Chase County rolls through Regionals to earn State berth
By Michael Ashford (Contact)
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Photo by Adam Vogler
Chase County’s Cole Starkey, foreground, celebrates as teammate Brian Palermo (5) slides into home during the second inning of Tuesday’s Regional championship game against Humboldt in Cottonwood Falls. Chase County won 11-0 to receive a bid to the State Tournament.
Cottonwood Falls — The Chase County baseball team tied the school record for wins in a season Monday night with a Regional title game victory over Humboldt.
Now, to get the record-breaking victory, the Bulldogs will have to do something that has eluded them the past two seasons — get a victory in the State Tournament.
Chase County’s 11-0 run-rule victory over Humboldt gave the Bulldogs their 20th victory of the season and sent Chase County to State for the third straight season, with the task now becoming winning at least one game at the State Tournament.
Each of the past two seasons, Chase County has reached State only to fall in the first round.
“It feels good to make it to State three years in a row,” senior shortstop Brian Palermo said. “We got our 20th win, which is pretty awesome, and now we’ve got State. This year is our year. We’re not going out in the first round.”
But first things first, and that meant actually qualifying for State with a pair of games on Tuesday.
After a first-round bye, top-seeded Chase County made quick work of No. 4-seeded Marmaton Valley in the first game of the day, 10-0, before facing second-seeded Humboldt in the nightcap.
Photo by Adam Vogler
Chase County’s Shawn Talkington releases a pitch during the Regional championship game against Humboldt on Tuesday. Talkington struck out 10 and allowed just one hit in Chase County’s 11-0 victory.
After Chase County starter Shawn Talkington worked his way out of a jam in the first inning, the Bulldogs went about dismantling Humboldt starter Andrew Whitaker, scoring 10 runs in the first two innings on seven hits and four walks.
“Pretty much the whole year, we’ve started off kind of slow and then picked it up by the third or fourth inning,” Palermo said. “But before the game tonight, we said, ‘We can’t do that against these guys.’ We came out early and just pounded the ball and kept hitting and kept hitting. It rolled from there.”
Talkington opened the game by giving up a single and two walks to help Humboldt load the bases with one out. The sophomore came back strong, though, as he sat down Andy Honas and Chris Coronado on back-to-back strikeouts to end the threat and the inning.
“That was big to start off the game,” said Talkington, who ended his night with 10 strikeouts while allowing one hit in just five innings. “My stuff felt good, but my accuracy wasn’t really there, which happens sometimes. But after the first inning, it was kind of cruise control from there.”
Cruise was exactly what the Bulldogs did.
Chase County plated three runs in its half of the first, as Talkington scored on a double through the left side from Palermo before Kyle Hannigan’s two-RBI single to right drove home Cole Starkey and Palermo.
After Talkington struck out the side for a 1-2-3 top of the second, the Bulldogs sent 12 batters to the plate in the bottom half of the frame, scoring seven runs on five hits, a Humboldt error and a pair of wild pitches from Whitaker. Palermo and Greg Davis each came up with two-RBI hits to lead the attack in the second inning.
“I didn’t expect that,” Chase County coach Jay Talkington said. “The report I had (on Whitaker) was that he had a decent fastball and a good curveball. I expected for us to struggle some, but he came out and was struggling with his control a little bit ... and we sat on his fastball and we were able to hit really well.”
Photo by Adam Vogler
Chase County's Johnny Lang (7) slides into home ahead of the throw to Humboldt pitcher Andrew Whitaker (15) after a wild pitch during the Regional championship game on Tuesday in Cottonwood Falls. Chase County won, 11-0, and will go on to the State Tournament.
Chase County added a single run in the third to make it 11-0 when Johnny Lang singled to drive home Davis from second, and from there, the Bulldogs closed out the game.
Palermo finished 2-for-3 with three RBI and two runs scored, while Davis went 2-for-3 with two RBI and two runs scored.
“This is a big one,” said Jay Talkington, who helped Chase County win its school-record 20 games as a senior in 1975. “I didn’t sleep much last night. If we wouldn’t have won two games today, this would’ve been the most crushed bunch of kids that ever played.”
The Bulldogs, whose only loss this season was to Moundridge in the second game of the season, now enter the State Tournament — which will be held at Soden’s Grove in Emporia next Friday and Saturday — with a record in sight and a whole lot of redemption on their minds.
“We haven’t gone anywhere the last two years in the first round at State, so this one means a lot,” Shawn Talkington said. “We’d like to get past the first round instead of dominating all season and then getting beat in the first game. We’d like to put up a little hardware this year.”
Chase County 11, Humboldt 0
Tuesday at Cottonwood Falls
Humboldt 000 00 — 0 1 1
Chase County 371 0X — 11 10 0
Humboldt — Andrew Whitaker and Jacob Manbeck. CC — Shawn Talkington and Greg Davis.
W — Talkington. L — Whitaker. LOB — Humboldt 5, CC 6. 2B — CC: Brian Palermo.
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