‘Unbelievable.’ Bryan Station upsets Scott County for 42nd District softball crown
Bryan Station softball coach Hector Urbaneja called the end to his team’s regular season a “rough patch.”
That’s an understatement.
The Defenders lost 12 of their last 14 games, including the last seven in a row. In their last game before the postseason, No. 8 Harrison County mercy-ruled them 10-0 in six innings at home.
But Bryan Station has senior Karsyn Rockvoan in the circle, one of the top strikeout pitchers in the state.
And, this week, in the 42nd District Tournament at Scott County High School in Georgetown, the Defenders showed the resolve they discovered through all the adversity by going 2-0 on the way to the program’s second district championship in three seasons, including a shocking 9-4 win over the top seed and tournament host in Wednesday’s final.
“It’s unbelievable. This is what we worked for the entire time,” Urbaneja said after his team rallied from an early 3-0 deficit against the Cardinals by putting together a five-run inning for the second night in a row. “We were losing and losing, and we couldn’t find a way. I could feel the negativity and I said, ‘You need to relax. We’re facing good pitching. We’re facing top teams. This is going to help us.”
Bryan Station’s losing streak included defeats to five teams ranked in the final Kentucky Prep Softball coaches poll top 25. Its 13-14 record also included two one-run defeats to Scott County and a blowout 11-4 loss at home to Frederick Douglass, the preseason favorite to win both the district and the 11th Region.
Bryan Station ended Frederick Douglass’ season with a 5-2 victory in Tuesday’s semifinals. Rockvoan struck out 11 Broncos and delivered a two-run single to ignite the Defenders’ decisive five-run third inning.
On Wednesday, Rockvoan remained confident in her team despite three infield errors in the first two innings that put them in a 3-0 hole.
“We did start off a little slow, but we just worked together and kept that same energy from yesterday,” Rockvoan said.
Scott County (17-12) gave a run back to Bryan Station with its own error in the third inning after a walk to Bekah Clark. Clark moved into scoring position on Adrienn Acure sacrifice bunt. She scored after an errant throw on Mia Urbaneja’s grounder to cut Scott County’s lead to 3-1.
Bekah Clark and Acure started the top of the fifth by reaching via an error and a hit, respectively, but Scott County pitcher Mackenzie Leidecker got Mia Urbaneja out on a pop-up and Rockvoan out on a grounder.
It looked like Bryan Station was squandering a chance to tie the game.
Then, for the second time on Wednesday, Scott County intentionally walked Carrington Clark to instead face 4-foot-11 freshman second baseman Aniyah Farris, a .224 hitter.
The ploy worked in the top of the third inning with two out and one runner on. Farris lined out to third base. This time, the bases were loaded. The shortest player on the field took ball four high on the fifth pitch of the at-bat.
Farris jumped and shouted “Let’s go!” as Bryan Station’s fan section and dugout roared and her teammates each advanced a base to cut Scott County’s lead to 3-2.
“That was huge, huge, huge,” Rockvoan said.
Coach Urbaneja said Farris took offense to the intentional walks ahead of her.
“I needed to get my get-back right there,” Farris said. “When I got on, I was hyped. I was like ‘Hell, yeah.’”
Back-to-back RBI singles by Olivia Greenberg and DeAsya Lewis followed.
Farris crossed the plate for a 5-3 lead after the throw home on Lewis’ hit skipped away from Scott County’s catcher toward the Cardinals’ dugout.
Scott County reliever Olivia Roland uncorked a wild pitch on her first throw that allowed Greenberg’s courtesy runner, Janasyn Kelley, to score and make it 6-3.
Carrington Clark added an RBI single in the sixth and Adalyn Falconer and Acure tacked on RBI singles in the 7th to help set the final margin. Rockvoan allowed one earned run on four hits, striking out seven and walking three.
Bryan Station’s season might end next week in the 11th Region Tournament at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond. If it does, the Defenders still won’t have a winning record.
That won’t matter.
Only two Bryan Station softball teams have ever claimed the 42nd District championship trophy. Urbaneja and Rockvoan had helped lead the Defenders to both, but the credit goes all around.
“It’s a collective win. Everybody helped,” Urbaneja said. “They have each other’s back. Nobody gave up. They stayed together as a team and that’s part of what it takes.”
The draw for next week’s region tournament is scheduled Friday at Great Crossing High School where the champions of the 41st, 42nd, 43rd and 44th districts will be lined up against the districts’ runners-up. First round play begins Monday at EKU’s Gertrude Hood Field.
Injury riddled Lafayette wins 43rd District
McKenzie Harney’s two-out double to left center in the bottom of the fifth inning brought home a pair of runs that helped tournament host Lafayette take down Tates Creek 4-1 on Thursday and claim the 43rd District championship for the first time in three years.
“I’ve been playing with all these girls since I was a seventh-grader and being able to win a district championship with them on our home field is awesome,” said Harney, one of two University of Charleston-West Virginia signees on the team and the tournament’s most valuable player. “We had a long season, but we toughed through it, and we stuck together. … I think that’s a big part of why we accomplished what we did today.”
The Generals (16-12) lost four players to injury this season, including Kentucky commit Addi Combs and catcher Skylar Davis. Both are juniors and were two of Lafayette’s best hitters. Both are done for the year.
“We had a bunch of younger girls step up and fill in these spots and learn from the older girls, too,” Harney said. “We needed them to step up.”
Each of Lafayette’s six seniors led the way against Tates Creek.
Brynna Harris, the other Charleston-West Virginia signee, hit a solo homer for a 1-0 lead in the first and scored in the fifth after drawing a walk ahead of Harney. Aarilyn Waletich-Silverio logged a sacrifice fly to pay off the one-out triple ahead of her by Anna Clay Denton. Ellie Thompson had a hit in the sixth. Senior pitcher Lyla Hould allowed one run on six hits and two walks. She struck out two.
The Commodores (16-9) put runners on base in every inning but the sixth. Kennedy Lindsey’s one-out single in the top of the fifth set up Alexis Bazzell for an RBI opportunity one out later. Lindsey scored on Bazzell’s drive to left-center to cut Lafayette’s lead to 2-1. Hould shut Creek down from there.
Tates Creek reached its first district final since 2017 by defeating Lexington Christian 13-3 in five innings on Tuesday. Commodores coach Mike Thomas accepted district coach of the year honors after Thursday’s final.
Both teams advance to next week’s 11th Region tournament, which oddly features No. 13 Madison Central as the region’s only ranked team. Lafayette coach Chris Hould believes the region championship is up for grabs.
“Theres a lot of good players around and it’s spread out amongst many teams,” Hould said. “Anybody can beat anybody on a given day.”
