LEXINGTON, Ky. – Clayton Stallings doesn’t plan to go public with the story of how he broke his right hand in mid-April, but he’s more than happy to talk about his stellar glove work that has helped the Bullitt East High School baseball team move within two victories of a state title.
The senior second baseman made three highlight-reel plays in the field and also sparked a sixth-inning rally as the Chargers beat Scott County 6-5 on Saturday in the quarterfinals of the Rawlings/KHSAA State Tournament at Whitaker Bank Ballpark.
“That’s what I do,” said Stallings, whose father, Chris, is the Bullitt East girls basketball coach. “Fielding has always been my thing. … This is what I dream of. I love it. It’s awesome. I’m so happy it’s not even funny.”
MORE COVERAGE | Bullitt East-Scott County photo gallery
For the third straight postseason game Bullitt East (28-10) rallied from an early deficit and now finds itself in the state semifinals. The Chargers will face the Campbell County-Hazard winner at 8:30 p.m. Friday.
Bullitt East trailed DeSales 3-1 in the Sixth Region final before winning 14-6 and was down 2-0 before rallying for a 6-3 victory over Oldham County in Friday’s state tournament opener.
“We’re not planning that, I promise you that,” Stallings said. “Coach (Jeff) Bowles told us that day during the regional championship, ‘Don’t freak out whenever you get down.’ We’re not used to it. We don’t want to get down. But we know as soon as we get in the other team’s bullpen that we’re set and we got ’em.”
Both teams scored three runs in the first inning, and Scott County (28-11) took a 5-3 lead in the top of the second on a sacrifice fly by Brice Fryman and an RBI single by Sam Sutton.
But Bullitt East pitcher Troy O’Brien (5-2) settled down the rest of the way, allowing just two baserunners from innings three through six. He also got plenty of defensive help from Stallings, who made a pair of nice plays in the top of the sixth.
“I just calmed down and started hitting my spots,” O’Brien said. “I cooled down in the dugout a little bit and relaxed.”
Stallings led off the bottom of the sixth inning with a walk to spark a three-run rally. Mitchell Langley’s RBI double pulled the Chargers within 5-4 before Jacob Reece came up with runners at first and second and two out.
Reece singled to center field to score Derrick Kromenacker with the tying run. When the throw to home plate bounced away from Cardinals catcher Braden Kopp, courtesy runner Zach Jones also scored to give Bullitt East a 6-5 lead.
“They got some timely hits in that inning, and that was the difference,” Scott County coach Scott Willard said. “Give (Bullitt East) credit. They made a ton of plays.”
Cooper Robb led off the Scott County seventh inning with a single, but Garrett Wilson retired the next three batters to record his second save in the state tournament.
Now it’s on to the state semifinals for the first time since 2009, when the Chargers fell to Owensboro 6-5.
“For a lot of people, this is it,” Bowles said. “We always tell them that we want to give them something to talk about at their reunion. When they’re old and fat and sitting around, they can talk about stuff like this.
“But not right now. We have playing to do, and we’re not finished.”
Jason Frakes can be reached at (502) 582-4046 and jfrakes@courier-journal.com.
SCOTT COUNTY 320 000 0 – 5 7 1
BULLITT EAST 300 030 x – 6 8 0
WP – Troy O’Brien (5-2). LP – Sam Sutton (4-3). SV – Garrett Wilson (2). HR – Sam Sutton (SC). 2B – Trey Binder (SC), Mitchell Langley (BE), Derrick Kromenacker (BE).