Male.

DeSales' Reilly no-hits Iroquois Wed, 14 May 2008 02:39:00 EST
Taylor Reilly pitched a no-hitter last night to give the DeSales High School baseball team a 4-0 win over visiting Iroquois.

Sipes' gem, Cox's slam lead PRP past Butler Wed, 14 May 2008 02:47:00 EST
Their Pleasure Ridge Park High School baseball team struggling through its first losing streak of the season, Kris Sipes and Zack Cox helped end it with authority.

PRP's Osborne to play for Tennessee Wed, 14 May 2008 02:42:00 EST
Pleasure Ridge Park High School's Zach Osborne has committed to play baseball at the University of Tennessee and said yesterday that he plans to sign with the Volunteers as early as this week.

Churchill Downs Update Wed, 14 May 2008 02:46:00 EST

Churchill Downs Entries Wed, 14 May 2008 02:46:00 EST

PREP BASEBALL: Elizabethtown upends Central Hardin Thu, 1 May 2008 23:03:08 -0500
ELIZABETHTOWN What a difference two weeks can make.

PREP BASEBALL: John Hardin sweeps North Hardin Thu, 1 May 2008 23:03:06 -0500
RADCLIFF It’s been said that hitting is contagious and the John Hardin Bulldogs certainly had a bad case of it spread through the team Thursday night.

PREP SOFTBALL: Krupinski, Central Hardin shut out John Hardin Thu, 1 May 2008 23:03:06 -0500
CECILIA Having been shut out in their previous two games, the Central Hardin Lady Bruins were in a little bit of a funk.

PREP SOFTBALL/BASEBALL ROUNDUP: Lady Panthers fall; Mayfield moves to 7-1 Thu, 1 May 2008 23:03:07 -0500
The slumping Elizabethtown Lady Panthers lost for the 10th time in 13 games, falling to visiting Warren Central on Thursday, 3-1.

BOYS'/GIRLS' PREP TENNIS RESULTS: Thursday's Matches Thu, 1 May 2008 23:03:07 -0500
Results from Thursday's area high school tennis matches:

Breeden wants to coach Tates Creek into Rupp Wed, 14 May 2008 02:06 EDT
Wayne Breeden, who led Owensboro and Ashland Blazer to the Sweet Sixteen a combined four times in the seven years he's coached high school basketball, hopes to work his March magic at Tates Creek.

Breeden was introduced as the Commodores' new boys' coach Tuesday.

He takes over a program that has been a consistent winner but has reached the state tournament only once in its 42-year history.

"Why would Wayne Breeden want to come to Tates Creek?" he asked. "Because we can be the best. ... We're going to produce winners on the court and off the court. ...

"We want to go back to Rupp Arena not only as a spectator. We want to go back there as a participant."

Young Generals take heart with playoffs on horizon Wed, 14 May 2008 08:15 EDT
Lafayette enjoyed its last home baseball game of the season, a 13-3 romp over Rowan County on Tuesday night.

Junior shortstop Brandon Smith's three-run blast -- his first high school homer -- highlighted the feel-good victory for a young team that has ridden a roller coaster to a 16-17 record this spring.

Lafayette has only three seniors -- catcher Brooks Bailey, second baseman Zander Gross and pitcher Nate Wiseman.

"It's really been on our seniors all year to lead by example," Coach Chris Langston said. "And Brooks, 'Z' and Nate have done that.

"With this young group, we've come a long way. Our record may not show it, but if you watch us play, you know it's true."

Brand: NCAA has 'new information' on Mayo
Saying the NCAA has "new information," president Myles Brand promised to investigate former Southern California basketball star O.J. Mayo, who allegedly received thousands of dollars in gifts from money given to an event promoter by a sports agency.

Lady Devils come out in full force
Sometimes all you have to do is show up to win a game.Russell came out in full force on Senior Night and shut out visiting Ashland 5-0 on Tuesday.

Cards gun down Patriots, 2-1
The South Laurel Cardinals won their third game in a row with a 2-1 win over visiting Lincoln Co.

Lady Jags roll, 10-0
Carrie Cobb struck out seven of the nine batters she faced as the North Laurel Lady Jaguars roll past Whitley County, 10-0.

Lady Jaguar junior varsity wins Tates Creek tourney
The North Laurel junior varsity softball team traveled to Lexington on Saturday and won the Tates Creek J.V. tourney.

South Laurel Lady Cardinals go 2-2 in Danville
The South Laurel Lady Cardinals finished the Boyle Co. Invitational softball tournament with a 2-2 record.

Scotties top Bruins, 5-2
The Glasgow Scotties used aggressive hitting and solid defense to defeat the Central Hardin Bruins 5-2 on Tuesday at Richardson Field.

Barren County picks up 4-0 road victory
Barren County pounded out four runs on 10 hits to pick up a 4-0 road win at Campbellsville on Tuesday.

Unearned runs doom Glasgow
Four unearned runs haunted Glasgow in a 4-1 loss at Bowling Green on Tuesday.

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