The Park Hills Central Rebels sit at 2-3 in this rain shortened season after falling to the Festus Tigers and the Valle Catholic Warriors before bouncing back in a big way on Friday. The Boys Varsity team stumbled against Festus (14-6) on Monday and Valle (9-7) on Thursday, but got back in the win column on Friday with a monster 18-2 victory over Cape Notre Dame.
Monday’s tilt against the Tigers was going great and Central looked to have things pretty well in hand with a 5-0 lead going into the sixth. Then the wheels came off. Erratic pitching and an untimely error led to two runs in the sixth and 12 in the seventh, ultimately sinking the Rebels. They fell 14-6 as six pitchers combined to issue 16 free passes in the game.
Offensively Kendall Horton had a solid game going 2-for-3 with a double and a pair of RBI, while Brendon Jenkins drove in two as well. On the mound, Nathan Hamski had an excellent start, allowing just one hit over four scoreless innings, but his bullpen faltered behind him. The five relievers that followed were responsible for 14 runs on five hits and 13 walks.
Looking for a more complete effort across the board, the Rebels travelled to Valle to take on the always tough Warriors. This was a much closer affair, but ultimately didn’t go Central’s way either. Valle jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead after two, but the Rebels tied it up in the third. Unfortunately, the Warriors added another in their half of the fourth before exploding for five more in the fifth. The Rebels didn’t go down easy though as they mounted a comeback in the sixth with four of their own, but it fell just short and they took the 9-7 loss that dropped them to 1-3.
Slade Schweiss, Casen Murphy and Jett Bridges each had two RBI and combined for five of the seven Central hits to make up the majority of the offense. On the bump, Murphy took the loss as he surrendered eight runs on three hits over 4.1 innings. That doesn’t tell the whole story though, as he was victimized by defensive gaffes and poor control. Only two of the runs were earned, but he did allow six free passes in his start.
Fast forward 24 hours and the Rebels were singing a much different tune after blowing the doors off of Cape Notre Dame. The game started off much like the previous two with Cape going up 2-0 after the first, but the Rebels came storming back with one in the third and then seven in fourth. They blanked Cape the rest of the way and added a 10-spot in the seventh for the icing, on top of icing, on top of icing on the cake. The 18-2 victory moved them back into the win column, which had to feel like that monkey was making his way off their backs.
Ty Schweiss was the heavy hitter in this one, driving in four and scoring a pair of runs with his 2-for-4 performance, while Michael Vance had a big day as well with a double and three driven in. As a team, Central was fast and patient in this one, using 13 walks and nine steals to complement their 11 hits for the 18-run barrage.
On the pitching side of things, Hamski toed the rubber again in this one and held Cape to just two runs on one hit and five walks over four innings while fanning four to get the Win. Jenkins came on in relief and posted three scoreless inning with five Ks against just one hit and one walk to pick up the save.
The Rebels will look to build up some momentum while riding this recent wave of offense to try and get their record back to .500 on the season. Up next they will travel to take on St. Pius X on Wednesday 4/6 at 4:30 pm.
