Jim Mashek

SOUTH’s KELLY REYNOLDS: ‘OUR BIG JOB IS COMING UP … THAT’s THE BIG ONE’

It must have taken Layla Ogden and the South Warren High School fast-pitch softball team a good 15, 20 minutes to finally knock off Barren County on Thursday night in the seventh inning of the KHSAA 4th Region championship game.

South Warren never trailed against the upset-minded Trojanettes, but nothing came easily for the Commonwealth’s No. 1-ranked team with a championship on the line in their hometown.

Barren County didn’t flinch.

Likewise, the Spartans, who overcame some base running mistakes to slip past the Trojanettes, 4-2, before an overflow crowd at the WKU Softball Complex. Courtney Norwood worked the first four innings in the circle for South, before yielding to Ogden for the final three frames, all of them with plenty of intrigue.

Particularly the top of the seventh.

“I knew it was going to be a close game, but me and Courtney were ready,” Ogden said after an emotional postgame presentation. “It was going to take all of us to win this game.”

It’s been a mission for the Spartans for exactly one year, since their 2-1 loss to crosstown rival Greenwood High School in the same game, the KHSAA 4th Region championship contest. Laser focused, eyes on the prize. Never losing sight of their ultimate goal.

That’s what seventh-year South Warren coach Kelly Reynolds has in mind for her team. The Spartans (37-3 overall) will tangle with Elizabethtown High School (28-7) in first-round play of the KHSAA State Tournament next Friday at the University of Kentucky’s John Cropp Stadium. First pitch is scheduled for 10 a.m. EDT.

“The work’s still not done,” Reynolds said. “Our big job is coming up … that’s the big one.”

Barren County, which finished its season at 28-8, was certainly a worthy opponent for the Spartans. South Warren never trailed in Thursday’s championship game, but the Trojanettes had the tying run at second base and the heart of the batting order coming up against South Warren pitcher Layla Ogden.

Four of Barren County’s seven hits took place in the top of the seventh inning, including Briley Aidala’s two-run single to left-center field to make it 4-2. Katie Murphy, the Trojanettes’ leading hitter and a WKU signee, then ripped a double to left-center field, putting two runners in scoring position for teammate Riley Reed.

The fans behind the Barren County dugout along the first-base line knew they had a chance.

Just as quickly, however, Ogden induced a quick roller from Reed, right in the direction of Kinleigh Russell, the Spartans’ sophomore second baseman. It had been quite the obstacle course, for South Warren to complete the task at hand, but Russell smothered the grounder and used a quick sidearm throw to retire Reed by a couple steps.

Gloves were tossed, South Warren players started jumping up and down, and sure enough, there was a dogpile near the pitcher’s circle. The Spartans were going back to the state tournament.

“I was just trying to make the play,” Russell said. “We wanted this so much … I’m just glad I could pull through for the team and help us win the game.”

Ogden, who worked the final three innings in the circle for the Spartans, was named the tournament’s MVP. She drove in a critical fifth-inning run when she drew a bases-loaded walk from Barren County pitcher Shea Bogue, a freshman. That pushed South’s lead to 2-0, and the Spartans capitalized on two BCHS errors — the only marks on the Trojanettes’ defense the entire game — in adding two more runs in the bottom of the sixth.

“We were trying to get some insurance runs, for sure,” said McLaine Hudson, South Warren’s all-state sophomore shortstop. “I’ve been through the ups and downs, in this tournament, for the last four years. Two wins, two losses. I know how Barren (County) feels.

“We’ve put so much into this. Blood, sweat and tears …”

SWHS freshman Courtney Norwood was the winning pitcher, moving her record to 16-2 on the season. Ogden negotiated the high-wire act in the seventh to claim her first save of the season.

Barren County coach Daryl Murphy, an assistant principal at the high school, was duly impressed. The Trojanettes were playing for their first KHSAA 4th Region title since 2010, and they certainly went down swinging.

“This group of kids, this is a resilient team, as much as any team I’ve coached in my 26 years,” Murphy said. “We were down in our first two games of this tournament, with Greenwood and then Russellville. Sometimes it’s more about the journey than the destination … We had the tying run at second (base), in the seventh inning, against the No. 1 team in the state …

“(South Warren will) make some noise next week up in Lexington.”

South Warren coach Kelly Reynolds always puts a difficult schedule together, and the Spartans have compiled a record of 6-3 in games decided by two runs or less. (That’s right, all three of their losses, most recently against Logan County on May 15, were nailbiters decided in the late innings.)

“All year, we’ve prepared ourselves for these kinds of situations,” Reynolds said. “I don’t know why, but base running has been a problem for us, in this tournament. That’s something we’ll look at, in practice.

“We’re ready to get up there (to Lexington) to get the job done.”

Base running mistakes likely cost South Warren single runs in the first and fourth innings alike, but Courtney Norwood’s RBI single to center field broke a scoreless tie for the Spartans in the fourth.

Katie Murphy, Barren County’s star shortstop, went 2-for-3 with a seventh-inning double. Her counterpart with South Warren, McLaine Hudson, went 3-for-4, including a double in the first inning.

Now the Spartans will take a shot at the ultimate goal. They had three impressive comeback victories in the postseason, in 2022, on their way to a semifinal appearance at the state tournament. They got knocked out of the tournament by Louisville’s Ballard High School, 11-0, that year, and Ballard went on to win the state championship.

“We’re thrilled, to be going back to Lexington, after missing out last year,” Hudson said via text message on Friday morning. “We knew Barren County was going to be a tough opponent … While we are excited to win region, the job is not done yet!”

That’s music to the ears of Spartans coach Kelly Reynolds, a guidance counselor at South Warren High School and Kentucky’s first “Miss Softball,” an award she won three decades ago, as a left-handed pitcher at Warren Central.

“This team is special,” Reynolds said. “They’re very close friends, on and off the field. I’d say they complement each other very well. They joke around and have fun, but they all are very competitive and know when to focus, and get locked in.”

Reynolds plans to give her squad a couple days off before returning to the practice field on either Sunday or Monday. They’ll leave for Lexington on Thursday, the first day for the KHSAA state tournaments in baseball and softball.