State baseball finals: Dunbar 10, Shelby Co. 1

Updates from the championship game of the Fifth Third/KHSAA State Tournament at Applebee’s Park.

• It’s over. Dunbar has another state championship to go with the one it won in 2003. Shown at right is Josh Burke (2) getting a celebratory hug from David Giuliani (photo by Mark Cornelison). Thomas Royse was the winning pitcher. He threw one pitch in the bottom of the seventh before leaving the mound and taking a bow. The University of Louisville signee gave up three hits and struck out seven to improve his record to 14-1. Dunbar finished the season 38-6. Shelby County, which started the playoffs with an 11-14-1 record a few weeks ago, wound up 20-15-1.
• Dunbar is the fourth Lexington team to win the title in the last five years.
• 6th inning: It’s still 9-1 with six outs to go. Shelby County is on its fifth pitcher of the night.
• 5th inning: Shelby County got on the board to make it 9-1. The Rockets finally got something off Dunbar ace Thomas Royse. A pair of singles and a hit batter loaded the bases with no outs. Royse struck out the next two batters, but Jordan Burk delivered an RBI single.
• This championship game has drawn a state tournament record 4,467 fans, eclipsing the old mark of 3,912 in Applebee’s Park for the 2005 finals between Lexington Christian and Christian County.
• 4th inning: Dunbar still leads 9-0. Bulldogs pitcher Thomas Royse (right) has a no-hitter going. Shelby County has had one base runner, who reached on an error. There’s a 10-run mercy rule (after five innings) even in a state finals. For Shelby County, with the game looking out of reach, one goal is to keep Dunbar from closing the Rockets out with a mercy rule victory. Even in state tournament games, if a team has a 10-run lead anytime after five innings, it’s over.
• This email from Jim Miller, athletic director at the University of New Orleans: “I’ve been following your coverage of the Rockets online. I also was a member of that 1966 team that lost 2-1 to Ashland Blazer. (Shelby County’s current coach) Donnie Williams was the freshman second baseman and the rest of us were seniors. I’ve spent a career in professional and college sports, but the worst moment of my athletic life was in the final inning against Ashland, one out, a man on second, and I whiffed at three straight pitches. I’d broken my bat earlier in the game and I borrowed Casey’s bat, which was about 35 ounces and I was behind every pitch. Keep up the good work, and Go Rockets!
• 3rd inning: Dunbar has taken a 9-0 lead (yep, nine runs) against suddenly shaky Shelby County pitching. Dunbar sent 14 batters to the plate, and had six hits against three Rockets’ pitchers who also hit two batters and walked two. Dunbar got doubles from Chris Wood, Chris Kubajak and David Giuliani. Chris Wood had two hits and two RBI in the big inning. Josh Burke also had a two-run single.
• 2nd inning: Still no score. Dunbar looks baffled by Rockets’ pitcher Tyler Layton’s slow (66 mph) curve. The Bulldogs have already struck out 5 times. Shelby County, meanwhile, is at least getting the bat on the ball against Thomas Royse’s 86 mph fastball.
• 1st inning: Dunbar went 3-up, 3-down with two strikeouts. Shelby County had a baserunner due to a Dunbar error, but nothing else. Big crowd on hand, an especially big turnout of hometown Dunbar fans.
• Dunbar (37-6) is the favorite to beat Shelby County (20-15-1) tonight, but don’t count out the Rockets, who have been Cinderella in cleats throughout the playoffs.
• Dunbar will send ace Thomas Royse to the mound. He’s 13-1 this season after picking up a win in the semifinals with one inning of relief against Apollo. Royse, a 6-foot-6 senior righthander who has signed with Louisville, has 109 strikeouts in 75 innings.
• Shelby County will probably start junior righty Tyler Layton, who’s 2-2. He was out four weeks with a broken hand and just returned to action last week. Layton pitched the last inning of the Rockets’ semifinal upset of Pleasure Ridge Park.
• Dunbar won the 2003 state title. Shelby County won it all in 1979.
• Shelby County Coach Donnie Williams was the starting second baseman as a freshman on the Rockets’ 1966 state runners-up (future UK basketball star Mike Casey was the shortstop on that team). Shelby County got back to the state in 1967 but lost in the first round. Forty years later, Williams has the Rockets in the finals. He said that he’ll probably retire from coaching after this. Couldn’t be a better way to go out that with title-game memories.
• Dunbar Coach Mickey Marshall was a reserve on Tates Creek’s 1986 state championship team.