WORTON — The Trojans open play in the Class 1A East I Region baseball tournament tomorrow having met first-year head coach Mike Iacona’s modest goal of “five to seven” wins.
“We definitely have been playing better of late,” Iacona said in a telephone interview Monday night, May 4. “We need more hitting,” he said candidly, “but our defense is improving. Our outfield [led by Tyrel “Teeter” Dean, Zayvion Brown and Nate Copper] has been outstanding, making all the routine plays and more.”
Over the final week of the regular season, packing in four games in seven days, the Trojans played .500 ball with a pair of 10-run “mercy rule” victories.
They picked up their milestone fifth win — bettering last year’s 3-15 campaign — at Washington High School, 15-4, on April 29.
The game ended after the host Jaguars batted in the last of the fifth inning.
Senior right-hander Braden Wilson [five strikeouts, four walks] went the distance on the hill for the winners.
He struggled out of the gate when he issued three of his four walks in the Jags’ two-run first inning.
After that, however, Wilson gave up only single runs in the third and fourth innings. By that time his Trojan teammates already were enjoying a double-digit lead.
KCHS erupted for 10 runs in a bat-around second inning to break a 2-2 tie.
Freshman Jake Stumpf’s one-out single plated Dean with the go-ahead run.
Dean had reached after being hit by a pitch, Brown drew a free pass and then the scoring frenzy started in earnest.
Noah Iacona followed Stumpf with a base hit that scored Brown for a 4-2 lead, and Scottie Ford walked to load the bases.
The next five KCHS batters were credited with RBI — Wilson [hit by pitch], Nate Sutton [single], Copper [single], Paul Roberts [single] and Dean [single] — to extend the spread to 12-2.
Brown walked in his second at-bat of the frame with still just one away, but was left on base when the next two KCHS batters were retired in order.
Kent County pushed three more runs across the plate in the top of the third.
After that, coach Iacona made wholesale substitutions, eventually clearing his bench.
Noteworthy among the reserves was sophomore Drew Haas, who doubled in the fifth inning.
Junior second baseman Nate Sutton had another strong day at the plate; he’s now batting .311 on the season, second on the team behind Noah Iacona [.329] and has moved up to fifth in the order.
Kent County [5-13] is seeded No. 6 in the region and will travel to No. 3 seed Perryville [14-4] for a first-round game Thursday, May 7.
No. 4 Bo Manor [9-8] will host No. 5 North Dorchester [8-10] in tomorrow’s other first-round game.
Defending region champ St. Michaels [16-2], the 2025 state runner-up, and Colonel Richardson [15-3] are seeded No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, and automatically move on to the semifinal round.
The East I semifinals are Saturday, May 9.
Coach Iacona said if the Trojans are to advance they will need to play “stellar” defense, pitch to contact so they don’t run up the pitch count and get production at the plate throughout the batting order.
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All four of the public schools that KCHS defeated this spring are in the East II Region: No. 3 seed Crisfield [6-11], Cambridge-South Dorchester [3-14], Washington [2-16] and Pocomoke [1-16].
Mardela [12-6] and Snow Hill [11-7] are seeded No. 1 and No. 2, respectively.
