Ledger Independent – Maysville Online

Augusta-Bracken postponed, Mason awaits winner in twinbill Thursday

The weather forecast didn’t lie.

With a heavy chance of rain on Wednesday, Mother Nature delivered, wiping out the 39th District baseball tournament semifinal matchup between Bracken County (13-12) and Augusta (6-12).

The game will now be played on Thursday at 5 p.m., the winner not only getting a chance at Mason County for a 39th District championship 30 minutes after completion of the semifinal matchup, but the final berth into the 10th Region tournament.

With graduations ahead, Augusta’s on Friday, Mason County’s on Saturday, everything will be possibly done to get the two games in on Thursday. The start of the 10th Region tournament is slated to begin on Monday, if the district tournament were pushed back any further such as having to play on Sunday, that would then hinder pitching options for the two teams advancing. Monday and Tuesday of this week to play the district tournament was unavailable due to umpire availability.

The Royals enter the tournament as the favorite to win their sixth straight district title, having won all four regular season matchups with both the Panthers and Polar Bears. The Royals are hot down the stretch, going 11-2 in their last 13 to end the regular season at 16-13.

They’ll get the luxury of seeing who their opponent is and throwing out their best pitching option when the championship game comes. If the regular season is any indicator, Eli Porter or Landon Scilley will be that option, Porter 4-3 with a 3.13 ERA, Scilley 6-1 with a 1.75 ERA.

Expected to face them in the championship is the Polar Bears, but Augusta has shown they won’t be a pushover, playing a tight 3-2 game in a loss to the Polar Bears on April 29 and lost 5-0 in the last game of the regular season on Saturday.

If the Panthers want to pull something off they haven’t in over 20 years in beating the Polar Bears, they’ll need their bats to respond better, having collected just two hits in the two contests, none in the first one despite being able to put two runs on the board.

Expect Augusta to trot out Keeton Bach on the hill, the Panthers freshman going the distance in the first contest, taking the loss, but a strong showing of five hits, two earned runs, three walks and seven strikeouts keeping the Panthers in it to the finish.

The Polar Bears have three options on the bump that have stood out for them this season, Josh Hamilton, Hank Krift and Ross Lucas all seeing action against Augusta. Hamilton struck out five in two innings of work in the first matchup, but has only pitched once since then after suffering a hamstring injury in the contest to cut his day on the hill short. Lucas has pitched eight innings against the Panthers, coming in for five no-hit innings in the first contest and allowing just one hit over three innings in the second contest. He’s struck out 13 and walked five. Krift threw four innings of one-hit baseball in the Polar Bears 5-0 victory over the Panthers Saturday, striking out three and walking two.

From there the 10th Region tournament field is all set outside of the Bracken-Augusta winner. Campbell County and Bishop Brossart qualified out of the 37th District, Nicholas County and Harrison County in the 38th, Mason County in the 39th and George Rogers Clark and Montgomery County in the 40th.

The 37th District championship was pushed back to Friday at 5 p.m., the 40th District title game is Thursday at 7 p.m.and the 38th District championship status was unknown at press time, originally slated to be played Wednesday at 5:30 p.m.