By Chris Fuller
Kentucky Scouting Director

Despite Lexington Christian entering the first round District matchup with Lexington Catholic with a 15-16 record, the Knights knew they were in for a battle.  Such is life in the 43^rd District, which happens to contain the #3, 5, 9, and 13 ranked teams in our Power 25.  If not for a season ending injury to the #1 ranked player in the 2014 class, right-handed pitcher Lincoln Henzman, Lexington Christian would have likely made it 5-for-5 on 43^rd district teams in the rankings.

Yesterday’s game featured a pitching match-up of two Transylvania recruits in Lexington Christian’s Ryan Bale, and Lexington Catholic’s Tom Banahan.

Lexington Christian struck early when Ryan Bale’s sacrifice fly drove in Drew Schacht, and Cody Kalinowski stroked a double to score Taylor Blair for a 2-0 lead in the first inning. 

Lexington Christian extended the lead to 3-0 in the 3^rd when Blair and Bale delivered one-out singles, and Kalinowski struck again with a single to right field that plated Blair.  The LCA threat continued, and with the bases loaded and one out, Ohio University recruit Corey Wells was summoned from the bullpen.  In what turned out to be a huge turn of events, Wells recorded consecutive strikeouts to leave the bases loaded and keep Lexington Catholic in the game.

Lexington Catholic struck in the 3^rd off Bale when Connor O’Neil led off the inning with a double to left field and scored on Daniel Little’s SAC fly to make it a 3-1 game.

After LCA went down in order in the top of the 4^th, Lexington Catholic added another run with two outs as Riley Jackson singled to left, Logan Banks drew a walk, Connor O’Neil had an infield hit to load the bases, and Logan Taylor drove in Jackson with a hard single to left. 

The bottom of the 5^th turned out to be the decisive inning as Lexington Catholic got to reliever Drew Schacht. After Taylor Henley reached on an error and Trey Miller drew a walk, Evan Fraliex doubled to center field scoring pinch runner Nick Nash.  With runners at 2^nd and 3^rd and one out, Riley Jackson hit a SAC fly to score Miller for a 4-3 lead.

LCA threatened in the 7^th when Eastern Kentucky recruit Taylor Blair singled to right with one out.  Left-hander Ben Coates was brought in to face the left-handed hitting Bale and got a fielder’s choice groundout to third base.  After Kalinowski walked to put the tying run in scoring position, Evan Fraliex recorded the final out for Lexington Catholic on a ground ball to end the game and preserve the 4-3 victory.

Connor O’Neil led Lexington Catholic’s offense with 2 hits, and Wells racked up 7 K’s in his 4 innings of relief.  Kalinowski went 2-2 with 2 RBI, and Blair added 3 hits in the LCA loss.

Lexington Catholic advances to tonight’s 43^rd District semi-final match-up with Tates Creek at 8:00 PM.