By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
Walton-Verona’s baseball team claimed the 8th Region All “A” Classic championship trophy for the sixth consecutive season after defeating Carroll County, 10-1, in the title game on Wednesday at Gallatin County High School.
The Bearcats (10-2) will play the 7th Region champion in the sectional round of the small-school state playoffs. The winner of that game will advance to the eight-team state championship tournament April 29-30 at Campbellsville High School.
Walton-Verona junior Mason Howard was the winning pitcher in the 8th Region All “A” Classic championship game. (Photo from team website)
Walton-Verona’s winning pitcher in the 8th Region final was junior right-hander Mason Howard, who gave up only three hits in seven innings with eight strikeouts and two walks. Carroll County scored an unearned run on a wild pitch in the fifth inning.
Howard has a 4-0 record on the mound this spring. In 27 innings, he has allowed one earned run on 15 hits with 31 strikeouts.
As a team, the Bearcats batted .387 (12 of 31) in the region final with three players providing nine of the hits. Senior designated hitter Jimmy Shields was 4-for-5 and junior outfielder Cayden Smithers was 3-for-4 with a triple and two RBI. Senior first baseman Lance Coleman had a single and two-run homer.
Walton-Verona defeated Owen County, 4-2, and Eminence, 6-0, in its first two region tournament games. Senior pitcher Evan Kearns allowed only two hits in seven innings to post the shutout against Eminence. He now has a 3-0 record and 0.44 ERA.
The semifinals of the 10th Region All “A” Classic baseball tournament are scheduled for Saturday at Brossart. The pairings are Calvary Christian vs. Bracken County at 11 a.m. and Brossart vs. Nicholas County at 1:30 p.m. The championship game will be played later that day.
The 10th Region winner will play 9th Region champion Beechwood in the sectional round of the small-school playoffs to determine a berth in the eight-team state tournament.
Conner cross country coach was among finalists for national award
Ian Johnstone of Conner was one of eight finalists for Coach of the Year in boys cross country selected by the National Federation of State High School Associations for the 2021-22 school year.
Ian Johnstone
That was the year that Conner became the first Northern Kentucky high school to win a Class 3A state championship in cross country. The Cougars posted a team score that was 66 points better than runner-up Louisville St. Xavier, a program that had won eight of the previous 12 boys state titles in that class.
Johnston’s team had five runners among the top 11 finishers, a tight pack that none of the other 35 teams in the large-school state meet could match. They became the first Conner team to win a state championship in any sport since 1983. The Cougars won the Class 3A state title again in 2022 by a 51-point margin.
The national federation honors a Coach of the Year in 10 boys and 10 girls sports each year. The process begins with a committee selecting eight sectional winners in each sport. Kentucky is in Section II along with Delaware, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington, D.C.
A committee then ranked the sectional winners in each sport according to a point system and named the national winners in January. The Coach of the Year in boys cross country was Rickey Baker of Arizona.
Highlands grad has lowest ERA on Class AAA team’s pitching staff
Highlands graduate Drew Rom has a 1-0 record and 2.45 ERA as a starting pitcher for the Norfolk Tides, a Class AAA minor league team in the Baltimore Orioles baseball organization.
The 23-year-old left-hander was on the Orioles roster for spring training before being assigned to Norfolk. Last season, he appeared in seven games for the Tides after being moved up from Class AA. In two starts this season, Row has given up three earned runs on seven hits in 11 total innings. He has the lowest ERA on the Tides pitching staff with seven strikeouts and three walks.
Rom was named Mr. Kentucky Baseball after his senior season at Highlands in 2018. He had accepted a scholarship offer from the University of Michigan before signing with the Orioles, who selected him in the fourth round of the Major League Baseball entry draft.
