By Chris Fuller
Kentucky Scouting Director

HARRODSBURG, KY - On a perfect April evening for baseball, I traveled to Mercer County for a big 46^th District matchup between a couple of top 5 Power 25 teams as No. 1 Mercer County hosted No. 4 West Jessamine. 

In my pre-game conversation with Mercer County head coach Jeremy Shope, he revealed the Titans offense had been struggling of late since losing junior second baseman and leadoff hitter Layne Peavler to injury.  In fact, Shope said they were shuffling the lineup around some for this game to try to spark the offense. 

I’d say it worked.

After a scoreless first inning, West Jessamine struck in the top of the second.  Maxx Mahon singled to left field with two outs, Troy Merida followed that up with a double down the right field line, and when the ball scooted by the Mercer County right fielder, courtesy runner Justin King came around to score to give the Colts an early 1-0 lead that would prove to be short-lived.

The Titans fought out of their offensive slump in a big way in their half of the second. 

Starting pitcher JT Long led off the inning with a double to left-center, and DH Brandon Doughty immediately gave Mercer County the lead with a two-run homer to left.  That was the start of a barrage of hits, as Tanner Robbins, Chris Goodman, Russell Sims, Conner Brown, and Jackson Stoeckinger all singled, setting the stage, once again, for Doughty, who hit his second home run of the inning, a three-run shot down the left field line.  By the time the second inning had ended, the Titans had scored 9 runs on 8 hits to take a commanding 9-1 lead.

West Jessamine plated a run in the third when Trey Merida reached base on an error and scored one out later on Christian Beckley’s RBI single to make it a 9-2 game.

Mercer County put the game away for good in their half of the fourth.  Stoeckinger smoked a one-out double down the right field line, and Long brought him home with a single up the middle to make it 10-2.  Doughty collected his third hit of the game with a soft single to left, and Logan Horn drove in Long with his first hit of the game for an 11-2 lead.  Mercer’s final run of the inning came on a RBI double by Alex Gooch, who was hitting in the leadoff spot for the first time this season.

Long retired the Colts in order in the top of the fifth, two by the way of strikeout, giving Mercer County the 12-2 run-rule victory. 

Mercer County improved to 11-1 on the season.  West Jessamine lost for the first time in 14 games this spring.

Scouting notes on both teams will be featured in the Kentucky Scout Blog later this afternoon.