Published: April 27, 2008 10:59 pm            

ADAM VANKIRK: Now that’s better

Baseball is traditionally a slow-starting sport and the 16th Region fit the bill this season.

In the first couple weeks of play I saw some sloppy ball, to put it bluntly. Routine ground balls were anything but and easy pop outs looked more like they were being fielding on a windy day at Wrigley Field rather than a windless day in northeastern Kentucky.

Things are a little better now, though, as the weather is warm for good and the high school campaign begins its final few weeks of the regular season.

Now there’s no excuses for high walk totals, base-running blunders or any of the earlier-mentioned miscues. And I don’t hear anybody giving any either.

My point is, any pretenders for the region crown are now gone. There’s only contenders.

Who is the top dog?

To me, it’s clearly Greenup County.

The Musketeers are the reigning region champions and have looked every bit like they’re not ready to relinquish that crown.

At 19-6 and a perfect 8-0 in the region, the Musketeers have yet to be challenged by anyone in the area, aside from 15th Region competitor Lawrence County.

Against 16th Region competition, the Musketeers hold a seven run advantage per game. They’ve gone over 10 runs 7-of-8 times and are putting up 13 a game. Their closest score was a 12-8 contest at Boyd County, a game in which the Musketeers had an 11-0 lead at one point.

If that isn’t dominating the competition, I don’t know what is.

But you can’t just give ink Greenup County down the repeat champs just yet. In baseball, it’s all about the postseason and there’s still plenty of ball left to be played before we get there.

So, who could challenge for the region? Well, there’s a handful of teams led by tradition-rich Boyd County.

The 2001 state champion Lions (11-12) are working on what they do so well — fielding and throwing the ball — with a team that lost quite a bit from a year ago. You can never count the Lions out.

And there’s Ashland at 15-5. In the Tomcats’ last 13, they are 10-3, but have taken losses to region foes Greenup County, Boyd County and Raceland during that stretch.

Speaking of Raceland, the Rams are finally coming around. They are 6-3 in their last nine after an 0-6 start to the season.

Fairview has won five straight after a one-run loss to East Carter, which has an impressive 18-6 record and is 9-2 in the region.

Yeah, there’s a lot of teams still in the hunt, which will thicken even more with a red-hot schedule on tap this week.

Some key region matchups this week:

Today: Greenup at Raceland, 8 p.m.

Tuesday: East Carter at Boyd County, 5:30 p.m.

Wednesday: Ashland at Greenup County, 6 p.m.

Thursday: Ashland at Boyd County, 7 p.m.

So, with a handful of good ones left to play, let’s work this thing into the postseason.

ADAM VANKIRK can be reached at avankirk@dailyindependent.com.

        

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