Evans High School’s baseball team defeated the Covington Alcovy Tigers in both games of a doubleheader to secure the region title for the Knights on Thursday, April 21.
These two wins earned the Knights’ first region title in 21 years, with the last one being in 2001.
After being an assistant coach at Lakeside High School for 12 years, Coach Jay Matthews has already done big things in his first year as head coach for the Knights.
“It feels great. We came in as a new staff, and of course we had some hurdles where they don’t know us and we don’t know them, so we kind of had to get to know one another, but we all had the same common goal in mind in winning and winning the region title,” Matthews said.
Matthews also praised his team’s leadership during his time as head coach.
“We got nine seniors, a lot of upperclassmen, a lot of leadership and guys that are hungry to win and compete and it’s and easy transition to come in and compete,” he said.
In game one of Thursday’s doubleheader, Evans dominated with a score of 17-2.
Game two was a closer battle featuring Jackson Cliatt on the mound for the Knights against Connor Coursey for the Tigers.
The Tigers got out to an early 4-1 lead in the top of the fourth inning.
Evans would battle back with a RBI single by Ty McClintcock and double by Evan Kraus, bringing the score to 4-3 through four innings.
Hunter Parker extended the Tigers lead to 5-3 with an RBI double in the top of the fifth inning.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, Hunter Thompson gave the Knights a 7-5 lead with a game-changing grand slam. Evans added on three more runs the last two innings and went on to win the game by a score of 10-5.
The Knights will play their final game of the regular season Friday, April 22 on the road against Greenbrier at 5:30 p.m.
“Greenbrier will be a good test for us, that is definitely a playoff caliber team,” Matthews said. “It is going to be tough for us, we have had three ball games in the last three days, especially coming off a big emotional doubleheader tonight. We just have to regroup and refocus and be ready to play tomorrow.”
