By G. MICHAEL GRAHAM
Fort Thomas Matters Sports Reporter
The Newport
Central Catholic Thoroughbreds baseball team added another state championship
in what has been a banner year.
NewCath
claimed its first-ever All “A” State championship Tuesday with two wins. The
Thoroughbreds (17-10) downed the Hazard Bulldogs, 4-1 in the semifinals before
pulling away from the Danville Admirals, 8-1 in the championship game in
Lexington.
NewCath won
the Class 2A state championship in football on December 1 before the boys basketball
team won the All “A” Championship in Frankfort in January. The girls basketball
team finished All “A” Runner-up in January as well.
“It’s a great accomplishment,” said Jeff Schulkens, NewCath Head Coach. “We completed the tri-fecta. We pressed
some the first three innings (against Danville). We tried to hit the ball too
hard. After that, we relaxed and each guy went up to the plate worried about
doing his job.”
The
Thoroughbreds pitching and defense came through again. NewCath outscored the
three opponents, 16-2 for the tournament and made no errors in both games.
“Our defense has been unreal,” said Kevin Hoffstedder, NewCath catcher. “We started off slow with a couple errors a
game, but we’ve had games the last few weeks where we haven’t had any errors.
When we play error-free baseball, we’re tough to beat.”
Michael
Bueter pitched the third complete game of the tournament for the Thoroughbreds
in the championship game. He struck out two and allowed just two hits and one
walk.
Against Hazard,
Connor Bartels threw the complete game. He struck out three with one walk and
four hits.
“It’s a huge confidence booster,” Bartels said. “Josh
(Cain) and I knew we had to deal. We ended up doing what we had to do. I told
Bueter he doesn’t need to strike many people out. Our defense was behind him.”
NewCath
pulled away from the Admirals in the championship game scoring four in the
sixth to go up 7-1. The Thoroughbreds went ahead for good with three runs in
the fourth.
“We had three pitchers ready to go if Michael (Bueter)
needed help,” Schulkens said. “That was his first complete game. But that
(run) let him relax some. It was awesome to see him complete the job.”
The
Thoroughbreds banged out eight hits in the title game. Dom Pangallo and Zach
Pangallo had two hits each and Bartels had two RBI and two stolen bases. Colin
DuPont tripled and Nick Seibert doubled with Alex Grau and Pete Collopy adding
stolen bases.
In the semifinals,
NewCath jumped on Hazard for three runs in the first inning and never looked
back. The Bulldogs cut the lead to 3-1 in the fourth before the Thoroughbreds
scored an insurance run in the seventh.
NewCath
also banged out eight hits against Hazard. Cain led the way going 3-for-3 at the
plate with a double and RBI. Grau tripled and stole a base with Bartels and Dom
Pangallo doubling.
The next
challenge for NewCath is to avoid a letdown typical of teams that go far in All
“A” State Tournaments. But the two-time defending 9th Region champions have
enough motivation to make sure that doesn’t happen.
“It will be a challenge,” Schulkens said. “The
first thing we talked about after we celebrated a bit is we’re not finished. We
have more goals in front of us. We hope to finish the regular season strong,
play well in the district tournament and we expect to play our best baseball
come the regional tournament starting Memorial Day.”
The
Thoroughbreds have a game scheduled at Campbell County today. Game time is 7
p.m.
More Cancellations:
Rain forced
the cancellation of two games Tuesday. The Highlands Bluebirds baseball team
was to play host to St. Henry and the Newport Central Catholic Thoroughbreds
softball team was to play host to St. Henry.
The
Bluebirds play host to Dixie Heights at 5 p.m. today. NewCath plays host to
Campbell County at 5 p.m. Thursday.
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