It was the extra inning that did the Rebels in.
The Owen County High School baseball team rallied to tie Owensboro Catholic, only to see the Aces score a pair of runs in the eighth inning to beat the Rebels 6-4 on Saturday during the quarterfinals of the All A Classic at Applebee’s Park.
Beechwood won the state title, topping Owensboro Catholic 6-5 on Sunday.
“I’m disappointed we lost the game, but I’m not disappointed in the effort,” Owen County coach Bob Osborne said. “They worked hard and came out and played a good game against a good team.”
Two feet may have been the difference between a first-round exit and a trip to the semifinals.
Trailing 4-1 in the fifth inning, the Rebels mounted a rally.
Michael Ogden singled to right field.
With two outs, Cameron Logan hit a grounder to the shortstop, who missed the ball to keep the inning alive.
Aaron Sutherland drew a walk to load the bases, bringing clean-up hitter Trey Lenear to the plate.
“I felt like I was obligated to get a hit for the team,” Lenear said. “I had to do something, or the game was over.”
Lenear didn’t waste any time, jumping on a fast ball, smashing the ball off the left-center field fence for a 3-run double.
“I think it caught a little wind — that’s what killed us,” Lenear said. “If it had been 2 feet higher, we would have won.”
Lenear was left stranded at second, and the fifth inning ended with the game tied 4-4.
Lenear, who pitched a complete game, set the Aces down in order in the sixth inning and escaped the seventh inning after allowing a two-out single.
But the Rebels couldn’t score in the sixth or seventh innings, sending the game to extra innings.
In the top of the eighth inning, Owensboro Catholic’s Stewart Ijames drew a walk.
Neil Holland came up next, slicing a line drive to left field that was just out of the reach of a diving attempt by Logan.
Holland ended up at third with an RBI triple and later scored on a ground-out to give the Aces a 6-4 lead.
Owen County got a runner on base in the bottom half of the inning, when LeeDrew Stivers drew a walk, but the Aces ended the game with a strikeout.
“I told them ‘give yourself a chance to win’, and we did,” Osborne said. “We just didn’t do it at the end.”
Owen County struggled at the start of the game, falling behind 2-0 after one inning.
“I think we were a little nervous in the first inning and gave them two runs, but they’re a good team and they hit the ball,” Osborne said.
In the first inning Owensboro Catholic hit three singles, stole three bases and took advantage of an error and a passed ball to take the lead.
The Rebels settled down after that.
Lenear retired the side in order in the second inning.
He allowed a lead off single in the third, but catcher Josh Juett gunned down the runner trying to steal.
“In the first inning, we came out a little excited,” Lenear said. “After that, we got our heads in the game and started playing well.”
In the third inning, the Rebels got on the board.
Juett led off the inning by crushing a pitch to deep right for a double.
“He threw it outside,” Juett said. “I just hit it where it was thrown. We were trying to get guys on base and get runs any way we could.”
After Logan put down a sacrifice bunt to advance Juett to third, Sutherland hit a sacrifice fly to left field, allowing Juett to score which cut the lead to 2-1.
Lenear struck out the side in the fourth inning, but the Aces added a pair of runs in the fifth for a 4-1 lead.
In the bottom of the inning, the Rebels mounted their comeback, tying the game on Lenear’s bases-clearing double.
“We just knew we had to get some big hits, and we did, we just didn’t do it at the end,” Logan said.
Lenear threw 127 pitches in eight innings, striking out eight batters while allowing one walk.
He was the only Rebel named to the All-Tournament team.

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