Coming off their strong run in the postseason, especially, the region tournament, for the 2019 baseball season, 2020 figured to be a year where the Hopkinsville Tigers would be among the top teams in the 2nd Region all season long, as they sough to repeat as regional champions. Sadly, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Tigers will not get that chance and will have to wait until spring 2021 to defend their title.
After struggling a bit in the early part of May in 2019, the Tigers knocked off UHA in the district semis, before falling to Christian County in the 8th District championship game. Hoptown then got on a roll in the region tourney, taking down Madisonville, Henderson County, and Caldwell County to win the title.
The 2020 Tigers were going to be in strong positions on the mound, in the field, and at the plate. Hoptown would have returned 8 players that saw action in at least 24 games last season.
Seniors Layne Jorgensen and Caleb Bapp, along with junior Landon Snyder, all hit above .300 last season, and were expected to be core of the offense coming back. Jorgensen also led the team in RBIs during the 2019 season.
The Tigers appeared to be pretty well set on the mound too for 2020. Of their top four pitchers in terms of innings pitched in 2019, three were set to return for this year. Preston Chaudoin, Zach Caudill, and Jacob Dilday likely would have formed the core of a very solid pitching rotation. Dilday and Chaudoin both had ERAs under 3.00 during the 2019 season.
The good news for Hopkinsville is that Caudill is a junior, while Dilday and Chaudoin are just sophomores.
The season had great potential, but sadly something that was out of the control of all of them, took away their chance for a special season.
With that said, here are the seniors that were listed on the roster for the Hopkinsville Tigers for 2020 (According to the KHSAA):
