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Prep Baseball Insider: Cougars too good to ignore

Kenton Ridge’s baseball team is using hot hitting and consistent pitching to extend winning streak to 15 games.

Tom Randall would rather not mention this. The risk of a jinx is too great.

But — sorry, coach — the Kenton Ridge baseball team carried a 15-game winning streak into this week, and ignoring that for reasons of superstition isn’t going to happen.

By speaking of this, we may have doomed the Cougars, sticking the pin in their voodoo doll like we were talking to a pitcher during a no-hitter.

But Kenton Ridge (19-4) is too hot to avoid.

“We’re obviously hitting the ball pretty well right now,” said Randall on Monday, hours before his team played at Benjamin Logan. “We obviously are seeing it pretty well and moving it.”

The Cougars have five players with more than 20 RBIs: Loren Fleischman (37); Tyler Heskett (35); Jeremy Stollings (25); Cody Kaglic (20); and Alex Brown (20). The lineup starts with Adam Eaton (.500), Stollings (.438) and Seth Cosby (.520), but it’s strong from top to bottom.

The key to the winning streak, however, has been improved performances on the mound.

Tyler Heskett is 5-1 with a 1.37 ERA. Cody Kaglic is 6-1 with a 2.73 ERA. Each has started a team-high six games.

“What we’ve been doing is getting better pitching,” Randall said. “We still have had some breakdowns as far as pitching, but if you’re hitting the ball, that certainly makes things easier. You can give up a few more runs if you score more runs. But pitching is still the name of the game.”

Entering this week, the Cougars found themselves on the brink of their first Central Buckeye Conference Mad River Division title since the first year of the revamped league in 2002.

Graham won the title the last three seasons, but Kenton Ridge (12-1 in the CBC) led the Falcons (8-4) by three games with four to play. With their 9-3 victory over Ben Logan Monday, Kenton Ridge clinched at least a share of the title.

“It’s about our turn again,” said Randall, who entering the week needed seven wins to reach 500 in his career. “Graham’s had some great teams the last couple of years.”