After a grueling affair with a 7:30 p.m. first pitch that concluded after 11 p.m. thanks to numerous lightning delays, the McCracken County Lady Mustangs weathered the storm and continued their reign over the Second District by capturing their 12th consecutive district softball title. Their bats erupted late, able to rally for multiple insurance runs in their 5-0 win over the Paducah Tilghman Lady Blue Tornado.
“It’s something that hard for them to realize because they haven’t been here for all of it,” head coach Tony Hayden said about winning 12 straight. “It’s what we’ve been preaching the whole week in practice, is that this means something to McCracken County. I don’t know because they’re so young, and they’ve seen us win, but they’ve never been on the field for it. I told them they don’t know how sweet this is.”
In a pitcher’s duel between McCracken’s Addison Dudley and Tilghman’s Adrienne Romain, there were actually zero earned runs scored in the first five innings. The Lady Mustangs’ lone unearned run came in the third inning with a runner on third, where a Lady Blue Tornado could not come down with a routine pop fly in the infield, ultimately allowing the run to score.
From there, the pitchers continued to control the game from the circle, with some supplementary help from their defense, as the Knight sisters made some huge plays in the bottom of the fifth, as Alyssa made a nice running catch in the outfield to start the inning, and Ava threw out a Madelyn Boling trying to swipe second after her single.
In the sixth, McCracken had their first two batters reach after an infield error and bunt, who were also moved over with a sacrifice from Addley Leidecker. Romain was able to retire the next two, keeping the score at 1-0.
The Lady Mustangs were finally able to break open the bats and plate some runs in the seventh. Back-to-Back RBI singles from Eastyn Walker and Layton Owens put a pair on the board, and the final blow came from a two-RBI double from Kennedy Brewer that made the score 5-0.
When the final out came, Dudley finished allowing just four hits on six strikeouts, while Romain allowed nine hits and struck out four. Coach Hayden has a lot of respect for the Tilghman program and the pressure Romain put on his team in this game.
“Tilghman has a damn good softball team. With her out there on the mound, it was really supposed to be a 0-0 ballgame going into the seventh inning,” Hayden said. “They threw well last time we were here and they threw well tonight, so hats off to them.”
After the conclusion of the game, the All-Tournament Team was announced, recognizing the achievements players from the two squads have made throughout the year. Zoe Burch, Adrienne Romain, Kate Wade, Sophie Key, and Madelyn Boling all represented Tilghman, while Macy Butler, Ava Knight, Addison Dudley, Layton Owens, and Eastyn Walker were the nominees for McCracken.
In the region tournament next week, McCracken will face a runner-up from another district, while Tilghman will face a district champion.
MCCRACKEN COUNTY 5, PADUCAH TILGHMAN 0
MC- 0 0 1 0 0 0 4- 5 9 0
PT- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0- 0 4 3
WP: Dudley ; LP: Romain
2B: K Brewer
TB: MC- E Walker 2, K Brewer 2, M Butler 2, A Knight 1, K Dowdy 1, L Owens 1, O Lee 1
PT- A Romain 1, L Shelby 1, M Boling 1, S Key 1
HBP: MC- A Knight
PT- Z Burch
SB :MC- E Walker, M Butler
PT- L Shelby