Pikeville, Ky. — Lawrence Co. (22-12) was ousted in the first round of the 15th Region baseball tourney on Monday night against Paintsville by the score of 4-1 to end the season for the Dawgs.
The Tigers ( 18-16 ) scored two runs in the first inning and held the Dawgs scoreless until the fifth inning when courtesy runner Lucas Maynard scored on a Jackson Feltner groundout.
The Dawgs blew a big chance in the fourth inning when Tyler Maynard led off with a single, Peyton Cyrus was hit by a pitch, and Hunter Crum had a bunt single to load the bases with no outs. Paintsville 8th Grader Mason Moore defused the rally by striking out the next three batters pretty much wrapping up the ballgame as the Dawgs went quietly the rest of the game.
The Dawgs had six hits for the game as Austin Roe, Jackson Feltner, Tyler Maynard, Hunter Crum and Bryce Blevins all had singles, CJ Fairchild hit a ball off the fence in the seventh for a double but was stranded to end the game.
Lawrence Co. committed three errors in the ball game and left nine runners on base.
Fairchild went five innings allowing only four hits and three earned runs while striking out five and issuing four walks to suffer the loss. Bryce Blevins went the final two innings allowing two hits and one unearned run in the seventh inning.
Lawrence Co. only had one senior on this year’s team in Trace Bowen. A lot of young talent for years to come for the Bulldogs.
Bulldog Head Coach Travis Feltner
COACH’S COMMENTS
“… End of a season is always tough. Our program’s expectation is always to compete for and win a region title, and we fell short of that this year. But there is absolutely zero disappointment from my perspective on the overall successes our kids had this year. We’ve endured a lot of hardships this year and overcome a lot of obstacles to push through and still have a successful campaign.
“…The exciting thing is, we will pretty much return all our production next year. That doesn’t guarantee immediate success for next season though and that was the post game message last night. we’ve still got a long way to go to get back playing for and winning a region championship. We will take a few days off and get right back to work in addressing some areas of the game that we must improve in.”
“…Last night’s game we just didn’t play well enough to win. Hats off to Paintsville, they capitalized on our mistakes and we were unable to do the same. We left 9 men on base and none bigger than the inning we had bases loaded and nobody out and came away with nothing. In these type of games the winning team must take advantage in those situations. Again, our guys competed at a very high level all year and it was an honor to coach these guys this season.
“…Looking forward to 2018.”
