Third time's not a charm for Indians

Coming into Wednesday's Class 3 District 1 championship game, the Kennett Indians were hoping to take down an opponent that had already beaten them twice this season with one of those loses coming in the SEMO Conference championship.

The Notre Dame Bulldogs have gotten the best of the Indians in recent matchups, and that trend stayed the same as the Bulldogs defeated the Indians 4-1 to capture the district title. This is the second year in a row that the Indians have fallen in defeat to the Bulldogs in the district final by the score of 4-1.

The leading cause of the Bulldogs win over the Indians was the outstanding pitching performance of Notre Dame starter Colton Young.

"Their pitcher did an outstanding job. He threw strikes all day and was able to throw us off balance at the plate. We just weren't able to get any going offensively," said Kennett head coach Aaron New about Young's performance on the mound.

Young was able to hold the Indians to one run on two hits while striking out 10 batters in the game.

The game was tied through three innings of play as both teams struggled to score that important first run. Many thought that the Bulldogs had scored the first run of the ballgame in the bottom of the first when they had a runner score from third base on a sacrifice fly, when the runner had actually left third before the ball was caught.

Kennett immediately appealed the call and the runner was called out by the third base umpire, a call that made Notre Dame head coach Jeff Graviett very unhappy. He argued his case and displayed his disagreement of the call to the umpire.

Notre Dame was able to score the first runs of the game in the bottom of the fourth with a couple of RBI hits to take a 2-0 lead. The Indians, however, were able to cut that lead to one run in the bottom of the inning.

Kennett's Daniel Lockhert reached base on a walk to start off the inning. With Lockhert able to reach third and with two outs already on the board, Kennett's Cameron Wallace hit a pop-up to the Notre Dame second basemen. The second basemen dropped the pop-up and Lockhert scored with Wallace safely making it to first.

The fifth inning was when Notre Dame was able to score the final two runs of the game. The third and fourth runs of the game for the Bulldogs were both scored by sacrifice flies that scored runners from third.

Kennett's Trey Bazzell gave his best effort on the mound but was unable to slow down the Bulldogs' offense as he only pitched four and two-thirds innings, giving up two runs on three hits during his outing on the mound. Bazzell also walked three batters and stuck out two in the game.

With Kennett's Andy Lack and Adam Grantham putting up the only two hits of the game for the Indians, Notre Dame was able to shut down Kennett in the final two innings to clinch the win and the district title for the second consecutive year.

After the game, New told his team that he was proud of the effort they gave throughout the entire season.

"I told the guys that I was proud of them," New said. "They've had a heck of a year and I hate it for the team, especially for the four seniors, that the season had to end this way."

Kennett ended their year with a record of 17-8. The Indian won the Bootheel Conference regular season and tournament titles and took second place in the SEMO Conference tournament.

"I'm as proud as I can possibly be of this bunch," New said. "They worked hard and deserved all the success they've had, but just couldn't get the win today. Our guys learned that losses are just part of the game."