COURTNEY NORWOOD, A SEVENTH GRADER, KEEPS GREENWOOD BATS IN CHECK
Kelly Reynolds watched her South Warren High School squad live it up on the infield of the WKU Softball Complex on Monday night.
The Lady Spartans’ veteran coach had already seen it, with her own eyes, but for a moment she seemed in awe of it all in the KHSAA 4th Region Tournament championship game.
Trailing 4-0 going into the top of the sixth inning, No. 1-ranked South Warren forced extra innings and went in front, for good, on Katie Walker’s laser into the WKU parking garage. Walker’s two-run home run to left-center field sent the Lady Spartans to a dramatic 8-5 victory over crosstown rival Greenwood High School.
In 10 innings.
To earn a berth in the KHSAA state tournament, which begins this weekend at the University of Kentucky’s John Cropp Stadium in Lexington.
Another comeback for the ages. Another victory for South Warren. Another girl swinging a big bat when it counted for the Lady Spartans.
This time, it was Walker. Her fifth home run of the season, off Greenwood ace Kayden Murray, put South Warren on the fast track to victory. It was an impressive feat, as Reynolds acknowledged when it was over.
“They find a way to do it,” Reynolds said.
South added an insurance run, after Walker’s dramatic home run, on Avery Skaggs’ RBI single in the 10th.
South Warren used three pitchers and power at the plate to earn its 36th victory against two defeats. The resourceful Lady Spartans will face the 9th Region representative in the late game Saturday night in the KHSAA state tournament. Greenwood finished its memorable season with an impressive 32-8 record.
GETS THE WATER-BUCKET TREATMENT.
“I have no regrets,” Greenwood catcher Allyson Smith said. “I wouldn’t change anything for the world. These are memories I’ll have for the rest of my life. It’s just kind of sad to see it all come to an end.”
The end seemed to come into focus for South Warren in the middle innings, when Greenwood’s Kayden Murray was mowing down one batter after another.
Murray didn’t allow a hit over the first five innings, which meant the Lady Spartans were facing a 4-0 deficit with six outs to play with.
South Warren shortstop/pitcher Selynna Metcalfe crushed a Murray pitch for a three-run home run to left-center field, into the parking garage where hundreds of fans were watching the game, and suddenly the Lady Gators were clinging to a 4-3 lead with no outs in the top of the sixth.
“We talked about it, as a team, before that inning,” Metcalfe said. “We knew that was probably going to be it. (Murray) got the pitch up a little bit and I just tried to put a good swing on it.”
The Lady Spartans still trailed by a run, however, and they manufactured a run to tie the game at 4 in the top of the sixth.
South Warren’s Caroline Pitcock reached on an error — Greenwood was charged with four of them on the night, one more than South — before Katie Walker put her in scoring position with a sacrifice. Elly Bennett, the Lady Spartans’ star center fielder, reached on a bloop single to left field and later scored on an unusual play, when Carrie Enlow’s bunt in front of the plate was ruled a fielder’s choice.
“The big key,” Bennett said, “was to stay confident in ourselves.”
South Warren seemed to have the upper hand the rest of the way, but the Lady Gators were the home team, and they had the winning run at third base with no outs in the eighth.
Seventh grader Courtney Norwood, the second of three South Warren pitchers, wiggled out of that one, ending the inning with back-to-back strikeouts against the final two girls in the Greenwood batting order.
South Warren brought in its infield, forming an umbrella of sorts around the pitcher’s circle, when Norwood circumvented that problem with strikeouts to end the threat.
South Warren’s Elly Bennett was hit by a pitch, to open the top of the eighth, and she scored from first base on Carrie Enlow’s two-out, line-drive double that skipped to the fence in left-center field.
In the bottom half, Greenwood’s Calli Huff hit a sinking line drive to deep right field, which was misplayed and ruled a three-base error. Huff scored the tying run on a wild pitch, but Norwood was equal to the task, and the Lady Spartans forced a ninth inning.
“South Warren wasn’t going to lay down, after they fell behind,” Greenwood coach Taylor Proctor said. “I saw the Barren County game the other night (an improbable 4-3 South victory in eight innings). They’re a mature team. They’ve been in these situations before.
“We knocked ’em down (with four runs in the second inning), and they came back fighting.”
Greenwood outfielder Mallory Jones delivered a two-run double to right-center field, and she scored on Savannah White’s sharp single to deep left-center field. A South Warren error allowed White to score, and suddenly the Lady Gators were leading 4-0.
And Kayden Murray was dealing.
GIVE UP A HIT UNTIL THE SIXTH INNING.
IN THE BOTTOM OF THE SECOND INNING.
“We knew it wasn’t over,” Enlow said.
Murray didn’t allow a hit, over the first five innings, but that all changed when No. 9 hole hitter Jenna Lindsey lined a single to left in the top of the sixth. The Lady Spartans sensed their opportunity, and after McLaine Hudson walked, Selynna Metcalfe unloaded a three-run home run to left-center field.
It was her sixth home run of the season, also bouncing off the parking garage to make it 4-3.
South Warren was the state’s No. 1-ranked team last season, before Warren East stunned the Lady Spartans 3-2 in the KHSAA 4th Region championship game.
South finished the season 35-2 but Reynolds’ squad stayed home as Warren East made the trip to Lexington.
“That may have been in the back of our mind, a little bit,” Metcalfe said. “But this team has a really strong bond. There’s not a person on this team that I don’t believe in.”
Reynolds said she planned to use multiple pitchers beforehand, and Metcalfe gave way to Norwood, a mere seventh grader, with one out in the second. Norwood held down the fort until the ninth inning, keeping the Lady Spartans in the game.
HAD TWO KEY HITS LATE IN THE GAME.
SCORES A GO-AHEAD RUN IN THE EIGHTH.
South’s Logan Ogden, an eighth grader, finished the task at hand in the circle, and the Lady Spartans were on their way to Lexington.
Ogden was the winning pitcher and the tough minded Kayden Murray took the loss for the Lady Gators.
Kelly Reynolds, the South Warren coach, couldn’t have scripted it any better.
Bottom line, South knows how to win.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Reynolds said. “We’re ready (for the state tournament). This is my first time, as a head coach, with these girls. They’ve worked very hard.
“I’m really proud of them.”
HER TEAM INTO THE 10TH INNING.
INTO THE STATE TOURNAMENT.