Logan County Baseball celebrated it outstanding 2018 season recently. The Cougars’ record was 24-9, and they won the13th District championship. Awards were as follows:
Golden Glove Outfield- Nick Wooden, outfielder/catcher, regular in the outfield and played centerfield this year and was one of the team’s better pitchers.
Golden Glove Infield- Kaleb Justice, three-year starter at first base, .995 fielding percentage while making one error all year. Justice has signed to play with Frontier JUCO in Southeastern Illinois.
Mark Thompson Award- Jackson Steward, whom Coach Ethan Meguiar calls a “nice surprise as a senior.” Led the team in wins (7), innings pitched, and strikeouts. Steward got more opportunities with the injuries to Ethan Smock and Dylan Penick and made the most of them. He threw a no-hitter this year also. Steward has signed to play baseball this fall with Shawnee Junior College.
Pitching award- Riley Ferguson, a sophomore first year player led the team in games pitched 14, mostly in relief, and also had the lowest ERA 1.73.
Rookie of the Year- Braxton Meguiar. In his first real varsity action as a sophomore, he played in every game at second base. He had a .457 Batting Average and was named All-District and Sophomore West All-Star.
Outfield Award- Koby Wall, junior outfielder/pitcher. Wall posted a .396 batting average, seven home runs, and 41 RBIs. Koby was also All-District and a Junior West All-sStar selection.
Home Runs and Batting Average Leader- Bradley Taylor, senior third baseman. Taylor led the state of Kentucky in home runs (14) and slugging percentage (1.019). Bradley was also the Fourth Region Player outfielder the Year chosen by the coaches. Bradley was also chosen as the PBR state player of the Year. He was All-13th District, 1st team All-State selection and Senior West All-star. Also Bradley Taylor had the highest batting average at .486, He will join teammates Ethan Smock and Kaleb Justice at Frontier JUCO this fall.
RBI Leader- Kaleb Justice was second in the state of Kentucky with 60 last season, which set a school record. This year he knocked in 51. 111 in the past two years. Also he hit .457 with 11 each of home runs and doubles.
Academic Award- 4.4 GPA Austin Rayno. Rayno was a Governor’s Scholar last year and will be going to Lindsey Wilson to play this fall. Austin was the Cougar shortstop for the past three-years and team captain two years.
Cougar Pride Award- Nate Woodall, a junior catcher.
The six seniors—Kaleb Justice, Austin Rayno, Ethan Smock, Jackson Steward, Bradley Taylor and Nick Wooden—were recognized. Five of the six are planning on playing college baseball. Meguiar notes: “Great careers. Four-year record was 101-40 while in high school.
Future Star awards for JV: Parker White, Zack Yates, and Trevor Scott.
Also recognized were assistant coaches Jordan Dobbs and Kyle Wall.
Coach Meguiar says:
“Maybe one outfielder the best stat years i have ever seen. Team batting average was .341, which I am sure is a school record. We lead the state of Kentucky in home runs (37). Regional tournament didn't go as we would have liked it to but overall a fantastic year 24-9 and some great individual accomplishments.
“We beat defending regional champion Franklin Simpson 3-2 on their field to win the 13th District championship. We were eliminated by Bowling Green 9-0 in the first round of the regional tournament. BGH went on to win the 4th Region tournament and their first game at the state tournament.
“Injuries really hurt this bunch. Last year Bradley was out with knee injury, when we were regional runner up to Franklin. Ethan Smock had surgery on his shoulder this summer, which bothered him most of the season preventing him from being our #1, and Dylan Penick had to have his second knee surgery this summer and missed most of his junior year. Kaleb Justice also had surgery on his elbow this summer.”