'New' game for Lions: Boyd battles back vs. Ashland, wins on senior's RBI single

Apr. 20—CANNONSBURG — When Brad Newsome stepped to the plate in extra innings against Boyd County's biggest rival on Monday night, he was taking only his 10th career varsity at-bat.

The Lions senior has enough range defensively in center field that Boyd County coach Frank Conley quipped, "Now whatever he does offensively, we'll take."

Particularly after what Newsome did Monday — supply a sharp liner into left-center field to score Jonny Stevens from second base and lift the Lions over Ashland, 5-4, in eight innings at Addington Field.

"I was just thinking, 'We gotta get a run here. I gotta put my team into position where we can win this game,'" Newsome said. "I was due for a hit, I knew it and I had a lot of confidence going up to the plate."

That despite recording only one at-bat in an injury-marred sophomore season, missing out on his junior year due to the pandemic and feeling behind going into his senior campaign due to being occupied with basketball during the baseball preseason.

"He's farther along than I expected him to be right now," Conley said of Newsome. "He's starting to square balls up ... and he got ahead in that count just now. I had given him 'take sign,' 'take sign,' and I just said, 'Hey, your best swing right here,' and he put a good swing on it."

Boyd County's Jacob Vanover cranked a game-tying two-run double into the left-center-field gap in the bottom of the seventh inning to force extras, where Newsome and the Lions won it.

That capped Boyd County's rally from a 4-0 deficit through five and a half innings, which resulted in the 17th-ranked Lions' 10th consecutive win to begin the year.

No Boyd County team has won more games in a row to start a season since comprehensive KHSAA online records became available in 2001.

"At the beginning of the season, I knew we were gonna be a great team, but (Conley) tells us every day, 'Y'all don't know how good we could be,'" Newsome said. "I think that's true. I think we've got a really bright future this season."

Evan Yongue feels better about the Tomcats' future, too, based on Monday. Despite the sting of losing a four-run lead against its archrival, he said that was preferable to the 12-0 loss Ashland sustained to Boyd County seven days earlier at Alumni Field — or the other two double-digit setbacks the Tomcats had last week.

"We've been preaching the entire time with our guys, toughness and competing all the way through the game," Ashland's coach said. "It's no lie the last (few) games we've been getting mercied, and once we hit adversity, we're down. ... I think we pushed a button with our guys and we can see what kind of level we can play at today. Extremely proud."

Ashland (3-6, 1-2 64th District seeding) got on top in the first inning on Ryan Atkins's RBI single. The way Atkins pitched the first five frames, it appeared that might be enough. But the Tomcats added two more in the fifth when NeShawn Peppers motored home on a passed ball and Asher Stevens singled home another run.

"We played small ball," Yongue said. "We had a little bit of an identity today. We knew we had to do things to mix it up. We were bunting; we were stealing quite a bit."

Even more significant for Ashland — it made its fifth-inning run against Boyd County reliever Jonny Stevens, who mowed the Tomcats down to the tune of six innings of scoreless one-hit ball with 15 strikeouts a week earlier.

And Tomcats pinch runner Spencer Greene scored on a throwing error in the sixth to boost Ashland's lead to 4-0.

In the bottom of that frame, though, Boyd County got to Atkins. Peyton Jackson and Luke Preston hit consecutive two-out RBI doubles to put the Lions in position to complete their rally.

"Our game plan was to try to work counts, run Atkins's pitch count up," Conley said. "He did the absolute opposite of that. He pumped strikes, and we couldn't do anything with him for five, six innings. We finally found a chink in the armor a little bit, but we just kept battling. We were down, but we were never really out."

Atkins went six innings, allowing two runs on four hits. He fanned eight Lions and walked three.

Vanover got the win for Boyd County (10-0, 3-0 district seeding) in relief. He allowed a run on one hit and two strikeouts and stranded a Tomcat in each of his three innings of work.

"He's a tough kid," Conley said of Vanover. "Didn't have his best stuff, but he was able to minimize damage, and that's what you gotta do as a pitcher."

Kaden Brewer took the decision for the Tomcats. He came on in the seventh with the score tied, two Lions runners on and no outs and pitched out of that jam, but couldn't do it again in the eighth.

Atkins and Vanover each went 2 for 3. Jonny Stevens and Peppers scored two runs apiece.

Boyd County extended its winning streak in the series to seven games.

(606) 326-2658 — zklemme@dailyindependent.com

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Atkins, Johnson (7), Brewer (7) and Mullins; Biggs, Stevens (5), Vanover (6) and Joe Lusby. W — Vanover. L — Brewer. 2B — Atkins (A), P. Jackson (BC), Preston (BC), Vanover (BC).