A wide-open Second Region Baseball Tournament gets underway Monday at Christian County High School.
The first game at 10am features Fifth District champion Trigg County (18-11) and Eighth District runner-up Hopkinsville (9-21). The Wildcats beat the Tigers twice during the regular season by scores of 14-5 and 6-0. Trigg County has won four of five games entering the region tournament, including an 11-1 victory in the Fifth District title game.
Hopkinsville has dropped 14 of 16 games coming into the tournament with four of the losses coming by four runs or less. The Tigers beat UHA 9-4 in the district semifinals before dropping a 6-2 decision to Christian County in the title game.
Trigg County has never beaten Hopkinsville in two prior region tourney meetings in 2007 and 2010.
At 1pm, Seventh District champion Caldwell County (23-6) will play Sixth District runner-up Union County (17-20) in a rematch of the last two region championship games. The teams met twice during the regular season with each team winning a game by the score of 7-6. Caldwell County, the two-time defending region champion, was 17-2 against region competition during the regular season and has won six of seven games entering the tourney.
Caldwell County is riding a four-game winning streak into the tournament and have scored 10 or more runs in three of those. The Tigers are looking to become the first team since Christian County (2004-06) to win three straight region baseball titles.
Union County endured a stretch earlier in the season where they played 11 straight one-run games and lost nine of them. The Braves saw their six-game winning streak snapped by Henderson County in the Sixth District championship Thursday by a score of 11-0.
At 4pm, Eighth District champion Christian County (17-12) will play Fifth District runner-up Crittenden County (10-19). The Colonels went 13-1 against region competition with their only loss coming to Union County. They have won eight of ten coming into Monday’s game.
Crittenden County upset the Fifth District’s top seed 2-1 in the tournament semifinals before losing to Trigg County in the title game. The Rockets last met Christian County in the region tournament in 2010, losing 6-2. Their last win in the region tourney came in 2009 against Hopkins Central where they went on to lose to Christian County in the semifinals.
At 7pm Monday, Sixth District champ Henderson County (20-10) will meet Seventh District runner-up Madisonville (17-16). The teams did not meet during the regular season.
Henderson County has won six of eight games, with one of those losses coming to McCracken County who is ranked in the state’s top ten.
Madisonville has dropped six of seven games entering the region tournament with their only win coming over Dawson Springs 10-5 in the Seventh District Tournament semifinals.
The teams last met in the 2012 semifinals. Henderson County won 9-1 on their way to the region title. They last played in the first round in 2011.
The semifinals will be played Tuesday at 5:30 and 8:00 with the championship scheduled for Wednesday at 6:30. In case of rain, the tournament will be delayed by a day.
Fans attending the tournament are asked to enter the parking lot off Glass Avenue next to Colonel Gym. The road located next to the hitting facility off North Drive will be closed to tournament traffic.