Jim Mashek

SPARTANS WILL FACE BULLITT EAST IN TITLE GAME; SOUTH’s McLAINE HUDSON HOMERS TWICE IN LOPSIDED VICTORY

LEXINGTON — It was more than a little overcast when South Warren High School’s No.1-ranked fastpitch softball team took the field against Highlands in the KHSAA semifinals on Friday afternoon.

But the skies would soon open …

So, too, would the Spartans’ bats. All-state shortstop McLaine Hudson belted the game’s first pitch over the center-field fence at UK’s John Cropp Stadium, and before long, it was clear that nothing would be stopping South Warren in this game.

South Warren 10, Highlands 0.

The Spartans improved to 44-0 on the season, and they’ll have a chance to become Kentucky’s fourth state champion to run the table, without a defeat, on Saturday night.

“We’re not locking in, on what (history) we could make,” South Warren coach Kelly Reynolds said after the impressive victory. “We just want to go out and play Spartan softball …”

Reynolds’ squad was certainly locked in, on Friday afternoon against the Bluebirds from Metro Cincinnati.

Hudson, the decorated South Warren senior, and teammate Layla Ogden unloaded prodigious home runs in the first inning, both solo shots, and Hudson added another, in the top of the third inning, as the Spartans became a runaway train on the University of Kentucky campus.

South Warren collected 10 hits, four for extra bases, against Highlands right-hander Kaitlyn Dixon. The Bluebirds became unglued, defensively, in the top of the fourth inning, when the Spartans put up the first of two 3-spots.

They’d add another, in the fifth, before Hudson made a nifty defensive play — fielding a sharp grounder, deep in the hole to the left side — before firing the ball across the infield to South teammate Courtney Norwood to end it.

“I’m thinking to myself, ‘You’ve made this play in practice, what seems like a million times,'” Hudson said when it was over. “We want to bring it back for South Warren.”

Truth be told, South Warren’s Norwood basically challenged the Bluebirds over the first four innings, before yielding to teammate Layla Ogden for the top of the fifth. Norwood recorded six strikeouts, against three walks, while allowing just two hits. But it was her teammates’ defense that kept the runaway train on the tracks.

All three Highlands batters put the ball in play in the fifth, with South third baseman Parker Willoughby making tough plays on a roller and a high hopper to set the stage for one last out to complete the task at hand.

“It’s so surreal. I just wanted it so bad for our (six) seniors,” Norwood said. “I’ve been playing with most of these girls since middle school, and some of them since we were 4 or 5 years old.”

Highlands finishes one of the best seasons in school history with a 35-7 record. Now the Spartans will square off with Bullitt East High School, which struck quickly before a run-rule victory of its own, a 13-3 triumph over George Rogers Clark in the second semifinal Friday night.

“The girls aren’t ready for this to end,” South Warren coach Kelly Reynolds said. “They want it so bad … we had some great plays, defensively.”

South Warren is making its third consecutive appearance in the KHSAA state tournament, and its fourth in five years. The Spartans were knocked out in the semifinals in 2022 and ’24, but last year, they dropped a first-round decision to a talented Daviess County squad, 3-1.

They definitely carried themselves as a team with something to prove.

Not necessarily to everyone around them, but to themselves.

“We don’t want ‘the moment’ to become bigger than the game,” South Warren first baseman/pitcher Layla Ogden said. “In some ways, it was just another game. We’ve had a good plan and we’re sticking with it.”

Ogden’s dramatic home run, a two-run, eighth-inning shot to left field, lifted the Spartans to a tense 4-3 victory over Madison Central last week in the KHSAA quarterfinals.

They’ll be the home team on Saturday night, against Bullitt East, but as senior shortstop McLaine Hudson said, the Spartans actually enjoy being designated as the visiting squad in games played on a neutral field.

“We like to set the tone,” she said.

Hadley Borders, the Spartans’ fleet-footed center fielder, hits behind Hudson in the batting order. The University of Missouri-bound senior had three hits, while scoring three times.

South Warren coach Kelly Reynolds was a little emotional, after Friday afternoon’s victory, but it was business as usual when the Spartans returned to their team hotel. Reynolds said the squad would have a brief practice on Saturday morning before getting some rest and making its way to UK’s John Cropp Stadium one last time.

With everything on the line.

“It’s going to be a dogfight, and it should be,” Reynolds said. “I feel like the girls have a different mindset this year … they’re mentally strong.”

The other three Kentucky fastpitch softball teams to win state championships without a defeat are Greenwood, which went 44-0 while winning the 2014 title, along with Louisville’s Male High School (39-0 in 2019) and Ballard High School (39-0 in 2022).

That’s some pretty exclusive company, to be sure.