BROOKSVILLE – Despite the lumps, bumps and bruises throughout the regular season, the Mason County baseball team landed themselves in a familiar spot Wednesday evening.
Just an hour after winning their district semifinal game against Bracken County, the Royals were able to jump on the scoreboard quickly on St. Patrick, cruising to their third straight 39th District Championship.
Despite recording just six hits, the Royals showed patience at the plate with 10 walks and took advantage of four Saints’ errors in a 13-1, five inning victory.
“This season’s been up and down. The weather has been crazy, but this is what you work for,” Royals coach Tom Posey said. “After last year this is what we work towards. We’re very fortunate to where we’re at and now we’ll just get ready for the regional tournament.”
After an 8-1 win over the Polar Bears in the semis, the Royals wasted no time by putting four runs up on the Saints in the top of the first, all done so with two outs.
“When you’re in this situation with the district championship you want to get what you can early and let your players play and try to make things happen,” Posey said.
Carson Brammer and David Selby each scored on passed balls while Dylan Mitchell walked and worked his way around the paths with two stolen bases. He’d score on an error and Nicholas Bramel followed with an RBI single, scoring Nickolas Frame.
“The errors have haunted us this year, that plays in to lack of being able to be on the field because of the weather,” Saints coach J.T. Williams said. “But I was encouraged, proud of these guys and think we did okay.”
Brammer’s sac fly to center scored Trey Cracraft in the second to make it 5-0.
After Brammer opened up the bottom half of the first on the mound with three straight strikeouts, the Saints were able to scratch a run across in the second after Baylen Bauer walked, stole second and later scored on Cesar Briseno’s infield RBI single.
Five more Royals runs came in the third as they put together three hits and walked twice. Bramel, Zach Drury and Brammer each drove runs in during the frame.
Mason County’s bullpen did the rest from there as Bramel, Landon Bowling and Brayden Porter worked three innings of relief without allowing another Saints baserunner and striking out five, including Porter striking out the side in the fifth to end it.
The run-rule came in effect when the Royals plated three in the fifth, all without recording a hit, walking six straight times at the plate. J’Kari Gause, Matthew Barnes and Tyler Stice all scored on passed balls in the frame before a double play ended the inning.
The win gets Mason County one of four No. 1 seeds as they head into the start of the 10th Region Tournament on Monday. They’ll find out their opponent in Friday’s draw. The Royals haven’t won a regional tournament game since 2014, losing three straight in the first round.
“No errors, no mistakes, we need to have our kind of game and have a little luck on our side,” Posey said. “We need to work on our hitting and our bunting and make sure everyone’s arms are good.”
The Saints will enter with a No. 2 seed as they currently sit at 6-6 on the year. Four of those wins have come against a one-win Augusta team.
“I’m hoping to have everybody, this is probably the fourth game where we’ve had almost everybody playing. If we can just make the easy plays and not give four or five outs an inning, we can be respectable,” Williams said.
The regional tournament site is Campbell County.
MASON COUNTY—-415-03X-X—-13-6-0
SAINT PATRICK—-010-00X-X—-1-1-4
RBI- (MC) Brammer 2, Bramel 2, Frame, Drury, Devine (SP) Briseno
LOB- Mason 5, St. Patrick 1
WP- Bramel. LP- Williams.
Records: Mason County 10-11, St. Patrick 6-6
