Apollo and Owensboro baseball opened the 2022 campaign with a bang on Monday, with both scoring 12 runs in its respective wins against Muhlenberg County and Edmonson County.
Apollo vs. Muhlenberg County
Senior Dayton Brown drove in five runs and sophomore Will Strode allowed one hit in four innings to short-game Muhlenberg County 12-1 in Apollo’s first game of the season on Monday.
Strode helped himself in the first inning, taking advantage of an early error by the Mustangs with a two-out RBI single. After a hit by pitch Xavier Wells recorded an RBI single of his own, before Brown tripled to right to make it a 4-0 Eagles lead.
Trailing 5-0 thanks to Brown scoring on a passed ball at the end of the first, Muhlenberg County was able to get one back in the bottom of the first thanks to a passed ball themselves going into the second.
Two walks and a single had the bases loaded for Apollo with one out in the top of the second, with two runs scored thanks to another walk and Sam Holder getting hit by a pitch to make it 7-1. With two outs Brown struck again, clearing the bases with a double to left to make it a 10-1 Eagles lead going into the bottom of the second.
From there on Strode was locked in with ample run support behind him. He struck out the side in the second, before allowing his lone hit of the day before getting three consecutive outs with two being strikeouts going into the fourth.
Strode picked up right where he left off in the bottom of the fourth, striking out the first two batters of a 1-2-3 inning. The Eagles offense then came alive again in the top of the fifth, as Carter Contratto singled to leadoff the inning.
This was followed up by a Mustangs’ error and two hit-by-pitches that made it 11-1, before Holder hit a sacrifice fly to center field to send them up 11 in the bottom of the fifth. It was then that Wells came out from behind the plate to the mound, striking out the first two batters before closing the door on a 12-1win over Muhlenberg County in the season opener for Apollo.
Strode allowed one hit and recorded six strikeouts to get the winning nod, while also going 1-2 at the plate with two RBIs on the day. Brown led the way at the plate with a 2-3 day with 5 RBIs, while Holder tallied two RBIs and Wells registered one.
The Eagles have a day off now, before they hit the road once again with another road matchup against Breckinridge County at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, March 16.
Owensboro vs. Edmonson County
Kindrick Williams showed out in the first game of his senior season, recording four hits and three RBIs while allowing one en route to a 12-3 victory over Edmonson County to open the Jacob Fiorella era at Owensboro.
The Red Devils wasted no time getting the bats going on Monday, as a leadoff single from eighth grader Elijah Hampton was followed up by an RBI double from freshman Cayden Ray to grab the first run of the game. Later freshman Blake Kimbrell grounded out to second, but drove in Ray to make it a 2-0 game going into the bottom of the first.
Three errors by Owensboro allowed the Wildcats to get on the board as well in the first, but Edmonson County would succumb to the Red Devils’ offense before crossing home once again.
Williams got his first RBI of the day in the third with an infield single, but in the top of the fourth Owensboro broke things open. After Elijah walked to open up the inning, an out later his brother Evan homered to left to give the Red Devils a 5-1 lead.
The Wildcats proceeded to hit the next batter before walking the bases loaded with one out for Williams. He recorded another infield single, scoring one before three straight walks led to three runs and a 9-1 lead for Owensboro.
Edmonson County got one run in the bottom of the fourth and fifth innings, but the Red Devils were able to grab three insurance runs in the following two innings to put a bow on a 12-3 season-opening win.
Williams stole the show on Monday, going 4-5 at the plate with three RBIs while also giving up one earned run and striking out four in four innings to claim the win. The Hampton brothers also had successful days at the plate by driving in two RBIs each, while Kimbrell, Ray, freshman Brady Benjamin, Trevor Delacey and Ethan Gough all drove in a run as well.
Owensboro is thrown into the fire to start the season as they have two more road games in two straight days, with the first coming against Muhlenberg County at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday.
