Another high school state tournament is coming to Lexington
The KHSAA State Softball Tournament will be played at the University of Kentucky’s John Cropp Stadium this year and next year.
It is the first time the high school state softball tournament will be held in Lexington. The tournament was contested at Jack C. Fisher Park in Owensboro the last 11 years.
The KHSAA last February changed the softball state tournament from a double-elimination format to a single-elimination event, effective this season, due to a desire to make the state softball tournament less of a “lawn-chair event” and more similar to the baseball state tournament experience. The organization in September voted to reduce the number of state tournament participants in each sport from 16 teams to eight, adding a semi-state round similar to what’s currently used in the state soccer tournament.
Cropp Stadium opened in 2013. It seats 1,417 in the stadium and can accommodate more than 2,000 total fans between an outfield berm and standing-room space.
The University of Louisville’s Ulmer Stadium was also in contention for the event.
UK’s parking situation and its proximity to Whitaker Bank Ballapark — the site of the baseball state tournament, which will be staged the same week — gave it a slight edge.
KHSAA Commissioner Julian Tackett raised the possibility that the board could elect to rotate the state tournament between the two sites following 2020. Both UK and U of L vocalized interest in possibly hosting semi-state games; those sites will be determined in the coming months.
Other notable action
▪ A new draft alignment for golf and the sport’s postseason qualification criteria will be presented and discussed at the next board of control meeting in February. Major components of that draft will be the advancement of four team golfers (instead of five) to the state competition for the top two finishing teams at the region tournaments, determining the best number of regions for the sport and placing boys’ and girls’ teams from the same school in the same region. The overall goal is to cap the amount of state qualifiers at about 144 participants in order to maintain a steady pace of play.
▪ The board named Ephram White Park in Bowling Green as this year’s host of the archery state tournament.
This story was originally published January 16, 2019 at 12:48 PM.