Christian County’s Jase Polley drove-in four runs, including a bases-clearing triple in a decisive five-run fourth inning, to help the Colonels to an 11-7 victory over Hopkinsville in the 8th-District championship game on Tuesday night at UHA.
Christian County claims its fifth-straight district title to improve to 16-14 overall and will begin the defense of its 2nd-Region title next week. The Tigers drop their sixth in their last seven outings to enter the regional tournament at 18-13 on the year.
After appearing to take the lead when John Duvall stole home with two outs in the top of the second, only for it to be overruled on appeal, the Tigers broke through with a run in the third for a 1-0 advantage. But the Colonels responded with four runs in the bottom of the inning, including RBI singles by Wyatt Stevenson and Jase Polley.
Polley was at it again in the fourth, tripling with the bases loaded to stretch the lead to 7-1. Colonels’ starting pitcher Lane Diuguid kept the Tigers at bay through four innings, walking one and striking-out seven before giving way to Stevenson in the fifth.
Hoptown took advantage of four Colonel errors in the sixth to push across six runs, with Caleb Bapp and Layne Jorgensen collecting RBI. Leading by only two in the bottom of the sixth, the Colonels iced the game with an RBI single by Austin Fields and a run on a Tiger error for the final four-run margin. Stevenson struck-out two of the final three batters, coaxing a ground ball to end the game.
Fields and Elijah Underhill led the Colonels with three hits each, while Polley and Stevenson both hit safely twice.
For the Tigers, Jorgensen had two hits and Logan Durst drove-in two runs.
