The last time the Lyon County Lyons and the Owensboro Catholic Aces met was in the 2024 All A Classic opening round with the Lyons taking an 18-point win. This time, the stakes are a bit higher as the two teams meet in the Owensboro Sportscenter in the All A Classic semifinals Saturday night with a berth in Sunday’s championship game on the line.
The Lyons would go on to reach the semifinals last year but then fell to Newport before having a chance to play for the title. This year’s group of Lyons is hoping to do something that only the Lady Lyon softball team has done and that is bring back an All A title to Eddyville.
While the two teams are meeting again, the role players in this drama are significantly different. For Lyon County, gone are Travis Perry, Brady Shoulders, Jack Reddick, and Lukas Breedlove. Enter Nolan Coffman, who was at Madisonville last year, along with Carson Collins, Cooper Collins, Bray Kirk, Isaac Defew, and company.
The Collins twins, Kirk, and Defew were contributors on last year’s team but have seen their roles increase significantly on this edition of the Lyons.
For Owensboro Catholic, Tim Riley’s Aces are led by Luke Beickman (20.1 ppg), Waryn Ebelhar (13.1 ppg), and Ronald Smith (11.5 ppg). Smith and Beickman both hit for double figures in last year’s game between the two team. Ebelhar was held to just two points in the Lyon County win.
The Aces are not the strongest team on the boards. Dremail Carothers (5.6 rpg) and Luke Beickman (5.5 rpg) are the tops on the glass for the Aces.
Owensboro Catholic enters the day at 12-5. The Aces lost their first four games of the season before the football players would have joined the team as the football team reached the Class 2A state final. Those losses were to Apollo, Greenwood, Evansville Memorial, and Marshall County. The only loss since that skid came in a second game against Marshall County on December 21.
The Lyons and the Aces will tip off Saturday night at 6pm.
