LAUREL COUNTY, Ky. — The North Laurel Junior League All Stars outhit Corbin 10-8, but lost 16-6 to fall a game short of playing for the district championship.

“We played two great games, but tonight we didn’t. That’s baseball,” North Laurel coach Bill Abner said. “There was no gas left in the tank.”

Corbin rolled to a six-inning win behind 11 walks, two hit batters, and five errors. It was a big change from what Abner described as two nearly flawless games in the tournament.

“Corbin’s got a good team. You can’t beat them every time we play,” Abner said.

Braxston Hicks had held Hazard to a single first inning run in a 1-0 loss in the finals of the winner’s bracket. In an opening round 6-4 win over Corbin, Tory Bowling pitched five scoreless innings.

Monday North Laurel tried four different pitchers. They were never able to hold Corbin in check.

Corbin opened the game with Conner Hicks drawing a walk from North Laurel starter Jack Capobianco. Corey Ledington followed with an RBI single. Jackson Stewart made it a 3-0 game with an inside-the-park home run to a sloppy right field. Rain had forced a one-hour delay of the game.

Capobianco settled down and gave his team a chance to rally. The first rally came in the second inning and began with back-to-back singles by Trey Feltner and Tanner Sasser. Sasser’s hit drove in Feltner with the first North Laurel run. Ryan Abner singled to score Sasser and make it a 3-2 game.

Walks would again lead to a big third inning for Corbin. Tanner Barnes stroked an RBI single and Michael May added a two-run shot, but it was four more walks that hurt North Laurel most.

North Laurel bounced back again with singles by Braden Houston, Matt Brooks, and Hicks loading the bases. An RBI single by Feltner made it four straight North Laurel hits. Sasser’s sharp grounder to shortstop was knocked down, but he legged it out to drive in another run. Ryan Abner smoked a two-run double to left field that drove in a pair of runs and again pulled North Laurel with a run at 7-6.

North Laurel went through three pitchers in the fourth inning with Brooks, Sasser, and Houston giving up six combined runs on four walks and two hit batters. The big blow was a bases-clearing triple by Michael May that curled just inside the right field line.

Ledington doubled and scored in the fifth inning to make it 14-6.

Two more runs in the sixth inning ended the game and the season for the North Laurel All Stars. Again it was Ledington with a two-run double.

“We had a good summer. A lot of the kids that normally play were gone. I’m proud of the ones that did play,” Abner said.

On Sunday, Corbin beat the South London All-Stars, 13-3.

mhoward@sentinel-echo.com