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LEXINGTON – It took 13 years, but Bamberg-Ehrhardt David Horton was ‘reunited’ with an old friend Friday night at Lexington High School.

With the Red Raiders’ 7-0 victory over Chesterfield to clinch the deciding game of the Best-of-Three Class A final series, Horton could once again hold the state championship trophy which had eluded him since 1995.

As Horton proudly carried around his grandson and took pictures with his players on the field, he took the significance of his 14th state championship – which is also a national record – in stride.

“It has been a while,” said Horton, whose 14 state titles are also a national record. “We’ve been here three of the last four years and, unfortunately, we’ve lost two of them. But, we’ve been here 16 times, you’ve got to win a few of them.”

After near-misses in 2005 and 2007, the Red Raiders would not be denied the first-place trophy again. This was especially true for junior pitcher Zack Godley, who used the motivation of losing to Chesterfield in the Class A Lower State final in football five months earlier to fuel a dominating two-hit, six-strikeout shutout performance.

“I knew that we had the team to win and I knew that I could pitch a better game than what I pitched Monday,” Godley said.

“Unbelievable,” Horton said. “Since he ran into the fence the other night in centerfield and hurt himself, he’s been working to get the soreness out of himself for tonight and he comes back and pitches the best game he’s pitched all year.”

While getting plenty of offensive support in the form of 12 hits, Godley also helped himself with two RBIs, including one of three home runs belted over the Wildcat Park fences. All-Star selection Kody Breland also drove in two runs with a homer and freshman Randon Sandifer went 3-4 and made the game’s final out with a putout throw from shortstop to his older brother and first baseman Don Sandifer.

The first two innings were virtually a replay of Monday’s Game One loss. B-E had runners in scoring position, including the bases loaded in the top of the second, but were once again contained by starting pitcher Brandon Sellers.

Godley was equally adept at keeping the Tigers off the board. He escaped trouble in the top of the first by getting strikeouts for the second and third out, then got Tim Pratt to hit into an inning-ending double play in the second with base runners on first and third.

This was a recurring theme through the first four innings for Godley. Chesterfield’s leadoff batter would reach base, only to get left stranded or thrown out on the basepaths.

In the top of the third, Godley helped his own cause by lacing a two-out double to the left-centerfield gap which scored Randon Sandifer from first and put the Red Raiders on the board.

On the play, Godley overran second base and barely avoided getting tagged out before Sandifer raced home. Kody Breland then brought Godley across homeplate with a hard 2-2 single up the middle to centerfield.

Chesterfield looked to respond in the bottom half of the third as Josh McCall hit a leadoff double to centerfield and moved to third on a sacrifice bunt. He was left stranded after B-E’s Ross Nettles froze him at third after fielding a high chopper by Richie Dixon and making the putout on first.

Godley then got Terrance Burch to ground out to first base to end another threat.

Nettles made another key defensive play in the bottom of the fourth. After Jeremy Curtis stole third base, he slid past the bag and was promptly tagged out by Nettles to erase another Rams’ baserunner.

“We were just a little tentative – a little bit, I think – but I think Godley threw real well,” Chesterfield head coach Jimmy Weatherford said. “Hat’s off to him. He settled down and got outs when he needed to get outs and did a great job.”

With Godley holding Chesterfield hitless the rest of the way, the B-E offense more than provided enough insurance. On the very first pitch of the fifth inning, Randon Sandifer sent Sellers’ offering beyond the reach of the Chesterfield leftfielder to extend B-E’s lead.

Two batters later, Godley smashed a solo home run well past the 345 marker in left-centerfield to make it 4-0. In the same inning, Mitch Whetstone added an RBI single to give B-E a comfortable 5-0 advantage.

“We started out hitting the ball early and I think it kind of caught fire with some of the hitters,” Horton said. “That’s about the best we hit the ball in the state championship series.”

By this point, Godley had the game in firm control as he retired nine of the last 10 batters. For extra insurance in the seventh, Godley reached base on a single and scored on Breland’s blast to left-centerfield.

Chesterfield went quietly in the bottom half of the inning, while the residents of Raiderville joyously celebrated with the players on the field following the final out.

“I feel good for these boys,” Horton said. “There’s six players on this team that weren’t here last year. They worked hard and it took a lot of hard work for them to get where they got and they finished it off. I’m so proud of them.”

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