Bishop Kelly rides power hitting, clutch pitching to sixth state championship since 1995
The Cammann family is ingrained in the history of Bishop Kelly High School baseball.
Head coach Jeff Cammann’s older brother, Chris, played for the Knights when they won a state championship in 1995. Cammann helped Bishop Kelly win a state title as a player in 2000, and he’s now led his alma mater to back-to-back 4A state championships as a coach.
Colin Dempsey pitched a complete-game shutout Saturday and second-seeded Bishop Kelly built an early lead thanks to a pair of home runs in a 15-0 win over No. 4 Twin Falls in the 4A state championship game, which was called after five innings.
It’s Bishop Kelly’s sixth state championship since that 1995 win. The Knights also won in 2008 and 2010 prior to last year’s title.
“We’ve got a good program, and it’s not for a lack of work, that’s for sure,” Jeff Cammann said. “I couldn’t be more proud of how the guys went about it this year, especially knowing the target is always on our back. After last year, it got a little bigger. Next year, it’s going to get that much bigger.”
Dempsey also started in the state championship game last year — a 5-1 win over Columbia — so he knew what was expected of him.
“I just had to tell myself to get in their face,” Dempsey said. “I knew what I had to do, and that was get out of my own way.”
The senior delivered in the final game of his high school career. He pitched all five innings, struck out six batters, walked one and limited Twin Falls to six hits.
Dempsey also ended the first inning by picking off a runner at first base, and struck out a batter to get out of jam with runners on first and third in the third inning.
“He was able to throw up, down, in and out, and really kept them off balance,” Cammann said. “When he gets on a roll, he’s a tough guy to hit.”
Dempsey got plenty of help from Bishop Kelly’s batting order.
Caden Casagrande scored the first run of the game with a solo home run that easily cleared the fence in left field in the first inning. The Knights (25-4) tacked on six runs in the second, and Jackson Hatch blew the game open with a grand slam that gave Bishop Kelly an 11-0 lead in the third.
It was the second grand slam of Hatch’s career, but this one will always hold a special place in his heart because the senior hit it during the final at-bat of his high school career.
“I just reared back and let it explode,” Hatch said. “To end a career like this, you really can’t ask for anything more.”
Bishop Kelly was the preseason favorite in the 4A Southern Idaho Conference, but the Knights didn’t have an easy road back to the state tournament. One-run losses to Middleton and Columbia late in the season, and an upset at the hands of the Wildcats in the district semifinals, put the Knights’ hopes of a repeat title run in jeopardy.
They found a way to right the ship in the state tournament, though. Bishop Kelly cruised to a 10-0 win over Sandpoint in the opening round and held on late to beat its old nemesis Columbia 5-4 in the semifinals on Friday. Cammann said his players stepped on the diamond Saturday ready to finish the job.
“Those losses late in the year were tough. They stung,” he said. “But the guys regrouped and knew what they had to do to be successful.”
Twin Falls (18-11) earned the right to play for a state title by upsetting top-seeded Middleton 2-1 in the semifinals on Friday. That came after a 7-1 win over Pocatello in the tournament’s opening round.
It’s the second straight season that ended in heartbreak for the Bruins, who fell to Bishop Kelly in the state semifinals last year.
Middleton 6, Columbia 5: Micah Mendiola hit a walk-off single in the bottom of the seventh inning to secure the Vikings (26-4) the third-place trophy. Levi Borge ripped a solo home run, and Caden Recla went 3-for-4 with two doubles and two RBIs for Middleton. Columbia (20-9) had rallied to tie the game with three runs in the sixth.
Also Saturday, Sandpoint topped Pocatello 11-2 in the consolation final.
This story was originally published May 21, 2022 at 7:39 PM.
