5 Takes on the Spring Sports Season
Scoring is Up! But it always is in early in the baseball and softball season as there are so many out of district games that may add up to games out of control early. Coaches most likely will not throw their Ace against a team they haven’t seen and often use the time to develop their pitching rotation specially when their squads that have lost a lot from their rotation from last season. It’s also a chance to see a lot of different hurlers early in out of control games. Last night, John Hardin’s Kevin Oldham got that chance when an out of control fourth inning gave him a chance to use several pitchers in one inning when a 4-3 lead ended up in a 19-4 loss against Bethlehem. Eagle coach Roger Robinson knows the feeling after a 10-2 loss against North Hardin several days earlier gave him a similar opportunity.
Big Bad Bruins! Todd Thompson’s team looks like the team to beat as they have started out 3-0 after wins over DuPont Manuel, Glasgow and DeSales and still have plenty of arms and a lethal lineup with Jack Bibb, Cooper Jones, Austin Heideman and Tyler Wood. It seems like Central Hardin has always been pretty good ever since winning the state tournament back in 2011 and they look to be the favorite again barring injury. Who could challenge? Elizabethtown might if new head coach Stevie Delbar can find enough arms and find a replacement for injured All-Star catcher Jackson Webb. LaRue County might if Chase Greenwell can fill up enough holes and get career years out of Bryson Arnette, Noah Davis and Gavin Nall. 
Trojan uprising!!!! Well, we will see. At least early results have been good as head coach Ace Adcock has filled enough holes with talented young replacements as North Hardin has outscored the competition 23-5 to start the season. After losing a talented and deep senior class, Adcock has done a great job working talented young guys along with returning veterans like All Area pitcher Kyle Collin and Andrew Henderson, Nathan Ymata and Eric Moore. The Trojans will find out quickly if they have arrived as early games against Central Hardin and Elizabethtown will test them.
The Launching Pad!!!! It may seem that way over the past several seasons as the Central Hardin softball team has pretty much dominated the Region and taken no prisoners along the way and after losing only one senior starter from last season, what else is new. Head coach Jamie Goodman has the hitting and the best pitcher in the area in senior Kaci Goedde as they have already tried to remind people and the rest of the area who is boss outscoring their last three competitors 38-10. Who could challenge them? Green County if they can get Haley Judd healthy. Marion County can make an argument who has the best pitcher with Haley Mattingly. Elizabethtown will try to challenge if all the new parts can find a way to score against the Lady Bruin giant and early results have North Hardin in the mix.
New KHSAA Softball rules cause problems for media. Well, for some people anyway. The new rules implemented this season that only allow personnel on the field or dugouts like players or officials has limited media and photographer access and already caused problems for some media members. The rule probably isn’t going to go away anytime soon because it’s been enforced in many states so far and some believe is a safety issue. Ironically, softball is one of the few sports that require a NO ACCESS rule where as football, soccer, volleyball and baseball (at least not yet anyway) have designated photo sections. Still, photographers will either adjust or as in many sports like swimming (because of fog issues) will simply have to decide whether to include softball in their coverage where baseball is a little more friendly to the Fourth Estate. Stay tuned.
