UK softball commit helping young Lexington Catholic shake off rocky start
So far, this hasn’t been the kind of season defending 11th Region champion Lexington Catholic and its senior Kentucky softball commit Abby Hammond have been accustomed to in recent years.
Since becoming the Knights’ primary pitcher in eighth grade, Hammond has helped lead Lexington Catholic to two region championships in four straight region finals appearances while earning the 2022 and 2024 Kentucky Gatorade player of the year awards. LexCath finished as state runner-up in 2022.
But Lexington Catholic graduated five seniors from last year’s state quarterfinalists and first-year head coach Tina Watson had to revamp her lineup with a number of younger players to go along with seniors Sydney Ford, Kayla Mattingly and Hammond. LexCath has one starter each from seventh to 10th grade.
They got off to a rocky start with six losses in their first nine games. But don’t count Hammond and the Knights out, yet.
“I’m having a lot of fun. It’s definitely different, because we have a very young team, but it’s fun to motivate them to work hard, and they’re doing a great job,” Hammond said after Lexington Catholic rallied to a 2-1 win over No. 13 Lafayette, their 43rd District rival, on Monday. “I’m really proud of us for this win. I think it was a big confidence booster for us, and I think we’re gonna carry this energy for the rest of the year.”
Quality wins among uneven season
Monday’s victory improved LexCath to 8-8 on the season and 4-2 in the district when including two forfeits by district rival Lexington Christian that aren’t yet reflected in the KHSAA’s region standings.
While that’s two more losses than the Knights had combined during their 2022 and 2024 region championship seasons, it includes two other wins against teams that have been ranked in the coaches’ top 25 poll this season, Frederick Douglass and Ballard.
“At the end of the day, the only thing that matters is the postseason,” Hammond said. “So, we’re just working every single day, coming out here, practicing hard and knowing that when it comes down to it, we’re going to lock in and we’re going to make the plays that we need to make a run for it at the end.”
To examine how difficult this season has been, consider last year’s Knights had six players hitting at least .296 to help protect Hammond at the plate. This year’s team batting average is just .221. Hammond still leads the team with a .359 average, but that’s following three straight seasons of her hitting better than .500.
“I’m just trying to stay calm at the plate,” Hammond said. “I think I was putting a little bit of pressure on myself at the beginning of the year, but I’m just trying to have fun, stay loose and hopefully I can help my team in the coming games.”
In the circle, Hammond remains one of the state’s best pitchers with a 1.21 ERA and 111 strikeouts. She struck out 10 against Lafayette Monday. But her young defense has struggled with 49 errors in 16 games and she has less run support. LexCath’s 54 runs are the fewest of any 11th Region team.
However, there’s still a lot of season left to play for the Knights to continue to mature, and Hammond’s impact goes beyond her stats, Watson said.
“She pushes everybody to be a better player, to be a better teammate. They all really want to rally around her and give her the best senior season that they can,” Watson said. “She really brings everybody else up and kind of sets the bar pretty high, let’s know that she has expectations. And they try to reach it.”
Knights show grit against Lafayette
On Monday, LexCath ceded a 1-0 lead to Lafayette when Rylan Music sent a Hammond pitch high over the left-field fence in the fourth inning. Music, the Generals’ pitcher, followed that by getting Hammond out on a called third strike with the bases loaded and two out in the bottom of the fourth.
Blowing such an opportunity to score could have easily deflated the Knights. It didn’t.
“These girls have a lot of grit,” Watson said. “A lot of them understand that softball is a game of failure, and they’re gonna have to figure a way to just flush whatever just happened and come right back out. … It’s a hard thing, but a lot of them have really worked on the mental aspect of the game and making sure that they don’t let things like that bother them, because they know there’s another inning to play.”
LexCath’s junior third baseman, Lauren Kelley, launched the first home run of her career to tie the game in the bottom of the fifth inning.
Then in the seventh with a runner on second base thanks to a Lafayette error, Kelley smashed a single down the right-field line to score the winning run. Eighth-grader Aevea Mosley-Franklin slid safely into the plate ahead of the throw home.
“That was a pretty big opportunity there and I just wanted to do the best for my team and just give everything I got,” Kelley said.
Lafayette can still lock up the top district tournament seed with wins against Paul Laurence Dunbar and Tates Creek this week.
Lexington Catholic has district games left against Dunbar and Tates Creek, as well. Dunbar stunned the Knights 15-12 on March 31 for the Bulldogs’ first win over LexCath since 2019.
“We’ve really been trying to find our stride and figure out the best positions for certain players and the lineup that works,” Watson said. “And I just feel like the girls this second half of the season are just really coming together. They’re starting to figure things out. People are getting a little more settled, even though we’re still moving around a little bit, I think they’re finding their way.”
