By Chris Fuller
Kentucky Scouting Director

It had been since 1938 since the Prestonsburg Black Cats had made an appearance in the Kentucky State Baseball Tournament. 

They proved they belonged yesterday with a 3-0 win over North Laurel in the second game of the day at Whitaker Bank Ballpark.

The Black Cats got the scoring started in the third when starting pitcher Trey Stapleton singled home Bryson Williams for a 1-0 lead, and would have added more had it not been for an outstanding throw from North Laurel center fielder Marcus Carson to throw out Grant Anderson at the plate.

In the meantime, Stapleton was pounding the strike zone with all of his pitches, racking up 4 strikeouts in the first two innings.

North Laurel replaced starting pitcher Weston Griebel with Carson in the fourth inning, and Carson held the Black Cats offense at bay with five strikeouts in his first two innings of work.

Stapleton continued his impressive performance when Carson led off the North Laurel sixth inning with a double and was advanced to third base with a sacrifice bunt by Griebel.  With the tying run at third base, one out, and North Laurel’s Ethan Maxey and Zach Hurley coming to the plate (3 and 4 hitters in the lineup), Stapleton got back to back strikeouts to preserve the 1-0 lead.

“I like working under pressure,” Stapleton said.  “There is nothing like competing on the big stage, and I knew that was a big moment in the game so I just came with my best and was able to get two big strikeouts there.”

Prestonsburg added two big insurance runs in the top half of the seventh as Carson suddenly had trouble locating the strike zone.  Hunter Brown drew a one-out walk, and Adam Grifith followed with a walk of his own to put runners on first and second base.  After Carson got a strikeout for the second out of the inning, Dalton Shepherd walked to load the bases, and then a passed ball allowed Brown to score for a 2-0 lead.  Two more consecutive walks forced home Griffis with another run to bulid the lead to 3-0.

Stapleton got three fly balls in the bottom of the seventh to record the complete game shutout victory.

“Despite it being so long since Prestonsburg had made an appearance in the tournament, our guys are just not happy to be here,” head coach Shane Simpkins said.  “We came here with the intention of winning some ball games.  We had eight hits in the first three innings with only one run to show, but we’re going to be aggressive on the bases and make the defense make plays; that’s just our style of play.”

Prestonsburg advances to face Mercer County June 5 at 6:00 PM in the quarterfinals.