‘That was clutch.’ Lexington Catholic rallies past Lafayette in top 25 softball showdown.
The first regular season showdown between the last two 11th Region softball champions did not disappoint on Thursday.
No. 15 Lexington Catholic, last year’s region champ who went on to finish as state runner-up, knocked off visiting No. 6 Lafayette 6-4 thanks in part to a two-out rally in the sixth inning capped by Lucy Nash’s two-run ground-rule double with the bases loaded.
“That was incredible. I was running around the bases so fast and then I had to come back because I didn’t even see it,” said LexCath’s Abby Hammond, who was walked intentionally ahead of Nash even though both had hit solo homers back-to-back earlier in the game. “As soon as it hit off the bat I knew it was a good hit. That was clutch.”
Hammond, the sophomore who has thrown every pitch for the Knights this season and is the reigning Kentucky Gatorade Player of the Year, closed out the game by striking out the side to earn her fifth win.
Lafayette grabbed slim leads in the first, fifth and sixth innings only to see LexCath claw back each time. The back-to-back homers from Hammond and Nash put the Knights up 2-1 in the third, Kinley Willoughby’s sacrifice fly tied it for LexCath 3-3 in the fifth, and Lauren Kelley’s two-out RBI single in the sixth started the game-winning rally by tying the game once more at 4-4 ahead of Nash’s smash.
“We had a lot of girls step up,” Hammond said. “This is a good win. It gets us some confidence, but, obviously, we know we’re going to face them again.”
The Generals (8-2) and the Knights (5-3) have exchanged the last two 43rd District and 11th Region titles. Lafayette lost the 2021 43rd District Tournament to LexCath, but toppled the Knights for the region title a week later. Last season, it was the Knights’ turn to convert a district finals loss into a region win against the Generals.
Lexington Catholic has won the last five regular season battles between the two. The Knights prevailed Thursday despite four errors and a fifth-inning rally in which Aniyah White’s two-out single was followed by an RBI triple to right field by Olivia Planck on the very next pitch to give the Generals a brief 4-3 lead.
“It’s always a battle. There’s fight in both teams and it’s really fun to watch,” Lafayette Coach Dan Grantz said. “I’m proud of our girls. They put the ball in play and ran the bases well and put a lot of pressure on their defense. We just couldn’t get enough timely hits. We’ll learn from it and regroup.”
Lexington Catholic had some regrouping to do after an 0-3 start sent the Knights tumbling from their preseason No. 4 ranking in the Kentucky Prep Softball Coaches’ Poll. They’ve won every game since.
“If you look at those three games that we dropped — we were in all of them and we had a chance to win every single one of them,” LexCath Coach Emery Emmert said. “I wasn’t too worried about it. We did the same thing last year. We dropped a couple of games to unranked opponents, and it actually made us a better team.”
Against Lafayette, LexCath played without Emmert’s daughter, vocal on-field leader Ava Emmert, a junior third baseman who fell ill to a stomach bug Thursday morning. The Knights have also been without junior outfielder Caitlyn Kelley for a number of games due to a shoulder injury.
While unfortunate, Coach Emmert sees both setbacks as opportunities to improve just like the early season losses.
“It’s not by design, but you’ve got to go with the flow,” Emmert said. “You’ve got to go with what’s given to you. There are opportunities all over the place.”
In Kelley’s place, sophomore Kayla Mattingly hit a grand slam against Franklin County on March 30 in the Kentucky 2A Tournament.
That kind of production makes Emmert excited for what could be possible for his team when it’s healthy.
“When they come back, hopefully we’ll be rolling,” he said.
Bryan Station steps up
Bryan Station (9-4) aims to better its runner-up finish from last year’s 42nd District Tournament and has lined up a challenging schedule in preparation.
The Defenders might not have figured that district rival Henry Clay would be one of the several ranked opponents on their calendar, however.
The No. 25 Blue Devils (12-4) are off to one of their best starts ever, but suffered a 9-6 defeat at unranked Bryan Station on Tuesday. Bryan Station’s late-game 6-3 lead evaporated in the top of the sixth inning, but the Defenders rallied with three runs in the bottom half to help seal the win.
“I knew it was going to be a really tough game today but I believe in my teammates and I knew that we could beat them,” said Bryan Station’s freshman starter Karsyn Rockvoan, who got her eighth win. “I was a little stressed out. I’m not going to lie.”
Bryan Station Coach Hector Urbaneja praised the resilience of his team after it let the initial lead slip away. Morgan Williams doubled and Brooke Weathers delivered an RBI single that started the game-winning rally.
“They stuck together. They didn’t give up. No heads were down,” he said. “This team managed to work through the errors and stay in the game. That’s all you can ask. Errors are going to happen. If you’re playing, you’re going to make errors. I like the way we hung tight. It was an ugly win, but we got it.”
Friday begins a four-game stretch for Bryan Station against ranked opponents: No. 8 Great Crossing, No. 14 Scott County, No. 7 Anderson County and No. 15 Lexington Catholic.
“I’m not afraid of competition. I want them to face tough competition,” Urbaneja said. I don’t want easy wins. … Our goal is to go farther in the region and maybe make state. That’s why our schedule is tough. We’re ready for it.”
