PIKEVILLE — Any way you slice it, one thing is readily evident: Pitching wins in baseball. And in sophomore Chandler Shepherd, Lawrence County has it in spades.

Shepherd threw his second shutout of the Semi-State 8 Saturday evening and third straight in the postseason, striking out 12 and scattering four hits to lead the Bulldogs to a 7-0 win over East Carter in a decisive Game 3. Lawrence County advances to its second straight State Tournament at Applebee’s Park in Lexington next week.

“He’s pretty impressive,” said Bulldog Coach Travis Feltner. “He was awesome. He really stepped up. I’m proud of the kids.”

In the Semi-State best-of-three series, Shepherd pitched 14 innings, allowing the Raiders only eight hits and no runs while striking out 26 and walking only one.

“I wasn’t thinking about (strikeouts),” Shepherd said. “A shutout isn’t an individual thing; the guys played great defense, (catcher) Jordan Miller works his tail off and the coaches as well. We do this as a team.”

Shepherd was co-MVP of the Semi-State, sharing the honors with junior Shane Pack. In Game 3, Pack went 3-of-3 with a walk, scoring twice and hitting the big shot of the game: A three-run homer in the second over the wall in left-center to stretch the lead to 4-0.

“He’s a real catalyst for us,” Feltner said. “We left 12 on base this morning (in the 3-2 loss in Game 2), but tonight he got the job done.”

“Pack kind of broke our backs there,” East Carter coach Jeremiah Shearer said. “(Derek) Stapleton showed a lot of guts for us. He just ran out of gas tonight, but pitching all three games says a lot about him.”

Stapleton has the odd honor of being the pitcher of record in all three games, having started the first and third and thrown in relief in Saturday afternoon’s game.

“Hats off to East Carter,” Feltner said. “I have a lot of respect for Jeremiah and the kind of program he runs. (Stapleton) was gutsy all week.”

Lawrence (23-15) got on the scoreboard in the first when Pack ‘s infield single was compounded by a throwing error to put him in scoring position. Miller’s single to left put the Bulldogs on the scoreboard to stay.

After Pack’s bomb in the second, the Bulldogs plated three more in the fourth, opening with three straight infield singles and scoring a run on an error, a single and a bases-loaded walk.

East Carter (21-15) had one opportunity to score in the sixth when Tommy Carper singled and Tyler Jackson followed with a double to put runners in scoring position with one out. But Shepherd did what aces do in that situation, striking out the second and third hitters in the Raider lineup to end the threat.

“Chandler had a great game,” Pack said.

Lawrence County got solid production from the bottom of the lineup, with four of the seven runs coming from the bottom third. Nine-hitter Nick Hackney had four hits in the tournament and scored twice after reaching on a walk and a single in the closer.

Tyler Jackson, the only senior on the East Carter roster, had two hits off Shepherd, leading off the game with a single before doubling in the sixth. “He’s had a special season,” Shearer said of his leadoff batter, who boasts a batting average near .500 and a perfect 4.0 grade-point average. “He has a special place in our program.”



East Carter 000 000 0 — 0 4 2

Lawrence 130 300 x — 7 9 0

Derek Stapleton, Tommy Carper (4) and Ty Back; Chandler Shepherd and Jordan Miller. 2B – Ramsey Compton (LC), Tyler Jackson (EC). HR – Shane Pack (LC).