CORBIN — Corbin coach Cody Philpot and his Corbin Redhounds had high expectations entering the 2024 campaign, and they were able to meet them.
The Redhounds posted a 30-10 record during regular season play and managed to overcome some bumps in the road on their way to the baseball program’s sixth 13th Region championship.
“There’s no question that our goal was to win Region and go compete at the state tournament,” Philpot said. “We knew that would be difficult with the good teams in our district and region but also knew that we were very much capable.
“We’re a veteran group, not just our seniors but our juniors and sophomores had been in a lot of big situations already,” he added. “That has definitely shown through the postseason so far. When adversity hit our guys never wavered.”
Philpot said he didn’t really believe there had been a high point of the season for his players. He felt his team was even keel the entire season.
“We expected to compete from Day One,” he said. “We lost some games along the way but never lost sight of the end goal. The regular season is to learn and get better prepared for the postseason, if you can do that while winning, that’s a bonus.”
Philpot credited his team’s success due to having a deep and talented pitching staff and the depth of his team’s hitting at the plate.
“Pitching has been good all year, we’ve had some guys really progress year over year and that gave us the depth to be able to compete every day,” he said. “Also the depth offensively, everyone knows the names of our big bats, but we had different guys step up every day it seemed. It really takes the pressure off of everyone when you know the guy next to you is capable of breaking out every single day.”
Philpot said he wasn’t concerned when his team hit a tough stretch after two losses to Whitley County that were mixed in with a four-game losing skid.
“It was to high quality competition, so it wasn’t like anyone pushed the panic button,” Philpot said. “Our leaders did a good job of keeping everyone together and grinding through that time to get back to our winning ways.”
And now the Redhounds are four wins away from bringing home a state championship after picking up another 13th Region crown.
“Winning region is always huge,” Philpot said. “To be able to represent not only the town of Corbin but the entire region at the state level is special. “Baseball is a tough game and winning single elimination tournaments is even tougher,” he added. “To have the success we’ve had over the last few years means a lot and speaks volumes to the work that our kids put in.”
