If the 13th Region champion Corbin Redhounds (20-17) are to be successful in their quest to bring home a KHSAA State Championship title in the coming days, they will first have to knock off the defending state champion Pleasure Ridge Park Panthers (26-6) in round one.
The Panthers won their second consecutive 6th Region championship last week, meaning they will return to Lexington this week to defend their 2024 state champion-ship title.
PRP is a veteran-led team this year. Their roster is full of mostly juniors and seniors, including senior slugger Koble Howard and top pitchers Grayson Roll and Logan Strong.
Corbin has plenty of seasoned vets on the roster as well, however, including JT Gentry, Cooper McCauley, Lucas Tarvin, Cruz Cima, Noah Cima, Will Freeman and Kade Elam. Four of these seven seniors have committed to continuing their baseball careers at the next level beginning next school year – Cruz Cima at Brescia University, Noah Cima at St. Johns River College, Freeman at Union Commonwealth University and Elam at the University of Louisville.
The Redhounds also feature a strong senior class this season that includes Ethan Abner, Clay Botner, Jaden Broughton, Dallas Merida and Cam Estep. With an accompanying cast of capable sophomores and freshmen, the team certainly has the overall talent to pull off this upset in round one.
When looking at common opponents between these two teams, there isn’t much to talk about. Corbin and PRP both defeated Dixie Heights and Somerset by wide margins earlier in the season, and that is pretty much where the similarities end. With one team hailing from southeastern Kentucky and the other coming from Louisville, those comparisons are just going to be hard to make.
When asked about the upcoming contest, Corbin Head Coach Cody Philpot said, “Once you get to this point, everybody can play. They [PRP] have a lot of experience after winning it all last year. They’ve been there, but our guys are up for the challenge.”
Philpot said the Hounds’ approach will be “business as usual” as they prepare to face the Panthers later this week, adding that the expectation will be to “go up there and compete.”
“They’re a team that prides themselves on putting pressure on other teams on the bases,” Philpot said of PRP. “They have a lot of stolen bases, but at this point it is kind of a reset. We are just getting all of the information that we can so that we can put a plan together and execute it.”
“We have to be the best version of ourselves,” Philpot continued. “If we can play our game and execute well, then I like our group.”
Philpot said that he is proud of how his team has navigated the 2025 season up to this point, fighting through the highs and the lows and ultimately putting themselves in a position to contend for a state championship title. “These upper classmen never wavered,” he pointed out. “They knew that winning region was the goal, and they knew that this team had what it took. Now we want to go to Lexington, compete, and make a run at it.”
The Hounds and Panthers will meet in the opening round of the 2025 KHSAA State Championship Tournament this Friday, June 6, at the University of Kentucky’s Kentucky Proud Park in Lexington. Start time is scheduled for 5 p.m.
