They’re blasting their way to state. ‘It feels pretty good when it goes over.’
Senior Emily Hestand has seen five-straight 11th Region softball finals for Woodford County. She couldn’t participate in the Yellow Jackets’ 2017 win as she was recovering from knee surgery. But she became a huge part of their championship lore Wednesday night.
In the third inning, Hestand launched the first of what would be three Woodford three-run homers to break open the game and set the stage for what became a 12-3 rout of Madison Southern in the 11th Region finals at Tates Creek.
“Being my last region championship game I was really excited I got to do that. It felt really good,” she said as the Yellow Jackets earned the program’s third trip to the state tournament. “It made everyone realize we could do this for sure. It helped keep everyone up and keep everyone going.”
Madison Southern proved in Tuesday’s semifinals, a 10-9 win over defending state champion Scott County, that it would be a tough out. But Woodford’s combination of Claire Lehmkuhler and Jocelynn Edwards in the circle held the Eagles to three runs on six hits. Edwards, an eighth-grader, came on in relief in the fifth and didn’t allow a hit while striking out five.
“It was very stressful at first,” Edwards said. “Once we had two outs (in the fifth), I knew I could get the next one. ... (Coach Les Anderson) trusts me and relies on me a lot. He knows what I can do.”
Edwards’ job got a lot easier in the fifth inning when Woodford sent flying its second and third three-run homers of the game to establish the final margin.
Kelsey Coleman came to the plate with two on and one out and drove out a no-doubter to make in 9-3. Taylor Sallee and Hestand had each singled ahead of her. Then with two out, the top of the order’s Leea Cole and Kasey Abel each singled to set up another three-run blast from Delaney Enlow.
“It feels pretty good when it goes over, I’ll tell you that,” Enlow said. “Obviously, (Madison Southern) played a great game against Scott County. We knew we were going to have a fight going into this game, but we also believed whoever we played, we were going to play hard against and we were going to play our best against, and I think we did that tonight.”
This will mark Woodford’s final trip to state as the 11th Region champion as realignment moves the Yellow Jackets to the 8th Region next year. They went out in style.
“Enlow, Hestand, Coleman, and we probably ended up with 14 or 15 hits (15). We were just on fire tonight,” Anderson said. Leea Cole, who went 3-for-4 with two runs scored in the leadoff spot, was named tournament MVP.
Capping off the second region title in his three years as head coach, Anderson credited the community for fostering the team’s success through the years.
“This community has valued softball for years, and that’s what it takes,” he said. “I keep getting players. ... I got talent coming that’s just unreal, and it’s a community effort.”
11th Region All-Tournament Team
Abbey Mayers, Madison Central; Sophie Kluesner, Tates Creek; Madison Davis, Frederick Douglass; Maddie Lecompte, Western Hills; Lucy Basehart and Carlee Jeter, Lafayette; Carly Oliver and Ashley Adkins, Scott County; Tessa Juett, Kennadi Story and Kayla Pigg, Madison Southern; and Abby Moffett, Delaney Enlow, Claire Lehmkuhler and MVP Leea Cole, Woodford County.