Spartans outlast weather delays and Bluebirds in 6-5 comeback victory over Highlands

LEXINGTON, Ky. -Friday at Kentucky Proud Park, the South Warren Spartans met the Highlands Bluebirds on the diamond for round one in the 2025 Clark’s Pump-N-Shop Baseball State Tournament.

After pushing the start time back due to bad weather in the area, it was the team out of the 9th Region who put up four runs right off the bat before heading into another lengthy delay, this one close to 90 minutes.

Even though head coach Chris Gage didn’t possess all of the positivity in the dugout, he still had confidence in his guys to battle back following the break.

“You know, I’m a pessimist by nature, so I was thinking the vibe and everything during the rain delay was not great, but this team for the last couple years has been so resilient about coming back from big deficits,” said Gage. “Just the last game, we came back from two five-run deficits, so I have a lot of faith in our offense.”

Once the storms rolled away, South Warren brought in a storm of its own, and his name was Mikey Coradini, who was all but ruled out for today’s game due to injury, but the senior pitcher said something flipped inside of him when his team needed him on the mound.

“The season was on the line and we couldn’t lose, we couldn’t afford a loss there,” said Coradini. “My career for high school would be over, so I knew everyone needed me. I trusted everyone around me on offense and defense, so that’s really what got us going.”

With Coradini holding down the fort on defense, the offense was able to make a slow but steady comeback.

After RBIs from Griffin Rardin and Joseph Fentress, it was a tight ball game in Lexington but enter Rardin again, who stepped up to the plate and wacked a deep shot to left center field, and the Bluebird would miss the catch. Justin Capps would then run home, and South would take the lead thanks to that triple from number nine.

The game would be sent to extra innings after a Highlands home run in the top of the seventh inning, but in the bottom of the ninth inning, Gray Pearson hit a fly ball and Jackson Decker ran home from third on the walk-off sacrifice fly to win 6-5.

The Spartans stay alive in the state tournament, and here’s what was going through Pearson’s mind when he made contact with the ball on the game-winning sac fly.

“I thought I hit the ball good, I was just hoping that Jaxen Decker on third was going to be fast enough to score, that’s what I was really hoping,”said Pearson. “I was really hoping he wasn’t going to slip on the wet turf. I was just, you know, turned around waiting for him to cross home plate. I already did what I could do.”

With the victory, the Spartans advance to the quarterfinals on Sunday and will match up with a McCracken County team that, like South Warren, has also amassed 30 wins on the year.