‘We wanted to go out with a bang.’ Ballard softball claims its second straight state title.
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2023 Kentucky high school sports state championships
KHSAA state championships are playing out this weekend and next across four sports in Lexington, and the Herald-Leader’s staff of writers and photographers are covering all the action. Click below for highlights from the baseball, softball, tennis and track and field state championships.
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In the bottom of the sixth inning in the Clark’s Pump-N-Shop Softball State Championship, Ballard made a statement in a season full of them. The Bruins tacked on six runs to their lead to finish strong and secure their historic back-to-back state titles with a 12-4 victory against Henderson County on Saturday at the University of Kentucky’s John Cropp Stadium.
The Bruins (36-1) are only the third softball team in KHSAA history to win consecutive state championships, joining Owensboro Catholic (1998-99) and Greenwood (2007-08).
“I think it’s unreal,” Ballard senior outfielder Emory Donaldson said of the feat. “It’s still like, it’s going to all our brains. We’re just trying to process it. This is an amazing team. Each one of us stepped up when we needed to, and we got the job done.”
After Friday’s semifinal victory over Rowan County, Ballard head coach Alan Jones said that the letdown of the tournament had been his team’s lack of offensive momentum.
Until the title game, the Bruins had scored four runs in each of the state tournament matchups. To reach the championship, Ballard had defeated Woodford County 4-0 in the first round, Greenwood 4-1 (in 11 innings) in the quarterfinals, and, of course, Rowan County 4-1 in the semifinals.
However, Jones wasn’t getting what he felt was the full potential out of his bats, but he made the decision not to say anything ahead of the championship.
“We came in, and I said, ‘We’re not going to talk to them about hitting,’” Jones said. “‘We’re just gonna go through our drills’. I kept my mouth shut — which is unusual — and kept them loose. And boom, here we went.”
The Bruins totaled 12 runs on 12 hits in the title game. But no one was more explosive than Donaldson, a UK signee who recorded four hits and four runs in four at-bats, as well as two RBI.
She was the first to make noise in the sixth inning, smacking a double to center field to knock in Sydney Blair. Donaldson then scored herself off a grounder from Kierstyn Smith.
“(Jones) knows as a team, we can get it together, and we knew this was the day,” Donaldson explained. “Like, this is the last day a lot of this team is gonna be on the field. So we wanted to go out with a bang. So, going out there, being aggressive, hitting our pitch.”
Ballard’s offense started out strong, scoring two runs back-to-back at the bottom of the first.
The first run arrived on a Henderson County error when Ballard first baseman Macy McCoy hit a pop fly to right field and made it to second as Donaldson crossed home plate. The second run came when second baseman Imari Golden hit a sacrifice fly to center to score Mikayla Milby.
Ballard capitalized on an opportunity once again at the bottom of the second, adding three runs.
But, in the top of the third, Henderson County (33-6) reared its head as a Maggie Grogan single sent Azayah Hall home and put the Colonels on the scoreboard. Henderson County proceeded to score three more runs, following big hits from Taylor Troutman and Kendal Hargrove, as well as Alyse Rollings making it home on a wild pitch.
“It was hard,” Ballard pitcher Brooke Gray said. “Like, the first couple innings it was definitely not my best game. I will admit it now, it was probably one of my worst this season, those first few innings. My pitches weren’t moving. They were right down the middle, and it was a matter of when they were going to start scoring runs like that. So once that kind of happened, it was kind of like a … How would I word it? Like, opening my eyes, basically. You know, ‘You’ve got to be better.’ And I just kind of worked on my spins in the dugout by myself, and I went back out there and then from there, everything looks like it should have. So it was nice to see everything go back into place. I think I was just angry for the most part, because I haven’t let up four runs like that in a long time. So it was just kind of like, ‘You need to, you need to lock in, like something’s wrong.’ So, we fixed it, and here we are.”
Gray, the 2023 Gatorade Kentucky Softball Player of the Year and a Louisville signee, still managed 10 strikeouts over seven innings.
“Brooke’s the best pitcher in the country by far,” Jones said. “But look what, I mean, we won as a team, too. And I’m so happy for all of them. … And they did a good job, but today we were having fun and I told you all: these bats would hit. And these bats. You know, never seen Brooke get in trouble a little bit, our defense kind of let down a little bit. But you know what, we never quit all year and we didn’t today.”
Ballard didn’t quit, and neither did Henderson County.
The Colonels, in their first softball state championship appearance, fought tooth and nail after Friday’s hard-fought 10-inning, 4-1 semifinals win over East Jessamine.
“I think nerves got the best of us,” Henderson County head coach Shannon Troutman said. “It kind of started last night and (we) made a lot of defensive miscues, a lot of … we just didn’t play well. Nothing you can say, I’m not taking anything away from Ballard. They’re a great program, but my girls were, I think, just a little nervous today. Little wore out from the game last night, a little wore out emotionally, mentally, and it showed a little today. But we’ll be back.”
The Bruins, who have only sustained one loss over the past two seasons, are clearly packed with talent. But, according to Gray, the most memorable part of this journey was the connection between teammates.
“The bond that we have,” Gray said, “this team as a whole is something that you would search for your whole life. Like, these girls and this friendship. It’s not even about the breaking records, and the back-to-back. It’s like, these are girls that I will think about for the rest of my life. And just knowing that I can text each and every one of them every day and I can come to games next year. It’s great because I, like, as a person you should want what we have as a whole. So, I’m grateful that I got to experience it.”
