'We've just found a way:' How Ballard baseball overcame injuries to reach district final

David Trager was brought to tears as he reflected on the adversity his Ballard High School baseball team has faced this season, losing four key players to season-ending injuries.

The biggest blow came when senior catcher and team captain Brady Lysher suffered a torn ACL during a game in late March.

“These guys have gone through a lot of adversity this year,” Trager said. “When you lose a guy like (Lysher), it’s a blow to his teammates emotionally when they have that kind of respect for him. That put us in a tough spot. My hat’s off to the rest of the guys for finding a way to get over that hurdle. We’ve just found a way to stay in games.”

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The Bruins are peaking at the right time and showed it Wednesday, routing rival Eastern 12-1 in the semifinals of the 28th District Tournament at Kentucky Country Day.

Ballard (16-10) has won six in a row and figures to be a tough out in next week’s Seventh Region Tournament.

“We kept the team mentality of playing for each other,” junior pitcher Sam Bevin said. “It all sort of clicked at the end of the season, and we’re glad it’s working well for us.”

Bevin was on his game Wednesday, allowing a run and five hits and striking out five over six innings. Bevin (4-1) helped the Bruins avenge a 6-5 loss at Eastern on April 28.

“We got up 5-0 early, and I just put fastballs in the zone and let my defense work,” Bevin said. “That worked well for me today.”

The Bruins sent 11 batters to the plate and scored five runs in the top of the first inning. Lavon Thomas led off with an infield single, and Stephen Hayden and Bevin reached on bunt singles to load the bases.

Dylan Ecken, Cole Gaddie, DeShaun McGinnis, Kam Clark and Tony Byrd all had RBIs during an inning that saw just two batted balls leave the infield.

Trager said the game plan was to use a “small ball” approach against Eastern starter Henry Craig (6-2).

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“He can throw,” Trager said. “I don’t think that was his best stuff today. We had that respect for him to where we were playing for early runs when we had opportunities. We were fortunate to string some things together and put some numbers on the board.”

The Eagles never recovered from the slow start.

“It happened so fast, we didn’t even know what happened,” Eastern coach T.J. Graves said. “It’s frustrating. We felt like we were prepared. It wasn’t our day.”

What it means

Ballard advances to face Christian Academy (16-15) in Friday’s 5 p.m. district final at KCD. The Centurions beat the Bruins 5-0 on May 3 as senior Jack Perdue pitched a two-hitter and struck out nine.

Both Ballard and CAL will advance to next week's Seventh Region Tournament.

Eastern finished 24-12.

Key moment

Ballard’s five-run first inning proved to be more than enough, but the Bruins scored three more runs in the second inning — all with two out — to put the game away.

Clark coaxed a bases-loaded walk for a 6-0 lead, and Byrd followed with a two-run single to make it 8-0.

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Eastern loaded the bases in the third and fifth innings but managed just one run.

By the numbers

Along with his solid pitching performance, Bevin led Eastern’s eight-hit attack by going 2 for 4 with a walk, two runs and two RBIs.

Eastern junior left fielder Ben Brown was 2 for 2 with a walk.

They said it

Trager on Bevin’s strengths as a pitcher: “His knowledge and versatility. He has a very good awareness of his body and what it’s doing. You saw him drop down on a couple of pitches, and that’s something we worked on in the offseason. We knew his velocity would be lower to mid-80s, but he has the awareness to throw a wrinkle in there.”

Graves on his team finishing the season with four straight losses: “We did not peak at the right time, period. We made it up to be ranked 17th in the state, and we were hot. The last two weeks we just did not play good baseball. The wheels fell off, and I couldn’t stop it. It just carried into today. We literally forgot how to baseball.”

Jason Frakes: 502-582-4046; jfrakes@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @kyhighs.

BALLARD    530   022 -  12   8   0

EASTERN    001   000 -   1   5   3

WP – Sam Bevin (4-1). LP – Henry Craig (6-2).

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: KHSAA baseball: Ballard beats Eastern in 28th District Tournament semi