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5/20/2016
By Dan Manley
Advocate Sports Editor
An unusual few days of baseball action last week for the Montgomery County Indians.
And all of the action came against the Clark County Cardinals. Imagine that.
The week began with the Indians and the Cardinals facing off Tuesday evening at Cardinal Field in Winchester.
The Cards came up with two runs on but one hit in the bottom of the third inning for a 2-0 lead and then lightning was spotted and later the rains came and the game had to be suspended at that point.
The two teams were already slated to play a makeup game, their other district contest, the following day, at Bobby Joe Whitaker Field in Mt. Sterling.
In that contest the Cardinals scored a pair of runs in the first inning and then senior lefthander Peyton Dove blanked the Indians on five hits and also hit a two-run home run in the seventh inning as the Cards took a 5-0 victory, wrapping up the No. 1 seed in the district.
On Friday, after another rain day on Thursday, the teams resumed their game in Winchester because it was still needed to determine the home team advantage between Montgomery County and Bourbon County in the post-season tournament.
When action resumed, MCHS senior Andrew Dyer resumed his duties on the mound and blanked the Cards on two hits over the next seven innings as the Indians rallied for a 5-2, ten-inning victory.
The Indians have several games scheduled this week to complete regular season play, although the weather forecast is not too promising.
The Friday win over Clark County improved Montgomery County’s record to 18-7 while Clark County fell to 20-9.
Here’s a closer look at the two games:
MCHS 5, Clark County 2 (10 innings)
Dyer and Clark County sophomore Jake Ware were able to each throw 10 innings in the game thanks to the rain delay.
Players are limited to 120 pitches in a game but because of the two days of rest in between they both were able to come back and complete the contest, Dyer finishing with 145 pitches and Ware with 141.
The game opened with Montgomery County sophomore Paul Wise hitting a drive into left field that looked like it would be over the head of senior Kameron Finley. But he reached up an made an extra-base hit saving catch and Ware ended up coasting through the first three innings.
Meanwhile, Clark County put together a two-run rally in the bottom of the third.
Catcher Conner Gray opened the inning with a walk and then a courtesy runner stole second. J. J. Johnson then sacrificed and he was also safe at first with the runner advancing to third base on the play. Then Finley singled to center to drive in one run and an error in the outfield allowed another run to come home to make it 2-0 Cardinals
Dyer then picked up a strikeout and the game was called at that point when one of the umpires spotted lightning.
That delay that started out at 30 minutes ended up lasting three days with the teams no resuming on Friday at that same spot.
When the game resumed on Friday, Dyer was in complete control with the exception of a couple of walks and an error.
Clark had a runner on third in the sixth thanks to a walk, a stolen base and a ground out but a strikeout by Dyer ended that mini-threat.
In the eighth inning the Cardinals loaded the bases with one out on an error, a hit batsman and a walk but the Indians shifted to two outfielders and were prepared to cut off a runner at the plate but Dyer got back-to-back strikeouts in the middle part of the Cardinal batting order.
The Cardinals did not have a hit over a span of six and two-thirds innings before getting a pair of hits in the bottom of the 10th before Dyer got a couple of strikeouts to end the game.
The Indians had base runners in the second, third and fourth innnings but couldn’t get a run across.
Finally, in the fifth, Shelby Combs walked with one out to begin a rally.
After Ware got his second strikeout of the inning he hit Austin Adams with a pitch and with two outs, Paul Wise lined a single to center and both runners came across to tie the game.
Montgomery County had base runners again in both the sixth and seventh innings but couldn’t score and then Ware settled down and retired the side in order in both the eight and ninth innings.
He also got the lead-off batter in the 10th on a fly ball but then he hit Wise with a pitch.
Anthony Harless followed with a single to center and then Dillon Day lined a single to left to give the Indians the lead.
After Dalton Stevens flied out to left, Dyer helped his own cause with a single that brought in two more runs and gave him some breathing room going to the bottom of the 10th.
It turned out he needed that cushion when the Cards put two runners on but he picked up his ninth and 10th strikeouts of the game in that inning to preserve the victory, getting his seventh win of the season.
The Indians finished with five runs on eight hits while the Cards had just two runs on three hits. Dyer struck out 10 but walked six.
Ware struck out 12 and walked only two but he also hit two batters.
Clark County 5, MCHS 0
Senior lefthander Peyton Dove tossed a five-hit shutout and also doubled and hit a two-run homer as the Cardinals beat the Tribe to wrap up the top seed in the 40th District regular season race.
Dove opened the game with a Texas-league double down the left-field line against Montgomery County starter Corey Ledington.
Cameron Finley then reached on an error with a run scoring and then Chandler English drilled a double to right-center to bring in another run as the Cards took a 2-0 lead.
Montgomery County had runners on in the first two innings to no avail.
Wise singled leading off the first and then was picked off by Dove.
Dyer singled with one out in the second and was picked off and then Ledington followed with a base hit.
So two innings into the game the Indians had sent seven batters to the plate and had three hits but were scoreles
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