Hayden Hunt tossed a one-hitter and the University Heights Academy Blazers defeated No. 21-ranked Campbellsville 4-1 Sunday morning in the Touchstone Energy All “A” State Baseball Tournament semifinals at Daviess County High School.
The senior right-hander, who has signed with Indiana State, was in control from the beginning, retiring 15 of the first 16 batters he faced. A dropped third strike in the bottom of the first allowed the only Eagles base runner until the sixth inning when Hunt walked Mason Willis to lead off the inning.
Willis would come around to score after an error, a sacrifice bunt, and a ground out. The run cut the lead to 3-1.
The seventh-ranked Blazers got on the board in the third inning as Jackson Flynn walked and Josh Pace reached on an error. After Ryan Luckey walked, Cadence Gibson had an RBI on a fielder’s choice.
UHA padded its lead to 3-0 in the fifth as Pace reached on a walk and Luckey singled. Cadence Gibson reached on an error and Pace scooted home for a 2-0 lead. Hunt singled through a drawn-in infield to score Luckey and it was 3-0.
The Blazers got an insurance run in the top of the seventh when Luckey reached on an erro and then moved to second on a wild pitch. He moved to third on a deep fly ball to center by Cadence Gibson and scored on another Eagles error to make it 4-1.
Campbellsville’s lone hit came in the seventh inning when Reese Swafford singled up the middle. Not only was it the only hit of the game for the Eagles, it was Swafford’s first hit of the season.
Hunt was later named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player after the Blazers defeated Beechwood 4-1 to win the state title on Sunday afternoon. He credited his pitching performance in the semifinal win as the reason.
Campbellsville started left-hander Bryson Turpin, but he was injured on a pickoff attempt two batters into the game. Kade Somerville replaced him and went 4 1/3 innings and gave up three runs to suffer the loss.
UHA had five hits in the game and Hunt had two. Aiden Jones had a ground-rule double and a single. Luckey had the other hit.
Score by Innings:
University Heights Academy 001 020 1 – 4 5 1
Campbellsville 000 001 0 – 1 1 4
WP – Hunt (7 IP, 13 SO, 2 BB).
LP – Somerville
Leading Hitters: UHA – Luckey (1B), Hunt (2 1B), Jones (2B, 1B).
Photo by Rita Catlett