By JOE MATHIS

Contributing Writer

It’s been almost two years since Boyle County baseball has lost a regular season district game.

The Rebels continued that trend yesterday, opening up their 2019 district slate with an 8-2 win over Garrard County in a game where Boyle had hits from seven of their nine starters and stole five bases.

And it didn’t take long for Boyle County to put runs up on a young Garrard County team.

In the bottom of the first, Boyle County leadoff hitter Cameron Yates reached on a single, then moved to second on a Luke Gaffney walk. Two batters later, Ethan Carter hit a ground ball that was botched by the Garrard infield and allowed Yates to score, then Jack Briese hit a ground ball to short that plated Gaffney.

Garrard trimmed the Boyle lead in half in the top of the third when Ethan Wall’s two-out single scored Andrew Dailey, who led off the inning with a single. But that one-run deficit was short lived.

In the bottom half of the frame, Boyle got the run back when Karson Thompson doubled, then Nathan Eldridge collected his first hit and RBI of the season with a single to left field to score Thompson.

From there, Garrard County had to find a way to scrape across multiple runs — a tall task with Boyle ace Blake Samons on the mound.

Coming into the game, Samons was tied for second in the state with three wins and tied for 13th with 21 innings pitched. He would add to both those totals by the time the game ended, going six innings, giving up two runs while striking out nine.

“He pitched well. He pitched well to keep us in it early,” Boyle head coach Kyle Wynn said. “We’re asking a lot of our pitchers right now to keep us tight and that way if we need to play some small ball we can. (The way he threw) takes pressure off the defense. Blake threw well.”

With Samons dealing, the Rebels could focus on their offense, scoring twice more in the bottom of the fourth with Gaffney ripped a double to center field that sailed over Garrard center fielder Trace Poynter’s head and brought Eli Glasscock and Yates across the plate to make it 5-1.

Garrard didn’t go away quietly, again cutting into the Boyle lead when Wall singled to score Aiden Foley, who began the top of the fifth with a double. However, it was all that Garrard could muster that frame and for the rest of the game.

Boyle then put the game out of reach in the bottom of the fifth courtesy of the bottom of their order.

The Rebels loaded the bases with nobody out when eight-hole hitter Connor Samons lasered a ball to center field to score one run, then the nine hole hitter Glasscock’s sacrifice fly scored a run — then a second run when the throw from the Garrard outfield went awry.

Samons made quick work of Garrard hitters in the sixth, then Wynn made the call to his bullpen for Briese to finish off the game in the seventh to secure the Rebel’s win.

It’s a district win for Boyle County but it’s a district win they can’t bask in too much. For the second year in a row, the 45th district schedule will pit teams against each other in back to back nights, meaning the Rebels and Golden Lions will meet up again Wednesday — this time in Lancaster.

“It’s a complete different mindset where you want to feel good because you start the district off good,” Wynn said. “We’ve got a lot to work on and some things we weren’t satisfied with tonight so hopefully we can come back and get a sweep of the series.”