St. Xavier Defeats Russell County 11-1 to win 9th State Title

For the fourth time since 2014, and ninth overall, the St. Xavier Tigers (34-10) are state champions. They defeated the Russell County Lakers 11-1 on Saturday night at Kentucky Proud Park in the 2022 Clark’s Pump and Shop State Baseball Tournament.

St. X’s Cooper Smith tied the state all-time record for triples in a season (13) with one in the bottom of the first, but Cody Luttrell’s pitching kept him stranded

The Tigers got the bats going in the top of the 3rd. John Paul Jardina reached on an error, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt, then moved to third on Zach Mark’s infield hit, and scored on a Smith flare to center. 

Cooper Smith gets it to drop in short CF to put St X up 1-0 Top 3rd pic.twitter.com/Bdh76NgkTm

— Troy Howell (@teeroyhowell) June 11, 2022

Jake Bennett’s single to right scored Smith. Sophomore Jake Gregor struck out but both runners moved up on a steal. Landon Aker’s single scored two to push the lead to 4-0. Ryan Cornella added a single to put runners on the corners. Ben Purnell’s RBI scored Akers but Mayes Gosser threw out Cornella at third to end the inning, but the damage was done. 5-0 St. X.

A 2-out, 2-run Landon Akers single makes it 4-0 St. X in 3rd. pic.twitter.com/gZD8KqohC8

— Troy Howell (@teeroyhowell) June 12, 2022

The Lakers had chances to answer but mostly came up empty.

With one out in the bottom of the third, Max Gosser was hit by a pitch and Trace Stringer doubled. Mayes Gosser hit a deep would-be sacrifice fly, but Max Gosser’s apparent run was not counted on appeal due to the umpire ruling that he left third base before the ball was caught, ending the inning.

Russell County got on the board in the 4th when Nathan Lawson tripled and scored on Aidan Antle’s single. After a strikeout, Evan Hammond doubled, moving Antle to third, but Gregor was able to get pinch hitter Owen Loy out on a grounder back to the mound.

St. Xavier broke it open in the fifth when Ben Purnell delivered a three-run RBI hit and scored on Jardina’s double. Marks added a RBI single to make it 10-1. Max Cherry tacked on a 7th inning RBI for the Tigers. Russell County (31-7) was playing in the state championship for the first time in program history but couldn’t get the bats going against Gregor, a Louisville commit. He allowed one earned run in four innings, striking out four. 

Since 2014, St. Xavier is 16-0 in state tournament games but 20-4 in 7th region tournament games. Ironically, they were 7-1 in postseason play this year, losing to Male in the district finals in their only non-elimination playoff game. That’s how tough Louisville baseball is. Kentucky doesn’t have class state tournaments based on school size. Large Louisville schools have won state every year, except two, since 2013, with another large school, Tates Creek, winning in 2019. West Jessamine won in 2015.