WALK-OFF WALK: South Warren rallies from 5 down to win Region 4 title
Published 11:45 pm Wednesday, May 28, 2025
Camden Page had to make a split-second decision.
The pitch was already inbound toward home plate as South Warren’s sophomore third baseman leaned in on a full count, two-out situation with the bases loaded bottom of the seventh inning of a tie ballgame against Warren East with the Region 4 Baseball Tournament championship on the line.
It’s less than a second to decide what to do.
Page chose to do … nothing. Judging the approaching fastball from Raiders senior Matthew Escalera to be out of the strike zone, Page let it pass by for ball four.
Page’s plate discipline secured an 8-7 come-from-behind, walk-off walk victory for the Spartans at Nick Denes Field.
Drawing a free pass maybe wasn’t the way Page dreamed up his first career walk-off winner, but it got the job done for South Warren (30-8).
“Unreal — it was just crazy,” Page said of drawing that final walk to end up at the bottom of a Spartans’ dogpile celebration just seconds later. “I’ve never felt anything like it in my life. I’ve never had a walk-off before, so that’s just a different kind of feeling I’ve never had before.”
The Spartans trailed 7-2 after Warren East (12-20) tacked on a pair of runs in the top of the sixth inning with RBI singles from Brenden Bratcher and Carson Choate.
Trailing by five with only six outs left, it looked grim for the Spartans.
“When they put the two-spot up, I would’ve quit if I was them — but our players didn’t,” South Warren coach Chris Gage quipped afterward.
Jaxen Decker’s two-run home run over the left-field wall cut the margin back down to 7-4 and Page plated another run with an RBI double.
“That was huge,” Gage said. “That picks up the dugout a lot.”
Escalera, who had mostly held the Spartans’ dangerous lineup at bay for most of the night, was nearing his pitch limit after the sixth and the Raiders had already gotten great outings from Bratcher and Brooks Vincent in back-to-back wins against defending region champion Russell County and potential favorite Greenwood on consecutive nights.
Raiders coach Wes Sanford called on the bullpen to face Ethan Reynolds leading off the top of the seventh. Reynolds, a Western Kentucky signee, won the battle with a solo home run that hit off the top of the fence in left-center field to cut the margin to 7-6.
Junior Perkins followed with a single up the middle and Ty Croghan reached on an error, prompting Sanford to bring Escalera back to the mound to try and close out the win — just as the right-hander had done the night before against Greenwood.
It started well. Escalera induced a ground ball to third base for a force out, but Casey Green followed with an infield single to load the bases. Escalera went to a full count against Gray Pearson (2-for-4 on the night), but got the strikeout.
Joseph Fentress, the Spartans’ catcher and No. 9 hitter, stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs. Fentress (2-for-2) worked a walk to force in the tying run.
Page was up next, and he too outlasted Escalera to draw the game-winning walk.
“We always keep our heads high — we might be down but we’re never out, that’s what we said at the beginning of the year,” Page said. “That’s what we said at the beginning of the year. We believe in our guys and we come out and do what we do.”
The Raiders stacked up highlights early on. In the top of the first, East got the scoring started with Briggs Young’s RBI single. Senior center fielder Dane Parsley followed with a booming triple to the gap in right center to drive in two more runs.
Already up 3-0, the Raiders kept the pressure on. Senior William Alexander punched a single through the right side for an RBI, and the misplayed ball in the outfield allowed a second run to score as Alexander motored all the way to third base on the play.
A three-hit rally in the bottom of the third got South Warren on the board with Griffin Rardin’s RBI single, but Parsley’s spectacular catch in center ended the threat after that. Parsley, East’s longtime starting quarterback on the football field, sprinted into the gap and dove to snare a sinking line drive from Reynolds before popping up to throw out Rardin as he retreated back to first for an inning-ending double play.
Rardin, who was named the Region 4 Tournament Most Valuable Player, got South Warren closer with another RBI single in the bottom of the fifth.
“I was anxious, I was on the edge of my seat — if you see the video I was squatting the whole time, I was praying,” said Rardin, who came on in relief of Reynolds with one out in the sixth and earned the win. “I’m glad of the outcome of the game.”
Alexander finished with an RBI and reached base all four times, Bratcher also had a hit and an RBI and drew a pair of walks and Parsley added the two-run triple for Warren East.
“We left it all out on the field,” Sanford said. “We’ve asked them to do that all week and they’ve grown a lot as a team. We really worked our butt off and we gave it everything we had. I’m so proud of them for knocking out their guy (South Warren starting pitcher Mikey Coradini) in the second inning. Obviously Reynolds and Rardin are really good, but we still battled and were able to scratch out some more runs. It wasn’t like we were done at that point.
“I’m super proud of them.”
South Warren advances to the KHSAA state tournament and will face the Region 9 winner June 6 at Kentucky Proud Park in Lexington. Highlands and Beechwood meet for the Region 9 championship Thursday night.
For Gage, the Spartans’ resilience in coming back from a multitude of injuries to win the region title has added resonance after his daughter Chloe, a University of Louisville student, was severely injured in a car crash last June and continues to recover.
“This one is special, for sure, with everything my daughter’s been through,” Gage said. “So this one’s for Chloe. She’s shown toughness beyond belief. That’s where I think maybe even our team got a little toughness, watching all that.”
WEHS 320 002 0 — 7 7 1
SWHS 001 013 3 — 8 11 2
WP: Rardin. LP: Escalera.
