Jim Mashek

HUDSON, SPARTANS OPEN STATE TOURNAMENT PLAY THURSDAY NIGHT IN LEXINGTON

South Warren High School’s fastpitch softball program has had some high-profile players over the years, but in the COVID plagued fall of 2020, the team was on the practice field one day when Spartans coach Kelly Reynolds made an observation.

There was a dynamite kid taking grounders in the infield.

At the plate, she was hitting consistent line drives.

And in the dugout, and on the field, seventh-grade student McLaine Hudson was in her element, even with her considerably older teammates.

In other words, Hudson belonged.

“McLaine started playing for South Warren in her sixth grade year,” Reynolds said. “She was on our middle school team. We knew, at that point, that there was something different about her. She was more advanced than most players her age, and she was a really good middle infielder.”

That middle infielder will play in her third consecutive KHSAA state tournament this week in Lexington. The Spartans have won a staggering 218 games since McLaine Hudson joined the South Warren varsity squad, while losing just 18 of them.

That’s right, South has compiled an otherworldly record of 218-18 since Hudson came on board for the 2021 season. And the Spartans are still in pursuit of the school’s first KHSAA state softball championship. Some of those losses have hit hard, including last year’s 3-1 defeat at the hands of tradition-rich Daviess County in first-round play of the state tournament at UK’s John Cropp Stadium.

That also happens to be the last time the Spartans lost a game.

Anyway, Kelly Reynolds can pick up the story from here.

“We encouraged Mac to try out for the high school team in the spring,” Reynolds said. “Of course, she made the team, and we were in need of a second baseman. McLaine fit the role. She embraced her position and people on the outside could never tell she was a seventh grader.

“She always played like a much older player, looked more confident in the field, and had a higher softball IQ than most. As each year passed, McLaine’s offense has become her strong point. The confidence she displays at the plate is just unreal.

“She’s extremely humble in her ability, and she’d rather show someone what she can do than talk about it. She works constantly, and she loves to compete. While some players get stressed, in pressure situations, McLaine tends to embrace it, as an opportunity to compete …

“She’s definitely a next-level softball player.”

That’s high praise, coming from a coach who won Kentucky’s “Miss Softball” award while pitching and playing in the oufield about three decades ago at Warren Central High School. But Reynolds and Hudson certainly understand one another, and Hudson is just part of a top-flight senior class with five — count ’em, five — players headed to play NCAA Division I softball for the 2026-27 academic year.

That senior class includes Hudson, of course, who last year decommitted from the University of Kentucky before signing with the ACC’s Florida State University. She’s joined by:

***-Pitcher-first baseman Layla Ogden, who had the critical two-run home run to propel the Spartans to a 4-0 victory over Barren County in last week’s KHSAA 4th Region championship game at the WKU Softball Complex. Ogden is staying home and will play her college softball at WKU;

***-Versatile catcher /infielder Kinleigh Russell, an agile defender with a quick bat from the left side of the plate on offense. Russell is headed for Oklahoma State and the Big 12 Conference in Stillwater, Oklahoma;

***- Sturdy third baseman Parker Willoughby, who hits for average (.572, headed into the state tournament) and power (12 home runs), along with anchoring the left side of the infield with Hudson. Willoughby has signed with Ohio State University of the prestigious Big Ten Conference;

***- Fleet-footed center fielder Hadley Borders, who like Hudson is a demon on the base paths while keeping the Spartans’ defense strong up the middle. Borders will play in the SEC, after signing with the University of Missouri.

***-And senior infielder Kaylee Wilson, who plans to concentrate on academics at the college level. Wilson moved into the starting role at second base after Russell took over behind the plate, with 6-foot-1 catcher Hayden Holloway choosing to spend her final year of eligibility with the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida.

There’s plenty of reinforcements, behind this group, and Kaylie Kuzma, the Spartans’ starting right fielder, is just an eighth grader.

It’s little wonder, then, that No. 1-ranked South Warren takes an unblemished 41-0 record to the KHSAA state tournament. And Hudson hasn’t lost her focus, on the big picture, as the Spartans close in on their final goals of the season.

Hudson talked about her career in an interview after the Spartans returned from a successful Spring Break trip to Coastal Florida and Alabama.

“It’s definitely gone by pretty fast,” she said. “Sometimes, it seems like I’ve blinked, and it’s almost over … My Dad (Todd Hudson) played football and basketball at Edmonson County, and my family was always around sports … I always liked to compete.”

She was a tough-nosed 5-foot-5 guard for the South Warren’s girls basketball team, through her junior year, and she’s already played international softball for Team USA. She’s put up some off-the-chart numbers as the Spartans’ team captain, shortstop and leadoff hitter, as South extended its winning streak to 41 games with the gritty 4-0 victory over Barren County last week at the WKU Softball Complex.

WKU head volleyball coach Travis Hudson, a legendary figure embodied by a statue outside E.A. Diddle Arena, has seen his niece, McLaine Hudson, grow into a bit of an icon herself. Not that she’s going to jump on social media and tell everyone about it.

“My brothers and I were all athletes, growing up, football and basketball mainly,” Travis Hudson said. “My wife, Cindy, was a college volleyball player, and Todd’s wife, Caroline, was a very good high school softball pitcher herself.

“Todd and Caroline have always had a drive to do things at a high level, and that has rubbed off, on their girls, for sure.”

McLaine Hudson’s elder sister, Mallory Hudson, is a UK graduate and a former Miss Kentucky. She works for the Miss America Organization in New York City. McLaine, her kid sister, will not turn 19 years old until August. But she’s already seen a lot, in her life, with plenty of promise on the horizon.

Travis Hudson believes that it was McLaine Hudson’s internal makeup that has made her so successful on the softball field. In 2021, when she was a middle schooler, McLaine Hudson batted .410 with eight extra-base hits and 30 runs scored. Her numbers have ballooned, ever since, and she became the KHSAA’s all-time hits leader in her junior year.

This year, in her farewell season, McLaine Hudson is batting .756 with SIXTY-FIVE extra-base hits, including a team-leading 28 home runs. She’s stolen a team-high 48 bases, in 53 attempts, and has struck out just THREE TIMES in 123 at bats. Defensively, she covers plenty of ground, and she has a strong right arm and joins forces with Kaylee Wilson to be an effective double-play combination.

“There was no way, at a younger age, that we could know what Mac has turned into today,” Travis Hudson said. “But it was apparent very early that she was unique. And different. Yes, she has some physical gifts, but the thing that sets her apart is her drive, her determination and work ethic.

“She has a humility, too, and a humbleness. She’ll never allow herself to feel as though she’s ‘arrived.'”

Hudson was the point person for the Spartans in last year’s brief KHSAA state tournament appearance, where they ran into a tough defensive squad in Daviess County, dropping a 3-1 decision to the Lady Panthers in first-round play.

“If we lose, we know to tip our hat to the other team,” McLaine Hudson said. “Last week’s (4th Region Tournament) was definitely special for the seniors.”

Now the Spartans put in their final preparations for the first-round matchup against Oldham County (28-10 overall) on Thursday night. If they can win two games this weekend, they’ll return to Lexington one week later to compete for a state championship.

“We’ve got a pretty busy week,” Reynolds said. “We’ll have a team meal after practice on Tuesday, and on Wednesday, we have our (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) character coach coming over, after practice. On Monday, we’ll finish practice and get out of there pretty quickly to come to our house to eat, swim, and watch college softball on TV.

“That’s something we’ve been doing for some time.”

It might be some time before we see another McLaine Hudson on the softball field.

The Spartans are poised to make it count.