With the score tied at 8-8 going into the eighth inning at Franklin County Monday night, Mercer County's leadoff batter homered to give the Titans a one-run advantage. Two runs later Mercer beat the Flyers 11-8 in high school baseball action.
Franklin County was scheduled to play Madison Southern, but due to a schedule change the Flyers played the Titans who are ranked No. 19 by the Kentucky High School Baseball Coaches Association.
The Flyers' pitching and hitting gave Franklin County, who led by as many as five runs at one point, a shot at winning the game. However, the defense lagged behind by committing eight errors.
FCHS coach Deron McDonald said that Sean Thompson's 6 1/3 innings in which he struck out seven batters, walked one and gave up four hits and six runs was excellent. However, the defense's errors proved fatal.
"We pitched great. We shut down a very good team pitching-wise," McDonald said, "but you make that many errors then you're going to get beaten. You can't make eight errors against a ball club like that."
Jacob Brackett replaced Thompson in the top of the seventh inning and gave up the tying run.
Brandon May hit a three-run homer over the center field fence in the bottom of the sixth to put the Flyers (19-7) up by four runs. With two outs in the bottom of the seventh, after a big Mercer County comeback, Ryan Conner's solo homer erased a one-run deficit and sent the game into extra innings.
Additionally, Jon Sturgill had three singles, Lyndon McKee, Chance Clifton and Trey Willis had two singles each, Tyler Woolums had a single and Conner had a single to go along with his home run.
"Ryan hit his (home run) with two outs and two strikes on him. We were down a run and he hit the ball out of the park to tie the game. May put us up at a crucial time when the momentum was about to shift," McDonald said.
"Then we came out (in top of the next inning) and Sean was throwing strikes and doing well, but it was error after error. We pitched well enough and hit the ball well enough to win the game handily, but could not make the routine plays at shortstop or second," he said.
With one out in the top of the second inning, Mercer's Lee Logue singled to right field. Wes Southworth struck out swinging and Matthew McCloud batted in Logue.
Josh Carey reached on an error in the top of the third, and Matthew Robertson's RBI single scored Carey to put the Titans up 2-0.
Conner singled in the bottom of the fifth and reached second on May's sacrifice bunt. Conner scored on McKee's single to left field, and Sturgill's two-out, two-RBI single put the Flyers up 3-2.
The Flyers got up to a four-run lead in the bottom of the sixth on May's three-run homer, and Woolum's RBI single gave Franklin County a 7-2 lead.
McCloud singled and Carey doubled in the top of the seventh, and McCloud scored on a wild pitch. Robertson reached first on an error to score a run, Zeke Edwards batted in a run and Evan Heath brought the Titans to within one run of the Flyers with an RBI single to center field.
Southworth reached first on a fielder's choice that put a runner out at second, but the throwing error allowed the Titans to score two runs and take the lead.
With two outs in the bottom of the seventh, Conner homered to tie the game at 8, but the Titans (17-6) came back in the top of the eighth to score three runs, including a solo home run by Addam Gooch, for the win.
MCSH coach Jeremy Shope said that his team is used to coming from behind. "I'll tell you what, they believe they can win. No matter what the score has been we've had some comeback wins like that all year long.
"They never say die and they battle back expecting to win the game," he added. "Addam had some great at-bats and finally drove one over the left field fence. All year long we've had some good pitching and good defense, and now we're starting to hit it a little bit.
"This is the time of year you want to start hitting," he said.
McDonald said that he was not surprised that the Titans made the kind of comeback they did. "You have to expect a team like Mercer to not give up and come back and fight.
"For some reason our guys' knees started shaking a little bit. Hopefully we'll use it as a learning experience for district, but if they can't handle the pressure in the regular season they're going to have trouble when the district gets here," he said.
The Flyers will host South Oldham on Thursday at 6 p.m. and play at Oldham County Friday at 6 p.m.