It’s been 60 years since Maysville’s last – and only – baseball state title.
The Whitaker Bank/KHSAA State Baseball Tournament begins on Thursday when Greenup County and Muhlenberg County take the field at Whitaker Bank Ballpark, marking the 60th anniversary of Maysville High School’s 1958 state title run.
The Bulldogs made their first trip to the state tournament in 1941, but fell in the quarterfinals to Manual, 16-2.
The 1958 run wouldn’t end so early.
The Maysville was team coached by Woodie Crum and consisted of Jackie Allison, Duane Faris, David Green, Chuck Hayslip, Bob Hutchinson, Phil Hutchinson, Bob Reetz, Robert Alexander, Eugene Fetters, Ulysses Greene, Kenny Smith, Allen Smith, Dwight Murphy and Billy Joe Knox. They posted a 10-2 record in the 1958 regular season, with the only two losses coming to the University of Kentucky freshman team, 2-1, in 11 innings and to Ashland, a team that made it to the state tournament that year, losing in the second game of a doubleheader during the regular season.
“The only reason we played them [UK] was because we had an outstanding high school team and only outstanding high school teams would play college freshman teams,” said Faris, a freshman left fielder on the team.
The Bulldogs had to go through tough competition in northern Kentucky before making it to the state tournament. They beat Campbell County, 6-0, and Newport Catholic, 5-4, to earn a spot in the region final.
Maysville beat Boone County in the regional title game, 11-3. Allen Smith, Maysville’s ace, surrendered a home run in the game to Allen Feldhaus, who went on to become the winningest coach in Mason County basketball history.
The Bulldogs had to face off with Shelbyville in their first game of the 1958 state tournament at Stoll Field in Lexington. Crum, described by Faris as a “fireballer,” made the decision that he would give Allison, the regular shortstop, the ball to pitch.
Smith was called upon to take over the final three innings of that game and the Bulldogs won, 3-2, setting up a date with Louisville Manual, the tournament favorite, in the semifinals. Manual beat Fort Knox, 8-6, in the quarterfinals, while Owensboro and Harlan won the other two quarterfinal matchups.
Faris also did some catching, but, in his words, “you don’t catch a guy as good as Allen Smith as a freshman.” Hayslip was the main catcher, according to Faris, but he recalls Smith’s long arms and the command he had with his pitches from watching him and catching him some in the summers.
“His two primary pitches were his fastball and his curveball – it was outstanding. He had a changeup to go with it, too,” said Faris. “But the main thing was his control. He didn’t ever walk anybody.
“He was about 5-10, but he had arms he could almost tie his shoelaces with not bent over,” added Faris. “He had the longest arms you’ll see and big hands for a man that was 5-10.”
Alexander, Greene and Murphy became the first three African Americans to play in the state tournament. Of the three, Alexander was the only one to play in the first game of the tournament.
“Quite frankly, it wasn’t something we thought about in Maysville,” Alexander said in a 2008 interview with The Ledger Independent.
Crum put the ball in Smith’s hands against Manual. Maysville managed to come away with a 1-0 victory to earn a spot in the final against Harlan, who beat Owensboro, 9-6. The only run of the contest scored when Greene was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.
Smith got the nod in the final, pitching Maysville to a 7-1 victory against Harlan to claim the state title. Greene powered the offense with a long home run in the game.
Smith pitched 17 innings in the state tournament. He allowed only six hits and one run. The ace, who also finished as Maysville’s second all-time leading scorer in basketball with 1,975 points, went on to continue his baseball career at LSU.
“Everybody says Maysville won the championship in 1958,” said Faris. “I say Allen Smith won the championship in 1958.”
He went 22-9 over three seasons at LSU with 175 strikeouts and a 1.82 ERA. His best season came in 1961, when he helped the Tigers to an SEC title. He went 10-2 on the mound that season and pitched the team to a 4-3 win in the opening game of the championship series against Auburn. He was the team’s MVP that season, was named to the All-SEC team and was selected as an All-American. Smith, who passed away in 1999, had his career cut short when he was spiked in the foot during a game with LSU and returned to pitching before the injury healed, causing further damage and preventing Smith from pitching moving forward.
“Even though he was so good, he was the most humble person you’d ever see,” said Faris. “That’s what I remember most of all about him.”
Since 1958, no other team from Maysville has even advanced to the state tournament. Mason County claimed a 10th Region title in 1994, but from 1976 to 2002, only the final four teams were in the state tournament. From 2003 until 2009, quarterfinalists were also part of the state tournament. In 2010, the state tournament field was expanded to include all 16 regional champions, instead of having a sectional, or semi-state, feeding into a four-team or eight-team state tournament.
And with St. Patrick and Mason County both falling in the 10th Region Tournament earlier this spring, it’ll be at least 61 years before a second baseball state title in Maysville.
