{"id":21834,"date":"2026-06-12T22:39:33","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T22:39:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jimmashek.com\/?p=21834"},"modified":"2026-06-13T03:46:01","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T03:46:01","slug":"quick-hitter-story-mclaine-hudson-layla-ogden-power-no-1-ranked-south-warren-softball-past-highlands-10-0","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimmashek.com\/?p=21834","title":{"rendered":"QUICK HITTER STORY\/McLaine Hudson, Layla Ogden power No. 1-ranked South Warren softball past Highlands, 10-0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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SOUTH WARREN RIGHT-HANDER
COURTNEY NORWOOD ALLOWED
TWO HITS IN FOUR INNINGS.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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SPARTANS IMPROVE TO 44-0 ON THE SEASON; SOUTH WILL PLAY FOR SCHOOL’s FIRST STATE CHAMPIONSHIP ON SATURDAY NIGHT<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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LEXINGTON —<\/strong> This time, the suspense was minimal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Borderline, non-existent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After surviving a gritty eight-inning KHSAA state tournament quarterfinal game last week against Madison Central, South Warren High School’s No.1-ranked fastpitch softball team wielded its bats like nobody’s business in the opening semifinal against Highlands High School on Friday afternoon at UK’s John Cropp Stadium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All-state shortstop McLaine Hudson crushed the game’s first pitch from Highlands right-hander Kaitlyn Dixon for a solo home run to straightaway center field, and the Spartans unleashed a prolific 10-hit attack to crush the Bluebirds, 10-0, in a game that came to a halt after five innings per the KHSAA’s “mercy rule.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Warren’s Layla Ogden, who delivered the walk-off home run in the 4-3 victory last week against Madison Central, followed suit with one out in the first inning. Ogden deposited a pitch from Dixon over the left-field fence, another solo shot that tucked just inside the left-field foul pole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From there, it was South Warren right-hander Courtney Norwood’s turn, and the junior UK commit allowed just two hits over four innings before yielding to Ogden, a first baseman\/pitcher headed for WKU, to complete the task at hand in the bottom of the fifth inning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The first pitch, the very first pitch, I said to Mac (South’s McLaine Hudson), ‘I see some big things coming today, kid,'” South Warren coach Kelly Reynolds said. “Sometimes, when you score first, it just gives you a lot of of momentum … It’s been a phenomenal year.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Warren remained unbeaten in 44 games, while Highlands finished its season at 35-7 overall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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SOUTH’s McLAINE HUDSON
HIT SOLO HOME RUNS IN
THE FIRST AND THIRD INNINGS.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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SOUTH WARREN’s LAYLA OGDEN
DELIVERS A SOLO HOME RUN
IN THE TOP OF THE FIRST.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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KELLY REYNOLDS’ SOUTH SQUAD
WILL PLAY FOR THE SCHOOL’s FIRST
STATE TITLE ON SATURDAY NIGHT.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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South Warren will face either Bullitt East in Saturday night’s KHSAA state championship game. A victory would bring the Spartans the first state championship in school history. Bullitt East bounced George Rogers Clark, 13-3, in the second semifinal on Friday night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Warren right-hander Courtney Norwood was beaming after the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’s so surreal. I just wanted it so bad for our (six) seniors,” she 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.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hudson, the Kentucky Gatorade Player of the Year, unloaded her second home run of the game in the top of the third inning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hudson drilled Kaitlyn Dixon’s 1-2 pitch over the center-field fence for her state-leading 28th home run of the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We like to set the tone early,” Hudson said. “Now we get to play for a state championship … we just got the bats going today.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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SOUTH’s McLAINE HUDSON
FIELDS A BALL DEEP IN
THE HOLE IN THE FIFTH …<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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… BEFORE FIRING THE BALL ACROSS
THE INFIELD TO SOUTH TEAMMATE
COURTNEY NORWOOD FOR THE FINAL OUT.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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The Spartans also shined in the field, while Highlands was haunted by three errors, all in the fourth inning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hudson finished 3-for-4 with four runs scored, while teammates Hadley Borders, a senior center fielder headed for the University of Missouri, also finished with three hits and three runs scored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Norwood remained unbeaten in 25 decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ll have complete coverage tomorrow morning at jimmashek.com … Thanks for reading. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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GOT TO HANG WITH
SOUTH GRADUATES OWEN SHIVELY
AND GRIFFIN REYNOLDS (RIGHT) …<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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PIPER CERTAINLY KNOWS HER WAY
AROUND SOUTH’s SOFTBALL COMPLEX …<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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SPARTANS IMPROVE TO 44-0 ON THE SEASON; SOUTH WILL PLAY FOR SCHOOL’s FIRST STATE CHAMPIONSHIP ON SATURDAY NIGHT LEXINGTON — […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,1,20,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-otherhssports","category-potpourri","category-thesec","category-wkusports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimmashek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimmashek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimmashek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimmashek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimmashek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21834"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jimmashek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21852,"href":"https:\/\/jimmashek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21834\/revisions\/21852"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimmashek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimmashek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimmashek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimmashek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}