After dropping back-to-back tough games to Greenwood and Bowling Green over the weekend, Apollo head coach Brandon Dennis emphasized to his team to stop giving away their at-bats. The message stuck, as Apollo showed improvement at the plate in their 5-3 win over Owensboro Catholic.
“That was a really good game for us to put together, especially the offense approach we wanted to have that we didn’t have over the weekend,” Dennis said.
The Eagles jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the top of the first thanks to RBI singles by Ryleigh Logan and Jackson Carder and a fielder’s choice by Ty Lillpop. Apollo picked up an insurance run in the second after another RBI single by Logan. Logan and Carder both finished 3-4 with two RBIs.
“Those were two guys that we knew had the potential to swing it really well, but to have the at bats they had, propelled us,” Dennis said.
Carter Kimmel found his groove early on the mound, throwing four no-hit innings, but ran into trouble in the fifth. The Aces took advantage of two Apollo fielding errors to score two runs and Jaxson White singled home another. With two on and two out, Brady Atwell had a chance to give Owensboro Catholic the lead, but flew out to left.
Barrett Evans started on the mound for the Aces, allowing three earned runs over four innings, striking out three. Gentry Atwell relieved him in the top of the fifth and consistently flirted with trouble. He pitched out of a bases loaded jam in the fifth and worked around a leadoff double in the sixth. With two on and one out in the top of the seventh, White relieved him and quickly got the last two outs.
Logan took over for Kimmel in the bottom of the sixth, throwing two shutout innings to earn the save.
Ross Milburn, Grayson Smith, and Will Wilkins combined for five of the Eagles’ 11 hits. Parker Heistand, Chris Burns, and White had the Aces’ three hits.
“This is where we thought we might start the year, but we have to keep going from here. We had some miscues and gave some runs away,” Dennis said. “They kept the pressure on us, similar to how we did early. They came back, and they are always going to. When they applied that pressure, we need to clean everything up, and offensively we have to take the next step forward.”
