Something has to give in the 7th District baseball tournament.
Madisonville-North Hopkins has earned the No. 1 seed for this year’s event. However, Caldwell County carries a string of seven-straight district championships into the 2019 district tourney, which gets underway Monday at Hopkins County Central High School in Mortons Gap.
Caldwell and Madisonville have met in the district championship game each of the past nine years.
Hopkins Central hasn’t played in the title game since falling to Madisonville in 2009. The Storm’s only 7th District baseball championship came in the school’s first year of existence — the 1996-97 school year.
Meanwhile, Dawson Springs last advanced to the district championship game — and earned a berth in the 2nd Region tournament — in 2001. The Panthers beat Providence in the opening round that year before bowing to the Maroons in the final.
Madisonville is 18-14 this year but dropped its last two games of the regular season against Muhlenberg County and McCracken County. The Maroons’ only hiccup in district play was a 3-1 setback to Hopkins Central. However, Madisonville (5-1 in the district) swept Caldwell by identical scores of 9-3, giving the Maroons the top seed.
Junior Jon Hogart leads Madisonville. He was hitting a blistering .551 going into the final two games of the regular season. Hogart had three home runs and 33 RBIs prior to the Muhlenberg and McCracken games. Meanwhile, Junior Gunner Dameron was hitting .411 with 18 runs batted in.
Senior Alex Gray has been the Maroons’ pitching ace, going 8-2 with a miniscule 1.60 earned run average. Junior Blake Reynolds is 5-1 with a 2.35 ERA.
Caldwell is 15-14 and captured the No. 2 seed by sweeping Hopkins Central 6-3 and 10-0.
Seniors Bryar Riley and Gabe East anchor the Tiger pitching staff. Riley is 6-4 with a 3.15 earned run average while East is 2-3 with an ERA of 3.53. Both Riley and East are headed to Rend Lake College next sesaon.
The Caldwell offense is led by sophomore Tate VanHooser, who is hitting .444 with a team-high seven home runs and 27 RBIs this season. East is batting .440 with 23 runs batted in for a Tiger lineup that has spent much of the season with the highest batting average in the 2nd Region. Caldwell is hitting .345 as a team.
Hopkins Central compiled a 9-21 record during the regular season and was 3-3 in the district.
Sophomore Logan Scarbrough entered the final week of the regular season with a .370 average for the Storm while Austin Scarbrough, also a sophomore, has six homers and 20 runs batted in while batting .293.
Senior Jacob Morphew has the best ERA on the Storm pitching staff at 3.95. He is 1-5 on the season. Colin Garrett, a junior, is 2-3 with a 4.06 earned run average.
Dawson Springs went 4-20 with a young squad. The Panthers were winless in six district outings.
Madisonville and Dawson will play in the district tourney opener at 5:30 on Monday. Caldwell and host Hopkins Central will meet in the second semifinal game at around 7:30.
The district championship game is set for 5:30 on Tuesday.
Both the district champ and runner-up will advance to the 2nd Region tournament at Union County.
