Truth be told, there is not room in that particular parent’s abode for all of the hardware that has been accumulated already this season. The Longhorns have returned home with baseball booty from each of the seven tournaments they have played so far, with six of those mementos being crowning keepsakes. The weekend of June 4-5 saw the most recent addition to their championship stockpile, as Coach Arnold’s boys went a perfect 5-0, outscoring the opposition by a combined score of 57-3 at the Nations Louisville Baseball Classic in Blue Lick, Kentucky.
RE-CAP Although the final score of their first pool play game read 19-1, the Louisville Longhorns spun their wheels for a few laps against the Clarksville Stixx before finally gaining traction and pulling away. The ’Horns failed to score in the first inning and were only up 3-1 after three full stanzas were in the books, but in the top of the fourth they shifted into overdrive. That inning, they batted around and plated five runs; in the following stanza, they kept the pedal to the metal, sending 17 batters to the dish and adding another 11 runs to their season-high tally. When the smoke from the burning rubber had cleared, eight Longhorns had 2 or more hits, seven had 2 or more runs scored and five had 2 or more runs batted in, while three horned hurlers limited their southern Indiana counterparts to but 2 safeties and a single run scored.
BLUE LICKIN’ GOOD Three Spree: Batting in the 3-hole, Brendan Koester was a sparkling 3-for-3 with 3 runs scored... Four He’s a Jolly Good Run-Producer: Noah Baugher registered a game-high 4 RBIs... Leading Man: Andrew Littlefield was 3-for-4 with 2 runs and 2 RBIs out of the lead-off spot... Cloud Nine: Matthew Higgins blasted his 9th home run of the season in the second inning, a clout that put the Longhorns ahead to stay.
RE-CAP After not scoring in the first inning of the previous pool-play game, the Louisville Longhorns took a different tack in game No. 2, bolting straight out of the starting gate and sending 13 batters to the plate while putting 9 markers up on the board in the initial stanza. They would then add another 6 scores in their next two at bats and cruise to a 15-0, 3-inning, run-rule victory over the Derby City Crush.
POOL’S GOLD Nada mucho: In his first start of the season, Ryan Hamilton shut out the Crush and held them hitless over 3 innings, striking out 3 along the way... Make That An Even Half-Dozen: After collecting 4 RBIs in pool-play Game 1, Noah Baugher added a pair of ribbies in Game 2 to give him a smashing 6 on the day... That Guy Again?: Not one to rest on his laurels, Matthew Higgins belted home run No. 10, a 3-run shot in the first inning to compliment his Game 1 salvo... Rockin’ Sockin’ Knockin’: Nicholas Parrish knocked in a run in each of his 3 at bats... Every Which Way: Trey Sweeney had a triumvirate of team-helping at bats—a first inning, run-producing sac fly, a base knock in the second inning and a hit-by-pitch in the third... Sharing the Pain: Bryce Elmore took one for the team in the first inning, leaving him one bruise-maker behind Higgins for the team lead in the ever-important hit-batsman category... Turner Classic: Brendan Koester, Trey Sweeney and Andrew Arnold turned a nifty 4-6-3 double play to end the third inning.
Future-Longhorn Trenton Morris makes some noise.
RE-CAP A 2-0 record and only one run allowed in pool-play earned the Louisville Longhorns the No. 1 seed and a quarterfinal bracket-play matchup against the Louisville Shock on Sunday. The battling ’Horns would respond with a 4-inning, 9-1, run-rule victory in which 5 of their 11 hits went for extra bases, while the Longhorns’ tandem of hilltop twirlers would smother the Shock swatters, granting only two singles and a lone run in four innings pitched.
SUNDAY BESTS Striking It Rich: Starting pitcher Andrew Arnold needed only 39 pitches—28 of which he threw for strikes—to limit the Shock to 1 run on 2 hits over 3 innings, striking out 3 en route to his third W in as many decisions on the season... Got Yer Back, Bro: Trey Sweeney tossed a 3-up, 3-down third inning to cap off the victory... Might in Right: Ryan Hamilton started a 9-3 double play in the first inning and threw out a base runner at first base from his right field station in the fourth... Triple-Double: Sweeney, Noah Baugher and Andrew Arnold each contributed a two-bagger to the Longhorns’ extra base hit onslaught... Triple-Double-Single: In addition to his first inning double, Sweeney would larrup a third inning triple and stroke a fourth inning single for a perfect 3-for-3 game and three-quarters of a cycle... Gimme Five: Nicholas Parrish’s 2 RBIs gave him 5 in the last 2 games... Third Time’s a Charm: For the third straight game, Matthew Higgins bashed a boundary belt, this one good for No. 11 on the season.
Starting pitcher Casey Simon helped out his own cause
with a fifth inning base knock.
RE-CAP Going into the Nations Louisville Baseball Classic, the Louisville Longhorns were looking forward to a potential showdown with the Okolona Naturals, and they would get the chance to square off against their local rivals for the first time this season in the tournament semifinals. The ’Horns would respond with a victory in which they would score in four of the five innings that they came to bat while limiting the Naturals to a lone run over six full innings. Though the offense banged out 10 hits and put 6 runs up on the board, it was the pitching and defense that shined the brightest, with 9 outs coming on the ground—two on a slick double play—and another 6 via strikeout.
Somewhere in this mass of burnt-orange humanity is Ryan Hamilton,
returning home from his tour of the bases after his second inning yardbird.
SEMI SWEETS Well-Grounded: Casey Simon went the 6-inning distance atop the bump, allowing just 4 ground ball hits—all singles—and one unearned run while recording 9 ground balls outs and striking out 6... Matthew Mimicry: Ryan Hamilton did his best Matthew Higgins imitation with a 2-run long ball over the center field fence in the second inning and a run-producing sac fly in the fourth... Extra Special: His twin-bagger in the first inning gave Higgins an extra base hit in each of the first four tournament tilts... Down and Dirty: Shortstop Trey Sweeney gave the Nats—and the cleaners—all that they could handle, sullying his ball-togs with diving stops to both his left and right, while also going 2-for-2 at the plate and scoring 2 runs... Two from the Top: Andrew Littlefield had two base hits and two plate-crossings from the lead-off spot in the order.
In addition to stroking two hits in the game,
Trey Sweeney made a pair of diving stops at short.
RE-CAP Though it was not their first championship meeting of the season, the Nations Louisville Baseball Classic title tilt against the Lyndon Lightning did represent the first time in the 2011 campaign that the Louisville Longhorns would play three games in one day—in fact, all three would be played in but one afternoon. Despite a lot of ball in a short period of time, the L-Horns nevertheless had enough pitching depth to not have to use any hurler more than once in the tournament, while also having enough left in the tank offensively at the end of the day to win the final via the run rule. Nursing a 2-0 lead through three and a half innings, the Hittin’ Horns broke things open in the bottom of the fourth, scoring 6 times with the Bolts only recording one out before the umpires hollered “No mas!” The 8-0 blanking was their second shutout of the weekend, and by allowing only one hit in the concluding contest, the Longhorns managed to keep their tourney foes to a single-digit safety total over the five games played.
Matthew Higgins:
He did the mash, he did the monster mash.
CLOSING STATEMENTS First Impressions: Starting globule-gunner Andrew Littlefield struck out the side in the top of the first inning... One is the Loneliest Number: The only hit allowed by Littlefield was a bloop Texas Leaguer that was close to being caught... Four-Gone Conclusion: Matthew Higgins capped off a particularly productive weekend with his fourth Ballantine Blast of the tournament (his 12th of the season), a solo-shot that got the party started in the 6-run final inning... School of Hard Knocks: The ground-rule double smoked by Andrew Arnold in the fourth inning was, by some accounts, the hardest-hit ball of the season by any Longhorn ball-basher... Elmore Bang for Your Buck: Bryce Elmore biffed his team-leading third triple of the season in the second inning... Glove Story: Center fielder Noah Baugher’s running grab of a ball hit over his head in the top of the second inning was a snare of Baseball Tonight Web Gem proportions... Slaughterhorsehide Five: Baugher, along with teammates Arnold, Higgins and Littlefield, had hits in all five games of the tournament.
The happy ’Horns hoist the hefty hardware.
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