Pre-Season Baseball Classic
New Albany Redbirds 2, Louisville Longhorns 15
Surprise. Dismay. Shell shock. One could read the progression of emotions on the face of the New Albany Redbirds’ starting pitcher as the Louisville Longhorns batting order chewed up his hard cheese and spit out even harder base hits all over Field 2 at Beechmont on Sunday afternoon in the Pre-Season Baseball Classic semifinals.
As the Redbird righthander warmed up prior to the first inning, he popped one whistler after another into the glove of his battery-mate, displaying heat that clearly exceeded that of the pitchers the Longhorns faced in their previous two games of the tournament. The answer to the question of how Coach Rick Arnold’s bludgeon-wielders would fare against that type of velocity was quickly answered when Andrew Littlefield ripped the second pitch he saw deep to center field for a lead-off double. It was evident that the Redbird hurler was not expecting such a rude greeting, but he composed himself, retiring the next two batters, and seemed perhaps to be on his way to making it back to the safety of the third base dugout, unscathed. Clean-up hitter Andrew Arnold had other ideas, however, belting a double of his own to right-center field to bring Littlefield home, and Trey Sweeney immediately followed suit, larruping the third two-bagger of the inning into the left-center field gap to score another run.
Indeed, not a bad start, but when Ryan Hamilton welcomed the Redbird pitcher to the second inning with a line shot to right field, things really started to pick up offensively for the Longhorns. The base hits by Noah Baugher, Brendan Koester and Casey Simon that followed clearly rattled the New Albany hurler, prompting him to bestow upon Matthew Higgins and Andrew Arnold one free base-pass apiece. Trey Sweeney’s single to left finally brought the Redbird coach out with hook in hand, though irreparable damage had already been done, as the game was still in its infancy and the Longhorn run tally already stood at eight. Alas, they were not done yet.
Brendan Koester was perfect at the plate in the run-rule shortened affair,
with a second inning single and a base on balls.
In the third inning, it was once again Ryan Hamilton who kicked off the pill-pelting party, this time with a line shot down the left field line. One out later, Noah Baugher stroked his second safety of the contest, and next Brendan Koester worked the count full before taking ball four. Casey Simon stepped up to the plate with the bases fully saturated and lifted a fly ball over the left fielder’s head that hit off the distant fence, missing a grand slam by, well, that much. With the bases once again jam-packed with horned horsehiders, Matthew Higgins crushed a double-bagger to right, and after Andrew Arnold took one for the team and Trey Sweeney walked on four consecutive pitches, the bases were once again juiced. Nicholas Parrish sidled up to the dish and looked at two pitches before he saw one that he liked—liked so much, in fact, that he used it to personally put an end to the proceedings with a 2-run smash to right that prompted the men in blue to finally step in and halt the game on account of the run-rule.
Casey Simon blasts a ball off the left field fence,
barely missing a grand slam.
Matthew Higgins crushes a double in the third inning.
When a team places 15 big markers up on the board, good pitching performances can easily get overlooked, but the Longhorns’ offensive onslaught should not overshadow yet another efficient hilltop outing by Coach Arnold’s deep mound corps. The inseparable duo of Andrew Littlefield and Trey Sweeney combined to record five out of nine outs via the whiff route while limiting the Crimson Cardinals to but two harmless runs.
Andrew Littlefield and Trey Sweeney
held the Redbirds to 2 runs while striking out 5.
The Longhorns’ victory earned them a spot in the championship game to be played against the winner of the Champaign Dream-Louisville Legends affair that immediately followed their 15-2 romp.
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