The Case for Marion County Softball!
It was late Monday evening and the Lady Knights were putting the finishing touches on a 5-0 win over North Hardin. Although the victory on Memorial Day was the team’s 19th, it seemed less insignificant to everyone except for the fact that it was the first time Marion County had won a 5th Region Tournament game since 2012, which was coincidently the last time the team made a deep run at the title (Marion County reached the Region Final that season losing to Green County 3-1). 
That season, the Lady Knights were led by pitcher Ashley Walls and catcher Abby Miles. The head coach then was Samuel Spalding. Now it’s 2017 and both Walls and Miles are gone. So is Spalding (although he is an assistant coach), who was eventually replaced by Jessica Veitch and then Samuel’s brother Jonathan became the present head coach.
This year’s version of the Lady Knights has been a consistent winner even though they have in a matter of speaking fallen through the cracks with their 19-wins. They are led by freshman pitcher Haley Mattingly, who has been a starter since her seventh-grade year and now one of the best in the area. Also hitters like Kelly Overstreet, Kendall Benningfield and Cassidy Logsdon have picked up the slack.
One thing that Spalding was trying to change was the inability to get past the 5th Region first game. For the past several seasons, the Lady Knights have stumbled a bit first losing to Central Hardin in 2015, then flaming out to Hart County last season. This season, they have accomplished one goal and that is reaching the second round where they will face one of the hottest teams in the state in the Lady Raiders, who beat them 11-1 last year and roughed up Mattingly in the loss.
Tomorrow’s game will be a chance for Marion County to avenge that loss and hopefully move on to even greater heights.
