‘That’s what we’ve been wanting to see.’ Dunbar guts out win in Lexington showcase.
This past weekend’s Fayette County Invitational brought baseball teams from across the state to Lexington for a scheduled showcase slate of 36 games in two days at six sites.
Paul Laurence Dunbar unquestionably drew the toughest assignments with No. 2 Danville and No. 7 St. Xavier in their pod in addition to a dangerous West Jessamine team, but Coach Steve Deaton said that’s what the weekend was all about.
“I’m glad our guys are going to get the competition and get to play them,” Deaton said Friday after his Bulldogs defeated West Jessamine on the first day. “It’s exciting baseball, and we’re going to do everything we can to come out and compete well.”
Dunbar lost to Danville 11-4 on Saturday, but did not go quietly, scoring four runs against the Admirals’ Eastern Kentucky commit Logan Smothers, including two in their last at-bat. And while St. Xavier got a 15-0 victory in the last game of the set, it was Friday night’s wild 13-12 victory over West Jessamine where the Bulldogs showed their heart and determination.
Aided by 10 West Jessamine errors, Dunbar rallied from a 6-3 deficit after four innings and shook off blowing a 9-6 lead in the seventh to force extra innings and eventually grab the win despite giving up another go-ahead run in the ninth.
Trailing 11-9 and facing West Jessamine’s Kentucky commit Hayden Smith on the mound from the seventh inning on, Dunbar worked a pair of walks to open the seventh and Mark Dattilio’s sac bunt moved the runners into scoring position. Matt Hall’s sacrifice fly cut the lead to 11-10.
When Tate Harberson’s grounder to second was mishandled, Harberson reached safely, and Dunbar runner Grant Duerson instigated a rundown after rounding third base. Duerson successfully eluded the rundown and beat the throw home, tying the game.
West Jessamine took the lead again in the ninth inning, but a little luck and some wind and rain helped Dunbar avoid defeat again.
After a walk and an infield-fly rule putout, Harberson looped a double down the left-field line knocking in the tying run. He advanced to third on a wild pitch.
Then, a towering pop fly on the infield by Tyler Gadd hung up in the wind and rain that pestered the game all night. The ball dropped to the ground between West Jessamine defenders and Harberson crossed the plate to win it.
“It was crazy. It seemed like every time we got an edge on them, they just fired right back,” Harberson said. “We’ve come back before. We’ve done it in extra innings and we knew we could do it again if we just kept positive, didn’t worry about mistakes — just flip the page and keep pushing.”
Coach Deaton liked the fight shown by his team despite the mistakes that put them behind a few times during the night.
“That’s the culture we want to build. We want to be a gritty team,” Deaton said. “It was frustrating as a coach because you want to close it out when you’re up three …, but then you battle back. And then we get down again, and we battled back. That says a lot about the guys on this team. … That’s what we’ve been wanting to see, and we saw it tonight.”
How Lexington teams fared
Here’s how the other Lexington teams who played in the Fayette County Invitational fared this past weekend. Rankings are according to Prep Baseball Report.
▪ No. 6 Frederick Douglass, 3-0, with wins over Western Hills, Ballard and Conner. The Broncos are 15-3 overall.
▪ No. 9 Lafayette, 3-0, with wins over Eastern, Ryle and Greenup County. The Generals are 20-5 overall.
▪ Henry Clay, 2-1, with wins over Frankfort and Rockcastle County and a loss to Campbell County. The Blue Devils are 14-11 overall.
▪ Tates Creek, 2-1, with wins over Bryan Station and Bishop Brossart and a loss to Nicholas County. The Commodores are 11-10 overall.
▪ Lexington Catholic, 2-1, with wins over Warren East and Scott and a loss to No. 8 Madison Central. The Knights are 9-9 overall.
▪ Bryan Station, 1-2, with a win over Bishop Brossart and losses to Tates Creek and Nicholas County. The Defenders are 7-8 overall.
Lafayette softball rolling
No. 2 Lafayette hosted its Five-Star General Invitational over the weekend and bolstered its claim of perhaps being the best softball team in the state.
The Generals knocked off both No. 11 Male, the last team to hoist a state championship trophy, and No. 13 Estill County in addition to a run-rule win over Somerset in four innings.
Natalie Henry doubled in Aniya White with the walk-off winning run in Saturday’s 6-5 win over Male. Pitcher Leah Holland improved to 10-2. Against Estill County, Holland combined with Trinity Bridges on a one-hit shutout and provided a two-run home run in the third inning that would be all the scoring the Generals needed.
The sweep of ranked opponents should push Lafayette to No. 1 in the next Kentucky Softball Coaches Association rankings after No. 1 South Warren lost to No. 21 Oldham County on Saturday.
Lafayette gets tested again this week in an important district rivalry against No. 24 Lexington Catholic. The teams are scheduled to play Monday at LexCath and Thursday at Lafayette.
