One of the great challenges facing high school baseball coaches during the postseason comes down to a simple question: should they save their top pitcher for the district finals.
Bell County coach Jeff Sziksai had to decide what to do with junior right-hander Blake Burnett — pitch him against a Harlan County squad his team defeated twice in the regular season or save him for a likely championship showdown a day later against Harlan.
Sziksai decided to go with Burnett in the opening round. As it turned out, It looks like he was right. Harlan County threw a scare into the Bobcats, staying close the entire game and having the tying run on base in the seventh inning before Burnett worked out a jam to preserve a 4-2 victory. Burnett gave up four hits while striking out nine and walking two.
“I’ve never been one to ‘save’ a pitcher for tomorrow, especially when it’s win or go home,” Sziksaid said. “Our approach is do whatever it takes to win today and worry about tomorrow, tomorrow. Blake threw a great game. We executed situationally on offense and did enough to get it done against a much improved Harlan County club.”
Harlan County sophomore Zayden Casolari did his best to keep the Bears in the game as he allowed four runs on five hits over 5 1/3 inning while striking out four and walking three. Jesse Gilbert came in to induce a double play line drive to end a Bell threat in the sixth inning as he faced only one batter while recording two outs.
Brayden Carroll was the offensive star for the Bobcats even though he was hitless as he drove in runs in the third and fifth inning with sacrifice flies. Burnett and Cooper Brock each had two singles from the top two spots in the batting order. Jackson Walters added a single.
Aiden Craig, Gilbert, Chance Sturgill and Brennan Blevins had one single each for the 6-18 Bears, who lose only two seniors from a young squad that improved after a slow start to the season.
“The boys battled today,” Harlan County coach Scotty Bailey said. “Bell Count has a good team. I think we had a few things not go our way and didn’t get on it at the plate early enough, but I was proud of this young team for battling all season like they did. One thing I can say is we didn’t take steps backwards this year. We continued to work and get better as the season went on, and that’s huge for us going into next year. I couldn’t be more proud of a team for everything they put into this season.”
Harlan County took an early 1-0 lead as DaShaun Smith drew a leadoff walk, then stole second and third become coming home when Brigmon’s throw sailed into left field.
Burnett opened the bottom of the first with a single, then Casolari recorded two outs before walking Walters and Brigmon. Casolari gave up one run on a walk, then a mental mistake brought in another. Hunter Fuson hit a grounder back to the mound that would have been an easy out at first, but Casolari went home, apparently thinking the bases were still loaded or there were less than two outs. Brigmon went back to third and ended up scoring on an errant throw from Smith in a rundown.
Brock and Walters had singles in the third inning before the first of Carroll’s sacrifice flies. Burnett and Brock opened the fifth with singles before a Carroll sacrifice fly.
Gilbert was safe on an error to open the seventh inning. Sturgill and Blevins followed with one-out singles for the Bears’ second run. Burnett ended the game by getting a ground out from Gunnar Johnson before striking out Kayden Adams.
Bell County will play Harlan at 6:30 on Friday in the district finals at HCHS.
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Harlan County 100 000 1 — 2. 4. 2
Bell County 201 010 x — 4. 5. 2
Casolari, Gilbert (6) and Smith; Burnett and Brigmon. WP — Burnett. LP — Casolari (3-5).