The 1991 Tigers pose with the 2nd Region championship trophy.
The Caldwell County High School baseball program has captured three 2nd Region championships and was All A Classic state runner-up in 2017.
The school is closing in on 800 wins all-time (according to available records).
So determining the biggest win ever might be a challenging task. Right?
Unless you say “13-12” to a Tiger fan.
Longtime Caldwell County baseball followers will point to the Tigers’ 13-12 win over Henderson County in the 1991 regional championship game as the most monumental baseball win in school history.
And it sets up a debate among Tiger fans as to which baseball team was the best in school history — the 1991 group or the core of Caldwell’s back-to-back regional championships in 2016 and 2017.
Danny Beavers, who was later Princeton mayor, was head coach of the 1991 Tigers who won that first regional baseball championship in school history.
“It’s one of the most talented, but we’ve had some good baseball teams here,” Beavers said years later looking back at that 1991 squad.
“Back when they had more teams in the region, you had to beat teams like Paducah Tilghman and Murray High. That was back in the ’60s. The regional was played at Murray State’s old baseball field and it was special just to go there and play.”
But winning the 1991 regional title over perennial favorite Henderson — and in the Colonels’ own ballpark — was doubly sweet for the Tigers.
“It was very difficult to win the regional championship at Henderson,” said Beavers. “Henderson was very intimidating. They have such a fine program — traditionally they’re ranked in the top 20 about 75 percent of the time.
“But you couldn’t intimidate our guys. They really just loved to play baseball — all of them.”
Beating Henderson wasn’t easy at all. The Tigers needed heroics from virtually every player in the lineup to win the high-scoring championship affair.
“That game was as good as any I’ve seen,” noted Beavers. “It was a slugfest. I don’t know if they were out of pitching as much as we were, because I think we saw their No. 1 and No. 2 pitchers. We just hit the ball so well.
“Steve Choate had two homers and Garrick Sigler hit a grand slam up in the trees. I purposely batted Steve ninth against Henderson — I don’t think they respected the bottom of our lineup.
“We bombed everybody that Henderson put on the mound, but they made some good defensive plays,” he added.
Caldwell also made its share of defensive plays, including the last play of the contest.
“I remember Randy Scott got hit in the eye warming up and didn’t get to start in the championship,” said Beavers. “He got hit, I believe, a couple of days before. But I put him in late in the game for defense and he made a great stab at third and threw across the infield for the last out of the game at first base.”
The win also marked the first time a Caldwell baseball team had ever won 20 games.
The Tigers finished 20-4 that season, dropping a heartbreaking one-run loss to Owensboro in the first round of the sectional (the final 16 teams in the state).
“Owensboro beat us 2-1,” remembered Beavers. “We had eight hits and they had five. They had two infield singles and a bunt single. We just couldn’t get any runs.”
Beavers said he knew early in the year that the 1991 season was going to be a special one.
“I started thinking we had a chance to be really good probably when we played Daviess County. They came (to Princeton) and were ranked fifth or sixth in the state and we beat them twice,” he noted.
“We tried to play the top two or three teams in the 1st Region and the top two or three teams in the 3rd Region to gauge where we were.
“I think that was the first or second year David Barnes was an assistant football coach and an assistant baseball coach at Daviess and that’s how we got those games.”
By the time Caldwell dismissed Henderson, few teams were wanting any part of the Tigers.
“Franklin-Simpson won the sectional and went on to win the state that year, and their coach had told some people that they didn’t want to draw us in the first round of the sectional,” said Beavers.
The ’91 Tigers featured one of the deepest pitching staffs in Caldwell’s history.
“Chris Cotton was injured in a car wreck in September of his senior year but made a remarkable recovery and was our opening day pitcher,” said Beavers. “Eric Lamb was kinda the anchor of our staff, and both of them could play first base and contribute as hitters.
“Garrick Sigler could throw hard, and Fred Robinson, a lefty, was real crafty and could win a ballgame for you,” he added.
“Jason Oliver pitched a lot of relief and Dono McGregor was another that could get some people out in the late innings. So we had four strong starters and two more coming in in relief.
“We also had two good catchers in Bobby Vickrey and Jason Bramblett — that was big. And then we had sluggers like Ben VanHooser and Garrick Sigler, who could just rip the ball and hit it out of the park.”
The 1991 season was one of redemption for many Tigers, who were part of a 15-5 team the year before that was surprised by West Hopkins 1-0 in eight innings in the first round of the regional tournament.
Caldwell also had hopes of making a run at the regional title in 1990.
But the 1991 squad got it done, and remained the Tigers’ only regional championship squad for 25 years — until the back-to-back titles in 2016 and 2017.
The argument over which Caldwell group is the best will likely never be settled, but the 1991 squad will always have “13-12.”
