THEIR THIRD STRAIGHT DISTRICT TITLE.
SOUTH WARREN IMPROVES TO 34-3 OVERALL; BUSH SAYS LADY GATORS REMAIN UPBEAT
Layla Ogden and her South Warren High School softball teammates made the most of their last day of school.
They wore their new “All In” T-shirts to school, kept an eye on the thunderstorms in the area and waited for their chance to claim a fifth consecutive championship in the KHSAA’s 14th District.
And the Spartans left nothing to chance.
Ogden, a sophomore, fired a 1-hitter in Wednesday’s championship game, sending the Spartans to an impressive 7-1 victory over archrival Greenwood on a cool, damp night at Bowling Green High School.
School’s out, indeed.
IS FLANKED BY FELLOW SOPHOMORES
McLAINE HUDSON (LEFT) AND LAYLA OGDEN.
FINISHED THE GAME WITH 15 STRIKEOUTS.
IS A RANGY CATCHER BEHIND THE PLATE.
South Warren, which improved to 34-3 overall, collected 13 hits against Greenwood eighth-grader Anna Rose Martin, remaining unbeaten in three games against the Lady Gators this season. There’s a chance the crosstown rivals could meet again in the KHSAA 4th Region Tournament, starting Monday at Western Kentucky University, but it’ll be a loaded field that also includes the likes of Logan County (28-4), Barren County (26-7), Warren East (26-10) and Russellville (23-14).
The draw will be held Friday morning at Bowling Green High School.
Ogden recorded 15 strikeouts against the Lady Gators (25-10-1), with every Greenwood starter striking out at least once. Micheal Compton of the Bowling Green Daily News charted Ogden’s performance, and she threw 91 pitches, 60 of them for strikes.
Greenwood catcher Macie Murray had her team’s only hit when she launched a solo home run to left-center field in the top of the fifth inning.
Ogden was named the tournament MVP.
BELTED A SOLO HOME RUN IN THE FIFTH …
FINISHED THE GAME WITH THREE HITS.
HAD THEIR SHARE OF MEMORABLE GAMES.
“Layla was on fire tonight,” South Warren coach Kelly Reynolds said. “At the plate, we started hitting the ball early. We left a lot of runners on base, which we haven’t really done a lot of that this year, but then right there at the end …
“I told them in the bottom of the sixth that we need some insurance and I thought we put the ball in play really well.”
The top of the Spartans’ lineup, led by star sophomore shortstop McLaine Hudson, rapped out three consecutive hits to put the game out of reach. Sophomore second baseman Kinleigh Russell drilled a two-run double to left-center field, and she scored on teammate Hadley Border’s line-drive single to right field, accounting for the final margin.
Hudson is batting an otherworldly .646 with 20 home runs and a team-high 62 RBI, but Russell (.600, a team-high 19 doubles, and 49 RBI) and Borders (.500, 39 RBI) aren’t far behind. Ogden remained unbeaten in 17 decisions, with 122 strikeouts in 83 1/3 innings pitched.
“We stayed focused, had a lot of energy,” Hudson said.
AFTER HER THIRD-INNING HOME RUN.
HAS GONE 103-11 IN THE LAST THREE SEASONS …
ON AND OFF THE FIELD.
Ogden said last year’s 2-1 loss to Greenwood in the KHSAA 4th Region Tournament championship game remains a fixture in South Warren’s collective psyche, but she also knows the road ahead has all sorts of potential roadblocks. Logan County knocked off the Spartans, 4-3, last week at the South Warren Softball Complex.
“We’ve put the work in,” Ogden said.
Ogden has an assortment of pitches and changes speeds with unusual precision. She works well with South Warren catcher Hayden Holloway — yet ANOTHER Spartans sophomore — and knows the value of staying ahead in the count.
“We have to work together out there,” Holloway said. “Layla places the ball where she needs to, all the time. She really knows how to change her speed.”
South coach Kelly Reynolds didn’t pitch Ogden against Greenwood in the two regular-season matchups, and Greenwood coach Rod Bush chose not to pitch either of his aces, Abigail Byrd or Gracyn Nealon, instead going with left-handed eighth grader Anna Rose Martin. Bush used a similar approach in last year’s run to the KHSAA state tournament, holding star right-hander Kayden Murray until 4th Region play and pitching Byrd in the 14th District title tilt.
South would win that game, 6-2.
WAS SNAPPED AT SEVEN GAMES …
WILL TAKE A 25-10-1 RECORD
INTO KHSAA 4th REGION PLAY.
ON CATCHER HAYDEN HOLLOWAY
AFTER HER THIRD-INNING HOME RUN.
“I threw my eighth grader and Anna Rose did a nice job,” Bush said. “(Ogden) pitched really well, but we’ve got to be mentally sharper, particularly early in the game. We’ve got to get more run support, against this kind of competition.”
South’s Kinleigh Russell delivered an RBI double in the first inning, and Hadley Bordes’ run-scoring single to right field made it 3-0 in the second. The Spartans’ Hayden Holloway unloaded her seventh home run of the season, a solo shot to center field, in the bottom of the third.
Macie Murray’s fifth home run of the season got the Lady Gators on the board in the fifth. Ogden struck out four of the next five Greenwood batters she faced, retiring two of them on called third strikes.
“When you have a pitcher like Layla out there, who is feeling it … with the emotions, you can watch her with every strikeout,” South Warren coach Kelly Reynolds said. “I was very excited for her.”
The next week or so at the WKU softball complex holds plenty of intrigue across South Central Kentucky. Stay tuned.
ARE CERTAINLY FAMILIAR OPPONENTS …
PLACED FOUR PLAYERS
ON THE ALL-DISTRICT TEAM.
PUSHED THE GAME BACK TO A 7:45 P.M. START …
AT SOUTH WARREN AND GREENWOOD ALIKE …