Jim Mashek

GREENWOOD, SOUTH SQUARE OFF FOR BERTH IN STATE TOURNAMENT

South Warren High School’s tradition-rich softball team convened in right field after its 9-1 thumping of Russellville High School in the KHSAA 4th Region semifinals on Sunday evening.

After surviving, by the skin of its teeth, on Saturday, the Lady Spartans’ team goals were still intact. They would face their crosstown rival, the Greenwood Lady Gators, in Monday’s 4th Region championship game at the WKU softball complex.

Just like last year, when Warren East stunned the No. 1-ranked Lady Spartans 3-2 to punch its ticket to Lexington for the KHSAA state tournament.

Reynolds recognized that this is the last chance for her splendid senior class, four strong and looking forward to the challenge. But Greenwood and South Warren are both ranked in the Commonwealth’s Top 10, and for that matter, Warren East isn’t far behind.

Something will have to give.

“I’ve got full confidence in this team,” Reynolds said. “We’ve got great senior leadership. A lot of newcomers have stepped up. We played one of the toughest schedules, in the state, to prepare for this.

“We only lost two seniors from last year’s team. We didn’t finish. So that’s kind of been a buzz word with our program.”

Finish.

That’s what Greenwood coach Taylor Proctor, a former South Warren assistant coach herself, has in mind for the Memorial Day showdown to determine the KHSAA’s 4th Region champion.

Crowds have been impressive at the WKU softball complex, which seats about 1,200 fans, but softball enthusiasts can drop a $5 bill and watch from the parking garage, just like Hilltopper fans did when Western Kentucky stunned Alabama 3-1 earlier this season.

They’re anticipating a huge crowd on Monday evening, in large part because these two teams are pretty much evenly matched. They’ve both got pitching, power, options in the bullpen, defense and offensive versatility. The Lady Gators know how to manufacture runs. South Warren is pretty aggressive on the base paths.

Proctor’s Greenwood squad takes a 32-7 record into the championship game, and South Warren checks in at an impressive 35-2. One of those two losses, naturally, came at the hands of the Lady Gators, a 4-0 setback on April 12 at the Greenwood softball park. Greenwood pitcher Kayden Murray was on top of her game that night, limiting South Warren to four hits while striking out nine batters. Center fielder Cali Huff and senior catcher Allyson Smith unloaded home runs for the Lady Gators.

They were riding high with an impressive 11-1 record.

Greenwood’s had six defeats since then, of course, two of them at the hands of the Lady Spartans.

On April 28, at South Warren, Greenwood led for virtually the entire game before Elle Bennett’s two-out, bases-loaded single up the middle scored two runs to lift the Lady Spartans to an improbable 4-3 victory.

Then, in the KHSAA 14th District championship game, again at South Warren, the Lady Spartans’ Layla Ogden scattered eight hits, striking out seven in yet another one-run game. South Warren would win that one, 3-2, and five days later, they’ll meet again.

Of course they’ll meet again.

Greenwood has stormed its way into the championship game.

After an extra-inning game pushed the Lady Gators’ quarterfinal matchup with Russell County for a couple hours and change, Greenwood overcame a slow start at the plate to defeat the Lady Lakers 7-0. Turns out, Proctor’s squad was just getting warmed up.

On Sunday, in the first semifinal, Greenwood unloaded three home runs, including an inside-the-park home run from senior outfielder Lily Travis, sending the Lady Gators to an impressive 17-0 victory over Allen County-Scottsville in five innings.

“I’m so excited. I’ve never played in a regional championship game before,” junior pitcher Kayden Moore said when it was over.

That’s the kind of enthusiasm Taylor Proctor likes to hear. The third-year Greenwood coach understands the stakes are high on Monday. The disappointment of falling one game short of state is real. South Warren’s been there. Greenwood would like to avoid it.

Something’s obviously got to give.

“After losing the district championship, I think the girls have had a little chip on their shoulder,” Proctor said. “Kayden (Murray) was phenomenal today. Abigail Byrd has pitched extremely well in this tournament. Between the two, they’ve been able to keep us in a lot of games.”

So there you have it.

Two teams. Two teams from Warren County. One winner. One winner going to Lexington for the state tournament.

The anticipation is building. If you wanna see them scrap you might want to get to the stadium early.

The weather’s been pleasant. Sunny, but not scorching hot. A little windy at times, but that can help produce some offense. And while softball tends to be dictated by starting pitching, a lot of things can happen.

And that’s where Taylor Proctor’s Lady Gators, and Kelly Reynolds’ Lady Spartans, find themselves this Memorial Day weekend.

GREENWOOD 17, ALLEN COUNTY-SCOTTSVILLE 0

There was little suspense to this one, even though Allen County-Scottsville only trailed 2-0 after three innings.

The Lady Patriots were right in it.

Until they weren’t.

Murray limited the Lady Patriots to just two hits, while striking out eight batters, as Greenwood won the game in just five innings. The Lady Gators unloaded three home runs, including senior outfielder Mallory Jones’ first home run of the season.

Allen County-Scottsville, which finishes its season 19-15, surrendered eight runs in the fourth inning, and seven more in the fifth. Greenwood’s LIly Travis had three hits, including a first-inning double and an inside-the-park homer run, in the fifth, while finishing with five RBI.

Greenwood collected 14 hits in the game.

Murray, a verbal commit to Lindsey Wilson College, has made 29 appearances this season, including 26 starts. Her earned-run average is way below 0.50, unheard of in baseball but actually somewhat common in top-flight softball circles. She’s recorded 269 strikeouts in only 169 1/3 innings pitched.

That’s off the charts.

And that’s what senior Greenwood catcher Allyson Smith has learned to expect.

“I saw Kayden working her butt off, out there,” Smith said in the right-field bullpen. “She hit all her spots. She kept the batters off balance, kept them guessing. It was a little annoying, (Saturday), when we had to wait so long to play, because of the extra-inning game.

“You tend to get anxious.”

Anxious or not, the Lady Gators were swinging a mighty stick against Russell County.

Senior outfielder Mallory Jones hit the first home run of her career, not just at Greenwood, BUT EVER, one of three home runs the Lady Gators unloaded on Sunday.

Jones crushed a pitch from the Lady Patriots’ Tarryn Reynolds for a three-run home run that hit the parking garage well above the outfield fence. The Lady Gators spilled out of their dugout to greet her, two or three of them wearing tropical hats or something, the kind of lids you tend to see on the deck of a cruise ship.

Perhaps that’s fitting, because the Lady Gators were cruising throughout in this one.

Lydia Kirby led off the bottom of the fifth with a home run to left field, also hitting the parking garage, and Lily Travis came up with her inside-the-park homer with a shot to the right field corner, which bounced around the warning track as Travis circled the bases.

Proctor was thrilled for Mallory Jones, whose three-run home run in the fourth innings proved to be the offensive spark the Lady Gators needed to win in a rout.

“I couldn’t have wanted it more, for another kid, than Mallory Jones,” Proctor said. “She’s one of those kids that comes out here, every day. Gives it all she has. That was her first home run of the season, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.”

The Lady Gators will be taking a lot of momentum into the championship game.

SOUTH WARREN 9, RUSSELLVILLE 1

South Warren pulled off its Houdini act on Saturday night, when they were down to three outs and trailing Barren County 3-2 going into the bottom of the seventh inning.

Elle Bennett’s RBI single to center field forced an eighth inning, and that’s when South Warren teammate Selynna Metcalfe followed suit, delivering an RBI single, also to center field, to end Barren County’s hopes with a dramatic 4-3 victory.

Sunday evening’s game was another story.

South Warren scored at least two runs in each of the first four innings, and pitchers Layla Ogden and Courtney Norwood — eighth and seventh graders, respectively — combined on a three-hitter, giving the Lady Spartans their 35th victory of the season, against only two defeats.

Metcalfe got things started in the second, with a two-run double to left-center field, and her next time up, the South Warren senior shortstop delivered a two-run single, this time to left field.

South Warren’s senior catcher, Carrie Enlow, had a solo home run to center field in the fourth. The Lady Spartans collected 10 hits before it was over, including Ogden’s two-run single up the middle in the fourth. South Warren also capitalized on four Russellville errors.

Russellville claimed the first 4th Region Tournament victory in school history on Saturday evening, drubbing Clinton County 16-2 in quarterfinal play. The Lady Panthers couldn’t come up with the same kind of mojo against South Warren, however, and finished their season with a sturdy 24-11 record. Senior pitcher Addie Mosier took the loss, dropping to 7-3 on the season.

After Saturday night’s comeback for the ages, South Warren could relax and get things done against the Lady Panthers. And that’s what they did.

“We’re ready to finish it,” Enlow said in a matter-of-fact tone when it was over. “They’re gonna throw a punch. We’ve got to throw one, harder. I think we played pretty well today. We started putting pressure on their defense, right away. We were ready to play.”

South Warren’s McLaine Hudson, yet another precocious eighth grader, is batting around .550 with 22 extra-base hits, including seven home runs. Senior outfielder Elly Bennett, who will play softball at Berry College in Rome, Georgia, next season, is hitting around .425 with 19 extra-base hits and a team-high 48 RBI.

Kelly Reynolds is a demanding coach, but the Lady Spartans seem to embrace that. And Hudson believes South Warren has the winning formula to get it done. This time.

Hudson believes South Warren is going to Lexington for the KHSAA state tournament starting Friday at the University of Kentucky’s John Cropp Field.

“We’ve stayed calm, most of the time, in pressure situations,” Hudson said. “We’ve had great senior leadership.”

Handling those pressure situations may give South Warren a slight edge. Kelly Reynolds wants that savvy to pay off in the long run.

“The (KHSAA) 14th District, it’s hard,” Reynolds said. “It’s one of the best districts in the state. Three teams (South, Greenwood and Warren East) are in the Top 20.

“A lot of girls on our team, they’ve been in these sitautions. This is what we’ve been working for.

“It’s our moment.”

First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m.