The Henderson County Lady Colonels will be looking for their 4th straight title as the 2nd Region softball tournament gets underway Memorial Day at Christian County High School. The big first day of action gets underway with the first of four games at 11:00am.
Since the lost year of COVID in 2020, the northern Lady Colonels have been on a run of region titles, beating Madisonville in 2021, Christian County in 2022, and then taking down Caldwell County in 2023. The 2024 tournament could be one of the closest and most entertaining events in several seasons.
The opening game Monday at 11am finds 6th District champion Henderson County (29-5) taking on 8th District runner-up University Heights Academy (5-10).
The Lady Colonels figure to be the favorite coming into the tournament, but not the overwhelming favorite they were last year. Henderson is still 29-5, but two of those losses come to teams in this tournament, so this could be a very intriguing week of softball. Henderson has plenty of power at the plate, blasting 48 home runs on the season. Twelve of those home runs have come off the bat of Hallie McCracken. Anna Kemp anchors the team in the circle, going 18-1 so far this season.
For the UHA Lady Blazers, the program is making significant progress, but this just may be a tough year for them to make a return to regional tournament play. After losing to Fort Campbell three times this season, the Lady Blazers came back and upset the Lady Falcons in the 8th District semifinals. Krista Keller provides plenty of speed on offense and can make some things happen when she gets on base.
The two teams have met only three times in the past 25 seasons with Henderson County winning all three, the last coming in 2015.
Monday’s 1:00 game shapes up to be an interesting battle between 5th District champion Livingston Central (31-5) and 7th District runner-up Caldwell County.
The team that figures to be the potential biggest challenge to a four-peat for Henderson is the Livingston Central Lady Cardinals. Livingston Central is the All A state champ and has 31 wins with only four losses. The Lady Cardinals also knocked off Henderson County on the road 3-1 just over two weeks ago. 7th grader Addison Tramble is already among the best pitchers in Western Kentucky and has given up just 16 earned runs on the season. Anytime that you have a lockdown pitcher, you have a shot to make a deep run.
Caldwell County is the other region team to hand Henderson County a loss. The Lady Tigers picked up a 6-5 win in their season opener in Princeton. While Caldwell County had a couple of bumps in the road late in the season, the Lady Tigers still have enough power in their order to give opposing pitchers fits. They hit 35 homers this year, led by Alicia Stanley with 10.
The two former district rivals did not meet on the field this season. Their last game was April 11 of last year with the Lady Cardinals taking an 8-inning 11-10 win. That win ended a 7-game losing streak to Caldwell County.
Another really interesting matchup Monday afternoon comes at 3:00 as 8th District champion Christian County (21-15-1) battles 5th District runner-up Trigg County (19-16).
The Christian County Lady Colonels are always a team to be reckoned with at tournament time. There is power in the batting order in the form of Avery Adcock, Gracie Harned, and Jazzy Tejada. The southern Lady Colonels also have not one but two pitchers they can turn to in the circle with Jordan Turner and Harned. And, you can pretty sure that the Lady Colonels would like to redeem themselves from last season’s opening round loss in the region tournament.
The darkhorse in this year’s tournament could very well be the Trigg County Lady Wildcats. With Tember Oliver in the circle, they can shut down most teams across the area. The challenge for the Lady Wildcats will be finding runs to support Oliver and advance through the tournament. Only two teams in the tournament have scored fewer runs on the season, those two being Madisonville-North Hopkins and University Heights. In the circle, Oliver has an ERA of 1.88 and has 156 strikeouts, so teams are going to have to work to score against Trigg.
The two teams met twice this season. Back on March 19, at Trigg County, the Lady Colonels took an 8-1 win. The second time around it was much closer with Christian County having to battle to get a 3-1 win April 22 in Hopkinsville.
Memorial Day softball action wraps up at 5pm with 7th District champion Madisonville-North Hopkins (19-12) battling 6th District runner-up Union County (21-17).
Madisonville-North Hopkins is never a team to overlook come the postseason. The Lady Maroons had a big run during the 2010’s and are traditionally one of the region’s most consistent programs. They dropped a late season game to Trigg County but then rebounded to win the 7th District championship against Caldwell County. Sadie Kirk is batting .467 to lead the Madisonville offense. Kirk has also gone 11-3 in the circle with 138 strikeouts.
After losing 7 straight early in the season, the Union County Bravettes may be the most ‘under the radar’ team anywhere around. The Bravettes rebounded to win 21 games and have played several teams in the tournament down to the wire. Sydney Thomas is batting .425 and leads Union County with 7 home runs. Peyton Jenkins is the Bravettes top option in the circle, going 12-8 with one save on the season.
The semifinal games are set for Tuesday evening at 5:30 and 7:30 with the championship game slated for Wednesday evening at 6:00.
