On a milestone night for their coach, Baseball Colonels blank Montgomery
Faris picks up win No. 500; His team will play George Rogers Clark tonight for the 40th District Championship
JARETT VAN METER I jarrettvanmeter@gmail.com
LET’S GO! – Colonel junior Xavier Baker was pumped after he picked up his fourth hit of the night to lead the Colonels’ hitting attack. Baker finished the evening 4 for 4 at the plate, where he knocked in a run and scored a run.
PARIS, KY – With his team’s 6-0 victory over Montgomery County in Monday’s district tournament semifinal, Nelson Faris reached 500 wins as the Bourbon County Head Coach. He celebrated with an Ale-8 and a hot dog, which were handed to him soon after the game’s conclusion.
“It means I’ve had a lot of good kids and a lot of good sets of parents that supported and me and a lot of good assistant coaches to help me,” he said of the milestone win, his victory meal in hand.
A strong crowd turned out in support of the host Colonels at Conrad/Holmes Field, and the team got the fans riled up early with four runs in the first inning. Jake Scott hustled to beat out a throw and get on first as the leadoff and then ultimately scored the game’s opening run. J.T. Ritchie tripled to centerfield to bring home Aiden Earlywine and Xavier Baker. A Kade Hilander sacrifice fly brought home Ritchie.
The Colonel bats went quiet in the second and third but returned to their initial form in the fourth inning. An Earlywine single drove in Jaxon Vires, who had four hits on the night, to bring the score to 5-0. Then, a Baker double, drove in Earlywine to make the score 6-0, which held as the final.
On Defense, a stellar pitching performance by Ritchie held the visiting Indians in check. The sophomore pitched the entire game, gave up no runs, and worked his team out of several jams. In the sixth inning, Montgomery was able to get men on second and third with no outs, but Ritchie delivered three consecutive strikeouts to seal off the inning. He followed it up with three outs on just nine pitches in the seventh inning to seal the win. Ritchie finished the evening striking out 13 Indians.
“He is a tremendous competitor on the mound,” Faris said of Ritchie. “We talk about this to the kids, that you have to compete in life. You’re going to compete for grades in school, who is going to get the highest grades and an academic scholarship. You are going to compete for jobs. You might have to compete for your wife! There might be somebody else dating her and you have to come in and compete. So get used to competing and coming out ahead, and that’s what we did.”
Just to add, over the three games the Colonels played against Montgomery this season, they outscored the Indians 25-0.
Bourbon County (20-7, 5-2) advances to play George Rogers Clark (25-11, 7-0) in tonight’s district championship matchup. GRC won both regular season matchups by the scores of 5-1 & 7-2. Faris said that there is no place he’d rather take his shot at the top seed, a win number 501, than at home.
“The school has had the field worked on for us, it plays beautiful and looks good,” he said, looking around his home diamond. “There wasn’t one bad hop here tonight in two games, and we like to play here. We’re used to it, it’s a big yard, and our outfielders can go get fly balls.”
Regardless of the winner tonight, both teams will advance to the 10th Region Tournament, where Faris and his Bourbon County Colonels will be the host team.
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All game photos taken by Krista Barnett for the Citizen
THROWING SMOKE – Colonel sophomore pitcher JT Ritchie delivered this pitch to a Montgomery County batter during his team’s district win against the visiting Indians. Ritchie finished his complete game on the bump with 13 strikeouts that saw him give up 6 hits, with zero walks. Ritchie also helped his on cause at the plate, by belting out 2 hits, including a triple. He knocked in 2 runs and scored a run.
IN POSITION – Bourbon County sophomore shortstop Jaxon Vires fielded this ball clean during his team’s 6-0 victory over Montgomery County. At the plate, Vires had 2 hits, scored a run, and laced out an RBI double.
MILESTONE WIN FOR THE LEGENDARY COACH – Prior to the start of their district tournament game against Montgomery County, Colonel Head Coach Nelson Faris talked with the umpires and the Indians Coach to let them know the ground rules at Conrad/Holmes Field. With Bourbon’s 6-0 victory over MCHS, it gave Coach Faris his 500th career coaching win, leaving him 20 wins shy of becoming the program’s all-time winningest coach.
