Maybe it’s not as attractive as some of the more intense rivalries in 5th Region Softball, but for the last eight years Elizabethtown vs. North Hardin has been one of the most intense and creative matchups since 2012. It’s not because the two teams are a couple of the elite. Quite the contrary. They have both had struggles during the last several seasons, but as we have learned from watching them play it’s not what happens during the regular season, but the game played in the quarterfinals of the 17th District Tournament where it’s single elimination and the loser’s year is finished.
Win and loss records do not matter when you pit two teams which have had history and are so familiar with each other as these two have. At one time, Central Hardin vs. North Hardin was an elite matchup because four years during a six year period from 2004 to 2009, they played each other four times (twice in the regular season, once in the District Final and once during the Region final). Now, the Lady Panthers have taken a step up to add to a rivalry that has been most intriguing of late.
A quick synopsis as we go along. Since 2006, the two teams met in the District semi-finals four of the next six seasons and North Hardin was 4-0 against them. Lady Trojan coach Donnie Baker had an elite program in the middle of four straight Region Final appearances winning two and two 3rd place finishes. Elizabethtown had good teams, but under several different coaches simply didn’t matchup well against the talented Lady Trojans. After Kyle Goodlett’s departure after the 2009 season, Matt Mardis would take over and although progress was slow in his first season (five-wins), things were about to change for both teams.
It all started after the 2011 season and All Area and Strikeout Queen Andrea Whelan had just graduated for the North Hardin pitching farm. The field was about to level a bit as North got younger with pitchers freshman Bailey Blair and a starting lineup which resembled a rebuilding project with several middle schoolers, freshman and sophomores in the mix. Mardis started youth as well with seventh and eighth graders Erin Boley, Sara Beth Hundley, Carly Patterson and Callie Sonderguard and seniors Sydney Herzog and Mary Beth Russell. The two teams split during the regular season, but in the District quarterfinal, the Lady Panthers threw a shutout at North Hardin as Russell no hit the Lady Trojans, 5-0. The win was huge for a Lady Panther program that had levatated between relevant and respectable. Elizabethtown went on to their first Region appearance in recent history suriviving round one, but losing an extra inning second round game to Marion County. Finally, the Lady Panthers appeared to be moving in the right direction.
2013 was a comeback year for North Hardin as they took both regular season games against Elizabethtown, but had to survive a late game charge by the Lady Panthers in the Final Four of the District Tournament to pull out a 5-4 win. North returns to the Region tourney after an absence for the first time since 2005 and win two nail biters to both Bethlehem and Green County only to lose in the Region final to Central Hardin. It may have been the finest coaching job by Baker considering the 16-20 record and it came at the right time. No one knew it at the time, but that would be the last time that a North Hardin softball team would either reach the Region Championship or win a game in the tournament. Things were about to change drastically for both teams.
2014 saw the roles reversed again as Elizabethtown swept both regular season games to North by a combined total of 14-3 and things got worse for the Lady Trojans as they pounded pitcher Bailey Blair unmercifully winning, 15-0 in the District Semi-finals and reaching the Region for the second time in three years. A Central Hardin transfer freshman Nicole Blackstone kept the Lady Trojans off balance all game long as it appeared coach Mardis had finally found a long term Ace. It was the perfect ending to a rotten year for Blair, who had showed such promise after following Whelan after her middle school year, but injuries and inconsistancy along with higher expectations were simply too much. Longtime North coach Donnie Baker calls it a career after the loss and a new era of softball would occur at North from this point on. Elizabethtown draws Green County in the first round at Hart county for the Region Tournament and saw their season come to a quick end. To make matters worse, outfielder and fan favorite senior Brianna Taylor is tragically killed in an automobile accident less than a month after the season. Then several weeks later, her older brother Brice, also passes away after suffering injuries from an accident . Despite the great ending, no one felt like celebrating as the tragedy cast a dark cloud on the program (playoff wise) for some time.
2015 was the beginning of a strange period for Lady Trojan softball as Rodney Chancey became the first new North Hardin coach of that sport in nearly thirteen years. He would actually be the first of five different coaches during a five year period. Chancey inherited a very talented team with four seniors and with Blair back to battle Nicole Blackstone in head to head matchups it turned out to be quite a three game series. Because Chancey’s daughter Brooke, caught for Elizabethtown he chose not to coach against her in the three head to head matchups. Elizabethtown won the first game 9-7 in nine innings amidst some controversy near the end when Blair left the game after being replaced at pitcher, but was reinserted without reporting in as a batter thus the third out of the ninth inning. The Lady Panther win was sparked by a great comeback after trailing for much of the game and kept a four game win streak over their rivals in Radcliff. Game two was a North Hardin 6-2 win, but it wasn’t decided until the last out was recorded with runners on base. The District quarterfinal was a classic with lead changes happening as often as the bases were being reloaded. E-town went up 4-0, then North Hardin finally caught them taking a 6-4 lead after four innings and added on to the lead and put three more insurance runs up when Elizabethtown stormed back and closed the gap to 12-10 until the final out was recorded. It was a game which lasted nearly three hours in a steady rain and kept everyone on their heels in what would be the first of several marathon playoff games between the two.. Both Blair and Blackstone started and finished the game in what would be the first of several classics between the two teams. North Hardin fell to Taylor County 1-0 in the first round of the Region Tourney ending a comeback season for the Lady Trojans.
2016 may have been one of the strangest for the two teams as Elizabethtown piled up a 16-win season while North Hardin struggled all season long scoring runs and getting outs. The Lady Trojans won just five games and were outscored in the two head to head matchups with Elizabethtown, 17-1. When Chancey left after the 2015 season, assistant coach Bob Mahanna became the team’s next coach and when the two teams met in the quarterfinals at North Hardin no one thought it would be close or go the distance. North Hardin however played like a different team that Tuesday evening scoring six straight runs and then holding on for a 6-4 win. They did it getting great plays from their freshman outfielders, one by Lakyn Miller to take away an extra base hit by Brooke Chancey and one by Danielle Thompson to prevent a possible double or RBI situation by Taylor Thomas, but once again Elizabethtown did not go down easy and actually had the tying run at the plate when pitcher Brooke Mahanna got the final out. Despite the fact only 10-runs were scored, the game lasted over two hours again and was setting the tone of the two teams when they played in a win or go home setting. The win allowed North Hardin to advance to the Region Tourney for the second straight season, but they were eliminated quickly by the surprise team of the Tournament, Washington County. Still, after starting with just five wins, it was a great way to finish.
2017 looked like both teams were on solid footing. Elizabethtown piled up 15-wins, won both games during the regular season and had three seniors in Blackstone, Sara Beth Hundley and All Area infielder Taylor Thomas. North Hardin was a 15-win team too, had five senior starters including catcher Sydney Coleman, Kayla Reed and a great one-two pitching combo in Taylor Walters and Brooke Mahanna. The two teams also featured new coaches. Jimmy Schmidt took over for Mardis after he stepped down and Brady Southwood was the new North Hardin main guy after Mahanna stepped down and another hire that never made it to opening day. Despite the unfamilarity in the dugout, both teams were very aware of each other and Elizabethtown took both regular season District games over North, but they were slug fests in the truest sense (8-6 and 11-7). Still, with the District semi-final at Central Hardin, the game looked to be another long grueling marathon match. True to form, it did go past the two hour mark, but unlike the past two Final Four games, it had a different storyline. Nicole Blackstone suffered an injury before the game and was unable to start, so Schmidt chose to put Thomas on the circle and early on she did confuse the Lady Trojan batters. Still, North Hardin had learned for last year’s mistakes and eventually put seven runs on the board and eventually came home with a 7-2 win. The pivotal play occurred early in the game with the score tied 1-1 and the Lady Panthers had a runner on third. With just one out, Mady Pinkham drilled a deep fly ball which outfielder Layken Miller caught and fired a perfect strike to the catcher as the base runner was tagged out. The Lady Trojans took control from that point on and go on to the win. North Hardin was playing well and went into the Region Tourney with a lot of confidence. Unfortunately, they ran into the wrong team again with the hottest pitcher in the area as Marion County’s Haley Mattingly shut them down, 5-0. It was the third straight time that the Lady Trojans had lost in the first round of the Region and the third straight time the victor would advance to the Region Final. Unfortunately for North Hardin, things were about to change again for them as the balance of power was about to shift again thanks to another transfer.
Jimmy Schmidt came into the 2018 season with plenty of reasons to smile as he had a very young team with plenty of potential in youngsters Mady Pinkham, Presley Payne, Kylie McKinney and transfer Trista Colonsanti. North Hardin had lost some talent from the previous season as well, but Maggie Terrell was ready to step in as the Ace and Southwood had plenty of youngsters as well if they could stay healthy. Still, the two teams split the regular season District games and were a little inconsistant much of the year as you might expect a couple of squads that were working in slightly different lineups. Still, Colosanti did give the Lady Panthers some steady work at the circle for a freshman and was a dangerous hitter, while Terrell was consistant until breaking her thumb when she was hit by a pitch while batting midway through the season against of all teams Elizabethtown. Still, going into the District Semi-final game, most expected it to be the best match of the two that night because both teams had marked deficancies. Boy were they wrong. Elizabethtown went to work against North Hardin pitcher Emilee Fife and knocked her around forcing a pitching change to Terrell, who saw her first action since her injury. Unfortunately, neither were able to slow the deluge as Lady Panther batters pounded out sixteen runs in a 16-0 win in four innings. Next to the 15-0 loss back in 2014, it was the worst loss in a District playoff game as Elizabethtown saw a return to the Region Tournament and after a wild 4-3 win over Washington County, they were finally defeated by Green County in the second round. Still, it was a great way to end the season for Elizabethtown and North Hardin would see yet another coaching change during the offseason as the rivalry that no one ever talked about was about to get even more ironic in 2019.
Which finally brings us to 2019. The new year saw another change for both teams. North Hardin had another new head coach in former volleyball coach Jessica Gunby and Elizabethtown got a big boost when former NH catcher Joella Castillo was eligible to play for the Lady Panthers that season and transfer freshman Hannah Riley came over from Bardstown and contributed immediately as Elizabethtown would win 14-games going into the District Tournament. Despite having six seniors at all the important positions, North Hardin would struggle to 12-wins that season, but really felt comfortable going into the semi-finals even though they had lost four of their last five meetings with them. For a coach, who had already felt the sting of the new season in more ways than one (she suffered a broken arm during a game when she was hit by a line drive by her own catcher while coaching third), Gunby was about to be introduced to the strange playoff history of the teams in the worst way. Still, the game did start out great for North as they got a run in the first, two more in the second and two more in the fifth to take a 5-1 lead going into the bottom of the fifth. Everything seemed to be going right for the Lady Trojans as Terrell got the leadoff batter to ground out. Just eight more outs and they would advance to the District Final and another trip to the Region making it four in five seasons. Coach Gunby had noticed that the fifth inning had been a trouble spot for her new team and despite having so many seniors in the defensive lineup it was always something. True to form, the Lady Trojans fifth inning issues were about to resurface and lead to one of the wildest innings in Elizabethtown softball history. With one out Hannah Riley hit a liner that shortstop that Alexis Minter stopped, but couldn’t make the play. After another hit, Colastani doubled scoring a run and putting runners at second and third. Castillo hit into a fielders choice and when the throw home was late, the throw to second was also late scoring another run. A single scored two more runs, then Rylee Brown was hit by a pitch setting up a ground out that the first baseman scrambled for and threw wildly past first scoring another run to make it 6-5 Elizabethtown. All this after the first hitter ground out. Terrell got another out with a groundout, but Mady Pinkham singled making it 7-5, then after another infield single Hannah Riley knocked in the eight run of the inning before Graysen Lowery replaced Terrell at pitcher and got the third out. In all, the Lady Panthers sent eleven batters to the plate and had completely changed the complexion of a game which had veered towards the Lady Trojans, but the fun was far from over. Braigh Fogle hit a line drive to deep center field to make it 8-6 and after two outs, Colasanti faced Layken Miller with two runners on. The catcher hit a shot that cleared the left field wall just foul. Just inches from either tying the game or putting her team up by one, she hit the next pitch to right center that was sinking fast, but Natalie Shaw, who just barely missed the last Miller liner that fell for a double played this one better and just barely snagged it. Not comfortable with their lead, Schmidt’s girls went out and put three more on the board against Lowery. Much like the games which North had won in this playoff series, the added cushion turned out to be a profit for them. With the score 11-6, things were looking up for Elizabethtown as Colasanti took the circle, but just like that a Danielle Thompson single, led to two more base runners, but with the bases loaded, the sophomore pitcher got two more outs and had second baseman Emma Corder down to her last strike. Corder kept the game alive with a grounder that snaked past the third baseman and scored all three runs. While Corder stood at second, she looked at the scoreboard and the crowd realized that this was going to be another typical Elizabethtown-North Hardin marathons that had already crept deep into the evening. With the tying run at the plate in Alexis Minter, Colasanti induced a popup and the game finally mercifully came to an end. A game which started around 7:30 came to an end around 9:45. Ironically, when both teams left the field, there was little celebrating. Perhaps they were exhausted from playing a long and emotional two and a half hour stretch which saw 21-runs scored, two lead changes and several innings that lasted longer than they should have. Colosanti, looked the most physically wore down. She had survived a long seven inning game throwing more pitches than she probably ever had and at times seemed like she was just one throw away from being taken out, but she was a survivor. The same could not be said for Terrell, who pitched well, but against Elizabethtown, it just never seemed to be good enough. In many ways, she could truly understand Nicole Blackstone’s plight, who had went against North three times in elimination games, but always seemed to come up short in two of them. For Colosanti and the Lady Panthers, another trip to the Region Tournament and the irony of facing Washington County again in the first round. Schmidt, who had coached under assistant John Rogers (he was at one time the longtime softball coach at Nelson County) and would be forced to watch another game which swung in too many different directions. Schmidt started his Ace, but this time she didn’t make it past the first inning as Washington County put 4-runs on the board and could have had more if they hadn’t run into two outs. Kylie McKinney came on and shut them down for most of the game. This time around it was Elizabethtown, who slowly, but surely came back starting with Pinkham’s leadoff homer (Elizabethtown got two more) and eventually caught the Lady Commanderettes going up 9-4, but just like last season, when the Lady Commanderettes tied things up with three straight home runs from three different batters, Washington County came right back cutting into the deficit at 9-8 and had the tying run in scoring position until McKinney got Haylee Graves to popup to end the game. For the second straight year, Elizabethtown made it to the Region Final Four and Schmidt went with his Ace again and she pitched well, but Green County’s Abigail Keltner was even better throwing a no-hitter in a 3-0 win ending the Lady Panthers season.
So the tally since 2012 saw Elizabethtown with a 11-5 record against North during the regular season, but in the District Quarterfinals it was much more even at 4-4. A better measuring stick was that in four of those single elimination games, the game wasn’t decided until the final out as in many situations with the tying or go-a-ahead run was at the plate.
Which brings up an even more interesting question in “What would have happened this season?” With the 2020 softball schedule shelved, it would have been interesting because like every year teams change, but this season would have really saw a different look for both. Schmidt had graduated two seniors from that Region Final Four team, but then saw a revolving door with his roster because of either injuries or transfers. Presley Payne and Bailey Thomas were lost before the season because of injuries in earlier sports. Colosanti was gone as was Castillo, who’s family had moved. Hannah Riley, Mary Wheatley, Laci Rudd and Natalie Shaw were back, but might have seen different responsibilites or positions. McKinney would have been the Ace, but the loss of seven (five starters) would have probably seen quite a drop off in efficiency. At least Schmidt had seen some of this coming so he would have been able to prepare during the offseason. Gunby, on the otherhand kind of knew what to expect after Pinkham squeezed the final out of the 2019 North Hardin Softball season. A team she took over last year and had won over was kind of on their last legs with six senior starters. The Ace (Terrell), catcher (Miller), First (Luna), Shortstop (Minter), Third (Fogle) and Centerfield (Thompson). The six were the foundation of the Lady Trojans during the last two seasons and the heart of the 2019 squad, so with their graduation, Gunby knew that 2020 might be a bit rocky, but she knew that starters like Emma Corder (2nd), Renee Holly (OF), Jirah Gray (OF), Abigail Atkins (OF) and pitchers Graysen Lowery and Emilee Fife had been there before and would have to make their move if they ever planned to.
Both Schmidt and Gunby understand that last year’s success does not necessarily translate into next year’s victories. With 2020 in the rear view mirror, the next season is wide open. When I last talked with the two, they both were excited about the new season despite the lineup changes. That was before March 14th and their spring sports plans were about to be cancelled. Some coaches look forward to a challenge and a chance to help build a challenger in their image. In the ever changing landscape of high school sports, rebuilding isn’t a word that boosters and fans always want to hear and and it looks like both Schmidt and Gunby are looking way ahead of the curve.
So if recent history has proven anything, this seasons’ ET-NH softball rivalry would have had a different flavor, but the same ingredients. A fun three games that always have an interesting twist no matter what the score is or who wins. That’s why it’s been so much fun to watch in the past and why it should be in the near future.
