When he let an early lead for the Harlan All Stars slip away while he was on the mound, Brylee Southerland answered with his bat in dramatic fashion.
Harlan led 4-0 until Hazard/Perry scored six times in the fourth inning to take the lead in the last game of the Area 4 East Division (ages 11-12) Tournament at Barbourville. Harlan followed with its rally in the fifth as Kolbi Green singled and Lakin Smith walked before Southerland deposted his go-ahead home run to center on the way to an 8-6 victory. The win sent Harlans to the district’s final four tournament at Corbin in July as the runner-up in the east division.
“We battled from the first pitch until the very last today,” Harlan coach Steven Johnson said. “I believe this group realized other than one bad inning we can play with anyone when we are hitting the ball. I couldn’t be more proud of these kids.”
Once they had the lead, the Harlan All Stars held on with defense and the pitching of Maddox Landa in the sixth inning. Weston Nolan made a running catch in left field for the first out, then third baseman Seth Johnson turned in two nice plays at third base.
“Brylee came through with the big home run that took the momentum back,” Johnson said. “Weston had a great catch, then Seth made two plays at the end of the game to end it. Any time you play Hazard, you know you’re in for a game.”
Southerland drove in four runs with a homer and single. Landa singled three times. Maddox Helton and Deacon Lisenbee each had doubles with Helton driving home a run. Green, Bryson Millis, Grant Caldwell and Landen Spurlock added one single each.
Southerland struck out five in 3 2/3 innings on the mound. Landa struck out one in 2 1/3 innings to earn the win.
Harlan will play the west division runner-up on July 8 at 8 p.m. in Corbin.
———
Harlan fell 8-1 to Knox County in the east division finals on Monday.
Johnson struck out eight.
Southerland, Nolan and Spurlock had singles.
———
Tri-City dropped a 3-2 heartbreaker in seven innings to Hazard/Perry on Sunday.
Balin Foutch gave up only one run on two hits with six strikeouts and four walks over six innings.
Hutton Sherman led the Tri-City offense with a double and single. Brennan Brock singled twice with one RBI. Nathan Harrell and Foutch had one single each with Foutch driving in a run.