YSE File Photo
How dominant have the Christian County Lady Colonels been in the 8th District softball tournament? Well, you have to go back to the championship game in 2019 to find the last time they were scored on in the tournament.
That’s not lost in the tournament, that is the last time they gave up a run in the tournament. The Lady Colonels will again be a heavy favorite as the 8th District tournament gets underway Monday night at Christian County High School.
That single run that Hopkinsville scored in the championship game in 2019 is the only run that an 8th District opponent has put on the board against the Lady Colonels since the 2016 championship game. To find the last time Christian County lost a game in the tournament, you have to go back to 2004 when Hopkinsville beat the Lady Colonels 6-1 in the district championship game.
The big question heading into the tournament is whether or not anyone can find a way to keep the Lady Colonels’ domination of the district from extending for at least another year.
The tournament gets underway Monday night.
The first game Monday evening at 5:30 will have the #2 seed Hopkinsville taking on the #3 seed Fort Campbell. The Lady Tigers won the only meeting between the two so far this season, taking a 19-7 win back on March 30.
The last win in the series for Fort Campbell came back in May of 2014. The Lady Falcons have played better during the 2023 season but need to find a way to control the Hopkinsville offense, which has put up double-digit runs in three of the last four games.
Fort Campbell has three batters hitting over .400 for the season. Ryleigh Watry is at .475, Kiley McCrary at .462, and her younger sister Carrie is hitting .417.
The McCrary sisters figure to see the action in the circle. Both will need to focus on their control as that has been an issue for all the Falcon hurlers this season.
The Hopkinsville offense is led by Shaniyah Straight, who is hitting .564 for the year. Jakayla Grubbs is second on the team with an average of .481. Straight and Grubbs have two home runs each.
Straight has been almost all of the action in the circle this season. She is 8-8 with an ERA of 4.12. Straight has struck out 56 and walked 42.
The second game of the night, around 7:00pm, will have top-seeded Christian County taking on #4 seed University Heights. The two teams met back in the first week of the season, with Christian County taking a 13-0 win. The Lady Blazers have one win over the Lady Colonels since 2001, that win coming by a score of 8-4 on March 31, 2015.
For the Lady Blazers, the challenge is to find a way to contain the big bats for Christian County. The Lady Colonels have hit 29 home runs this season, 14 of them coming off the bat of Avery Adcock. Karlee Crick added seven more for Christian County.
The Lady Colonels have four batters hitting at least .300 for the year, topped by Avery Adock, who has hit a sizzling .558. Gracie Harned has also been on a tear, batting .424 for the season.
Christian County will be looking to 8th grader Jordan Turner in the circle. Turner is 11-6 with a 2.53 ERA and 107 strikeouts.
The two winners from Monday night’s action will square off in Tuesday night’s championship game, which will be played at 6pm at Christian County High School.
