LCA softball snaps 13-game skid against rival amid historic season start
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- LCA rallied for five runs in the seventh to beat Lexington Catholic 7-5.
- LCA improved to 8-1 overall and 3-0 in the 43rd District with the victory.
- Freshman pitcher Ella Deaton earned her eighth win and struck out 10.
Lexington Christian hasn’t been known much for softball over the years. And to look at the Eagles on Thursday, with just nine players dressed and another in an ankle boot as they took the field at Lexington Catholic, it would be hard to tell they’re off to one of the best starts in program history.
More incredibly, nearly half the roster hadn’t played softball before this season.
But after scoring five runs in the top of the seventh inning to turn a 5-2 deficit into a 7-5 victory against the Knights, LCA showed this team isn’t defined by its program’s past.
“It’s a bunch of great kids over there that will battle for anybody,” LCA coach Chris Waits said.
With the win, LCA improved its record to 8-1 and 3-0 in the 43rd District and snapped a 13-game losing streak to Lexington Catholic that dated to 2019, the last season the Eagles had a winning record. LCA has ended just four campaigns with winning records this century.
“This season has been a record-breaking season,” said freshman pitcher Ella Deaton, who had a nervous first inning, allowing three runs, but settled down for her eighth win. She struck out 10, including LexCath’s final two hitters. “We have four new girls that’s never played the sport before, and they come out here and battle every single game and give it their all.”
Fiery sophomore catcher Madison Wertzer sparked LCA’s comeback with a few choice words for her teammates after they fell behind 4-0 in the fourth inning and a two-run home run to dead center field in the top of the sixth inning to cut Lexington Catholic’s lead in half with seventh grader Emery Trogdon aboard via a walk.
“I was like, all right, I’m going to try to get us fired up. And I think it worked,” said Wertzler, who went 3 for 4 with two RBI and two runs scored. “I think hitting it pretty far also helped us.”
Wertzler’s first home run of the season rocketed over the deepest part of LexCath’s makeshift softball field on the football field.
“Morale went way up right after that,” Coach Waits said. “Up to that point, we could not find the consistent hitting. … As soon as one of them goes, I know the rest of them are going to go.”
Still, LCA gave up a run in the bottom of the sixth after a pair of walks and a hit by Ellie Thomson set up Lauren Kelley’s second RBI single of the game for the Knights (6-5, 1-4). Deaton got out of a bases-loaded jam thanks to a dropped third strike with the bases loaded that turned into an improbable double play.
After eighth grader Claire Van Epps reached safely via an error, LCA started a one-out hit parade to turn the game on its head.
Trogdon’s two-run single followed a hit by Mackenzie Waits and cut LCA’s deficit to 5-4. Wertzler got a hit ahead of Deaton’s RBI single through the left side of the infield that brought home Trogdon to tie the game. Sophia Gorshak capped the rally with a two-run single to center.
Deaton couldn’t praise her teammates enough.
“They carried the load most of the way and they encouraged me with their plays in the field,” she said. “It’s amazing how they rallied.”
Last year, LCA went 6-12, including three forfeits. Two of the forfeits were to Lexington Catholic, which had 2025 Miss Softball Abby Hammond, now at the University of Kentucky, on the roster.
The Eagles who stuck with the program paid their dues, and the newcomers are earning their keep.
“I wouldn’t take any other team I’ve played for at LCA,” Wertzler said.
This weekend, LCA travels to Owensboro for the All “A” Classic tournament, a pool-play format that guarantees at least three games before the elimination rounds begin. From there, LCA will try to become the first Eagles squad since 2003 to reach an 11th Region tournament.
Regardless of whether LCA can make more history, Coach Waits clearly has built a winner for his daughter’s senior year.
“It has been a blast,” Waits said. “We’re just having fun and just making the game as simple as possible. And we want to go as far as we can.”
No. 1 South Warren making a Central Kentucky swing
The undefeated No. 1 South Warren Spartans, featuring McClain Hudson — the KHSAA’s career home run leader with 82 dingers, including 19 this season — will travel to Great Crossing Park in Georgetown on Saturday for a two-game set that includes an 11 a.m. Saturday game against No. 10 Frederick Douglass.
The games are part of the 13-team Clark’s Pump N Shop Invitational on Friday and Saturday that also includes No. 2 Daviess County, No. 11 Eastern, No. 14 Assumption, the defending state champs, No. 21 East Jessamine and No. 22 Scott County.
The Spartans (26-0) rank as the No. 3 team in the nation by the sport’s coaches’ association and feature five Division I commits, including Hudson, who flipped her commitment from Kentucky to No. 13 Florida State last fall.
Hudson, a two-time Kentucky Gatorade player of the year has a ridiculous .802 batting average and also leads the state in homers, hits (81) and runs scored (71).
South Warren’s other DI commits are pitchers Layla Ogden (Western Kentucky) and Courtney Norwood (Kentucky) along with Parker Willoughby (Ohio State), Hadley Borders (Missouri) and Kinleigh Russell (Oklahoma State).
Saturday’s games
Central Kentucky teams in the Clark’s Pump N Shop Invitational at Great Crossing Park in Georgetown
- Bryan Station vs. Male at 11 a.m.
- Scott County vs. Assumption, 11 a.m.
- Bryan Station vs. Anderson County, 1 p.m.
- Douglass vs. Assumption, 1 p.m.
- Great Crossing vs. Daviess County, 1 p.m.
LCA in the All “A” Classic at Jack C. Fisher Park in Owensboro
- Belfry vs. Lexington Christian, 10 a.m.
- Livingston Central vs. Lexington Christian, 1:30 p.m.
- Bracken County vs. Lexington Christian, 5 p.m.
