When Jimmy Schmidt was standing with his team, the Elizabethtown Lady Panther softball team while having the pictures taken during the post-game ceremony after the team’s first ever 5th Region championship in the sport, his mind must have drifted back to something his old friend John Rogers once told him in that “Getting there is hard. Staying is harder.”
Well, after the Lady Panthers dramatic 2-0 win over Marion County in the Region Championship game on a cool Tuesday evening at Thomas Nelson high school, he was inclined to believe him. Part of the story was the plan behind his ability to build a team slowly after coming over to take the Elizabethtown softball coaching job after Matt Mardis left over five years ago after assistant coaching stints at Bethlehem and Nelson County and saw some success early while rebuilding a team which had seen moderate success in the past.
After reaching the Region tournament in the past three seasons, Schmidt wanted more and began putting together a strong pitching staff behind Kylie Mckinney and last season’s middle-school surprise Taytum Spiers. After winning the District Tournament last season behind Spier’s pitching gem, the Lady Panthers fell victim to Marion County in the semi-finals of the Region Tournament. This season, a year older, Schmidt sent Spiers to the circle again to face those same Lady Knights (in the Regional Final) and this time threw a shutout despite throwing 132-pitches and rang up 12-K’s after throwing 125 (pitches) the previous day and 15-strikeouts in a 2-1 win over Bethlehem.
Spiers may have been the story of the tournament, but the game winner was scored by senior Natalie Shaw, who reached base on an infield single and the stole second and then third with two outs before coming home on a passed ball giving Elizabethtown the first run of the game.
Elizabethtown increased it when Avery Simpson’s line drive single plated Avery Powers making it 2-0. The last six outs would be the toughest for Schmidt and the Lady Panthers, who had never been in this situation and the drama continued when with one out in the top of the seventh,
Mary Beth Overstreet was hit by a pitch and then Alexis Wheeler walked putting runners on first and second. With the tying runs on base, up came Jordan Browning, who then hit a liner that was speared by second baseman Emil Schmidt. The sophomore threw to first to double up the base runner for the game winning double play. It was Schmidt, who knocked in the game winner the previous day with a blooper which landed in the one spot that the Banshee outfielders couldn’t reach.
It made Spiers and the Lady Panthers a Region Champion and left Marion County wondering what you have to do to win this thing after reaching the Region Final the last two years. The loss was a tough pill for the Lady Knights and pitcher Emma Sullivan, who was the hard luck loser despite only allowing four-hits and two-runs after throwing 93-pitches. Both teams had opportunities to score early but were unable to do so which was pretty much the story of an exciting 2022 Region Tourney.
Starting with the dramatic extra inning classic between Central Hardin and Green County to opening things up, then the following day’s action in which Marion County staged a comeback for the ages in a wild 16-13 win over Green County and Schmidt’s golden shot that finished off Bethlehem in a 2-1 win. Although Elizabethtown’s 27-wins during the season was a high-water mark, the team’s first ever Region trophy was far from easy. After breezing past a stubborn LaRue County team in the first round, Bethlehem gave them their best game and then Marion County held them for much of the game until Shaw’s heroics. It truly was a team effort and behind two well coached games by Schmidt against Samuel Smith and Erin Benton, there was little room for error. For Schmidt, the entire region run must have brought back memories of Nelson County’s (he was an assistant under Rogers then) magical 2007 Region Title when the Lady Cardinals won both the semi-final and championship game in their last at bat thanks to Kristen Zutterman.
Two straight playoff games, which came down to the last at bat was proof that Elizabethtown was deserving, and nowhere was that more evident than their senior class of Natalie Shaw, Hannah Riley and Lilli Schwemmer. Both Shaw and Riley became varsity players during the 2018 season and Schwemmer played a much bigger role this season. The three were the beginning of the team’s first major Region Tournament run (which started the same season both Shaw and Riley arrived) and have seen the win totals continue to grow since.
For the three, it was “A Dream come true” said Riley, who had played summer ball during here developmental years to improve her game as had the other two and are about to take the team and their coach on a magical trip to Lexington, Ky for what hopefully will be a long and profitable stay.
