Old scorebooks, part 7: LexCath wins title with ace Michael dealing victories
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Mark Michael’s strong pitching led Lexington Catholic to its first state baseball title in 1999. (Herald-Leader photo)
Lexington Catholic, led by the standout pitching of Mark Michael, beat Pleasure Ridge Park 4-2 in nine innings to win its first state baseball championship in 1999.
Michael had a sensational senior season, going 14-0 with a 1.30 ERA and exhibiting remarkable control — he had 98 strikeouts and only 9 walks in 77 innings.
In the title game against PRP, he surrendered two runs in the first but blanked the Panthers the rest of the way. On the day he gave up five hits, struck out five, walked two and hit one batter.
“I was really tired but I just kept throwing strikes,” Michael said after the victory at UK’s Cliff Hagan Stadium.
John Hogan had the game-winning hit — a two-run double in the ninth that drove in Andy Foster and Joey Wilson. Andrew Levenson had a sacrifice fly in the third that drove in Nate Heiple. Wilson’s solo homer in the fourth tied the game 2-2.
PRP loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, but Michael got a groundout to clinch the title for Rodney Martin’s Knights.
Lexington Catholic also won the championship in 2006 and 2009.
Here are the scorebook pages from the 1999 finals:
ABOUT MIKE FIELDS
After working as a sports writer for 41 years, I needed a break from the daily demands and deadlines of the newspaper business. So last June I retired from the Lexington Herald-Leader after covering approximately 4,000 high school sports events in my career. Now, eight months later, I’m rested and ready for a part-time return to the game. To reintroduce myself: I was born in Pikeville, grew up in Bardstown, graduated from the University of Kentucky, worked at newspapers in Eustis, Fla., Lake City, Fla., Henderson, Ky., and Evansville, Ind., before coming to Lexington in 1980. Email me at mfields@khsaa.org
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