Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Corey Robinson ... he's back

Two years of rust has done little to slow down former Lone Oak quarterback Corey Robinson, who is off to a splendid start in his college football career.

Robinson is a redshirt freshman at Troy and has put up some impressive numbers in his first three games. Robinson has completed nearly 66 percent of his passes and has thrown for 928 yards in three games with six touchdowns and only two interceptions.

The national high school record holder with 91 touchdown passes in a season, set in 2007 while leading Lone Oak to a 14-1 record and a state runner-up finish, Robinson was picked off twice in his first start, a win at Bowling Green. He has thrown for five touchdowns in losses at Oklahoma State (41-30) and Alabama-Birmingham (34-33).

His biggest issue has been holding on to the ball. Robinson fumbled twice in the Oklahoma State game, including one on a run inside the Cowboys' 5-yard line, but that can be chalked up to a freshman making the adjustment to the speed and strength of Division I defenses.

At the very least, Troy appears to have found a standout quarterback for the next 3 1/2 seasons.

The Trojans host Arkansas State (and former Paducah Tilghman star Bryan Hall, who starts on the defensive line) this Saturday and will play Middle Tennessee on ESPN2 on Oct. 5, a rare Tuesday night game.

Bluegrass Preps rankings ... 9/20

Class A

1. Mayfield
2. Louisville Holy Cross
3. Hazard
4. Beechwood
5. Lexington Christian
6. Crittenden County
7. Frankfort
8. Raceland
9. Fairview
10. Bardstown Bethlehem

Class 2A

1. Newport Catholic
2. Monroe County
3. Louisville DeSales
4. Owensboro Catholic
5. Murray
6. Danville
7. Prestonsburg
8. Glasgow
9. Christian Academy of Louisville
10. Covington Holy Cross

Class 3A

1. Somerset
2. Louisville Central
3. Paducah Tilghman
4. Mason County
5. Sheldon Clark
6. Union County
7. Belfry
8. Pike Central
9. Breathitt County
10. Edmonson County

Class 4A

1. Bell County
2. Boyle County
3. Louisville Western
4. Covington Holmes
5. Lone Oak
6. Allen County
7. Knox Central
8. Marion County
9. Collins
10. Lawrence County v

Class 5A

1. Fort Thomas Highlands
2. Bowling Green
3. John Hardin
4. Christian County
5. Owensboro
6. Johnson Central
7. Pulaski County
8. Dixie Heights
9. Warren Central
10. Louisville Doss

Class 6A

1. Louisville Trinity
2. Louisville St. Xavier
3. Louisville Ballard
4. Ryle
5. Louisville Male
6. Louisville Manual
7. Louisville Eastern
8. Simon Kenton
9. Louisville Seneca
10. Lexington Tates Creek

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Bluegrass Preps rankings ... 9/6

Class A

1. Mayfield
2. Hazard
3. Louisville Holy Cross
4. Beechwood
5. Lexington Christian
6. Raceland
7. Frankfort
8. Crittenden County
9. Fairview
10. Bellevue


Class 2A

1. Newport Catholic
2. Danville
3. Monroe County
4. Louisville DeSales
5. Murray
6. Owensboro Catholic
7. Prestonsburg
8. Fort Campbell
9. Glasgow
10. Christian Academy of Louisville


Class 3A

1. Louisville Central
2. Mason County
3. Paducah Tilghman
4. Somerset
5. Breathitt County
6. Union County
7. Belfry
8. Sheldon Clark
9. Edmonson County
10. Pike Central


Class 4A

1. Boyle County
2. Bell County
3. Louisville Western
4. Covington Holmes
5. Franklin-Simpson
6. Allen County
7. Lone Oak
8. Knox Central
9. Marion County
10. Lexington Catholic


Class 5A

1. Fort Thomas Highlands
2. Bowling Green
3. John Hardin
4. Johnson Central
5. Christian County
6. Owensboro
7. Pulaski County
8. Warren Central
9. Covington Catholic
10. Whitley County


Class 6A

1. Louisville Trinity
2. Louisville St. Xavier
3. Louisville Ballard
4. Ryle
5. Louisville Male
6. Louisville Manual
7. Louisville Eastern
8. Simon Kenton
9. Louisville Seneca
10. Boone County

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Minor league updates ...

The minor league season ended on Sunday, and a couple of local products finished their seasons at the Triple-A level.

Shawn Roof, a St. Mary graduate, hit .354 in 25 games with Toledo, the Detroit Tigers' top farm club. Roof, an infielder, began the season at Double-A Erie and for the year, hit .258 in 271 at-bats with 11 stolen bases.

Mike Broadway, a fourth-round pick of the Atlanta Braves in 200x out of Pope County, ended the year at Triple-A Gwinnett, going 4-0 with a 5.73 ERA in 17 appearances. For the season, Broadway was 5-1 with a 4.39 ERA at Gwinnett and Double-A Mississippi, with 25 walks and 57 strikeouts in 53 innings.

Here is a rundown of the rest of the local pro contingent:

Catcher Eric Roof (St. Mary) split the season between Low-A West Michigan and short-season A Connecticut, putting up close to the same numbers at both places. His season stats: a .233 average with 2 home runs and 30 RBI in 245 at-bats.

Shortstop Jonathan Roof (St. Mary), the Texas Rangers' eighth-round pick in June, was promoted to Low-A Hickory in the South Atlantic League after getting off to a hot start at the rookie-league level. Between the two stops, Roof hit .266 with four stolen bases in 139 at-bats.

Wes Cunningham, who was drafted by San Diego after rewriting Murray State's hitters' record book, hit .290 with 5 homers and 32 RBI in 207 at-bats for Eugene in the rookie-level Northwest League. Cunningham also drew 41 walks for an impressive .415 on-base percentage.

On the pitching side, Brandon Braboy (Heath) spent most of the summer on the disabled list at High-A Tampa in the New York Yankees' chain. Braboy's numbers: a 3.57 ERA in 22 innings, allowing 31 hits with four walks and 17 strikeouts.

Former Heath teammates Clint Tilford and Daniel Webb spent most of the year at the rookie-league level. Tilford worked out of the bullpen for Tri-Cities (Wash.), the Colorado Rockies' Northwest League entry. Tilford was 3-3 with a 5.45 ERA, allowing 42 hits in 39 innings with an impressive 45-11 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

Webb, who signed with Toronto a year ago, made his pro debut, going 1-7 with a 4.87 ERA after spending most of the season at Auburn in the New York-Penn League. He was promoted to Low-A Lansing of the Midwest League for two starts at the end of the season, going 1-1 with a 3.08 ERA in 11 2/3 innings.

Former Murray State ace left-hander Daniel Calhoun was a swingman for Quad Cities, the St. Louis Cardinals' team in the Midwest League. Calhoun was 10-0 with a 3.75 ERA, allowing 109 hits in 96 innings with 19 walks and 83 strikeouts.

Football classes set ...

Football coaches got the word late last week on the Kentucky High School Athletic Association's realignment for the 2011-14 seasons, and the western Kentucky alignment will see several changes.

Ballard Memorial and Crittenden County will move from Class A to Class 2A. Heath, Trigg County and Fort Campbell are moving up from Class 2A to Class 3A, with Union County dropping down to Class 2A.

Graves County and Apollo will drop from Class 6A to Class 5A, with Madisonville and Owensboro moving down from Class 5A to Class 4A.

The KHSAA decided to go with 32 teams in both Class A and Class 6A, with the other four classes around 40 schools apiece. Supporters of the move say that is being done because those are the two classes with the biggest enrollment disparity between the largest and smallest schools.

Here is an educated guess as to what the Region 1 picture will look like in all six classes for the 2011 season:

Class A
District 1 — Fulton City, Fulton County, Mayfield, Russellville
District 2 — Caverna, Bardstown Bethlehem, Louisville Holy Cross, Kentucky Country Day

Class 2A
District 1 — Ballard Memorial, Reidland, Murray, Caldwell County, Crittenden County, Union County
District 2 — Owensboro Catholic, McLean County, Todd Central, Butler County, Hancock County

Class 3A
District 1 — Paducah Tilghman, Heath, Trigg County, Fort Campbell, Webster County
District 2 — Monroe County, Hart County, Edmonson County, Adair County, South Warren

Class 4A
District 1 — Lone Oak, Calloway County, Madisonville, Hopkins Central, Owensboro
District 2 — Franklin-Simpson, Warren East, Allen County, Breckinridge County, Taylor County

Class 5A
District 1 — Graves County, Hopkinsville, Christian County, Apollo, Ohio County
District 2 — Bowling Green, Warren Central, Greenwood, Barren County, Grayson County, Logan County

Class 6A
District 1 — Marshall County, Muhlenberg County, Henderson County, Daviess County
District 2 — Meade County, Nelson County, Central Hardin, Pleasure Ridge Park

In Class 5A, Ohio County and Grayson County could be sent to Region 2, since there are only eight 5A teams in the Louisville area.

Things could change drastically in 2012, when McCracken County is scheduled to consolidate its three schools (Heath, Lone Oak and Reidland) and Nelson County is slated to split into two schools. McCracken County will compete in 6A. The two Nelson schools are expected to be in the 3A range, with perhaps the larger school in 4A.

That would require several schools to retool their schedules in the middle of a two-year contract cycle, which could end up being a dicey proposition.

Also, schools can request to play up in class, but those requests have to be made this month. The KHSAA will set the district alignments at its Board of Control meeting in mid-October.

Several of the state's top programs could be switching classes. Fort Thomas Highlands, which has won all three of the Class 5A state titles since the six-class format's inception, is slated to drop to Class 4A, as could 5A powers Covington Catholic and Johnson Central. Bell County, the Class 4A state champion in 2008, will drop to Class 3A.

Lexington Christian, which beat Mayfield for the Class A state championship last year, will move up to Class 2A. Somerset, which lost to Tilghman in the 3A final in December, was playing up in 3A and could be reassigned to 2A.

And, of course, there is Fort Campbell, which has won the last three Class 2A state titles and will move up a class.