Danville advances to 12th Region baseball final
Published 3:19 pm Wednesday, May 25, 2022
Danville will play for the 12th Region baseball championship for the third consecutive season.
The Admirals advanced to the title game with a 7-3 victory over Wayne County on Tuesday night at Somerset.
No. 7 Danville (29-8) will face West Jessamine in the championship game at 6 p.m. Wednesday in hopes of earning a spot in the state tournament for the second straight year.
K.J. Stanfield had a home run and two doubles, Brady Baxter had three hits and Brady Morse pitched Danville’s second complete game in as many nights in the win over Wayne.
Stanfield’s two run homer in the third inning gave the Admirals a 3-2 lead, and he doubled and scored insurance runs in both the fifth and seventh innings.
Baxter had a double and two singles. He scored the game’s first run in the second inning, scored again to cap a three-run third after Wayne (22-10) had taken a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the second, and drove in Stanfield in the fifth.
Morse allowed three runs on seven hits and two walks, but he wasn’t scored on after the third inning.
A day earlier, Baxter threw a one-hitter with 13 strikeouts as Danville defeated No. 19 Mercer County 6-1 in Harrodsburg.
Mercer (26-10-1) scored in the first inning on an RBI single by Evan Hart but had only one baserunner thereafter. Baxter retired 15 consecutive batters during his six hitless innings.
Baxter put the Admirals on the board with a two-run home run in the first inning and added an RBI double and a single.
Morse and Jarius Bryant had two hits each for Danville, and Sam Matherly had a solo home run in a three-run fifth inning.
The championship game will be a rubber match between Danville and West Jessamine, who split two regular-season games. The Colts won 3-2 at Danville on March 17, and the Admirals won 4-2 at West Jessamine on May 10.
West Jessamine routed Somerset 14-3 in its semifinal Tuesday after edging Boyle County 3-2 in the first round.
West Jessamine (17-18), one of three teams that made the regional with a losing record, won despite getting only three hits off Boyle pitchers Eli Glasscock and Lawson Hon.
Boyle (24-8-1) had only two hits, including a solo home run by Luke Gaffney. Gaffney’s 10th homer of the season gave the Rebels a 2-0 lead.