For the Central Hardin Softball team, a team which had dominated the 5th Region for nearly five straight years (from 2015-2016-2017-2018-2019), there was a moment during their Regional Championship game against Green County that may have defined their season when the Lady Dragons had two aboard with no outs and the Lady Bruins leading 3-1 in the top of the sixth inning.
Against a team which Central Hardin had owned for nearly five straight seasons, things had changed dramatically after 2020, when the Lady Bruins, which looked like a team which was about to maybe go six, seven or possibly eight straight seasons hoisting Region trophies and celebrating consecutive trips to the KHSAA State Tournament, suddenly kept finding ways to not only beat them, but end their season. Starting with 2021 on an eighth inning jailbreak by Tanlee Hudgins and then in 2022 again in extra innings with Hudgins scoring the game winner on Katie Church’s timely single.
Ironically, for Green County, it was another opportunity to recapture the Region title that they reclaimed in 2021, but was unable to defend last season when they imploded in the late innings against Marion County in the Final Four. It was another chance for the Lady Dragons to prove that things were different. Since the cancelled spring sports season, the Lady Dragons, who were unable to match up with Central Hardin from 2015-to-2019 (and had their playoff hopes ended by them for three straight years from 2017-to-2019) were now suddenly 3-0 against them and despite the graduation of Hudgins, were still pretty good after knocking off last year’s Region Champion (Elizabethtown) in nine innings, coach Jeff Wright’s girls had to feel like they had their mojo back and were ready for Central Hardin.
On the other hand, the Lady Bruins looked much like the same team which won all those Region title during the regular season mind you.
The playoffs were a different matter.
First, there were the two district title losses to Elizabethtown when the Lady Bruins batting lineup struggled mightly against the Region’s new wonder woman, Taytum Spiers. Both losses put Central Hardin in the losers bracket for the Region draw and guess who they faced in the first round both times?
Still, this season’s Central Hardin team had plenty of experience as coach Jaime Goodman once again masterfully was able to integrate new faces in the lineup despite multiple graduation losses in the starting nine.
Just as impressive was the pitching rotation which featured last season’s junior sensation Jenna Smith and this season’s midseason surprise sophomore Emma Watkins, who like Smith has proved herself in the circle under fire.
So, early in the sixth inning, Goodman tipped his hand and switched out Watkins, who had up to this point had turned in a masterful performance despite pitching in several innings with runners on base. Just as he had done the night before against Taylor County, the Lady Bruin mastermind brought in Smith, who started at third (Reese Nickell replaced her at third) to face the next two batters with runners at second and third.
With the game on the line and a chance for Green County to either possibly tie the game or take the lead, Smith got Kinsey Robertson to ground out, then Brianna Johnson to strikeout ending the threat.
In every championship season, there is a moment of truth, when the ball either rolls your way or it doesn’t. In this case, Smith’s two outs may have been that defining moment.
The Lady Bruins responded to their good fortune by adding another run in the bottom of the sixth when Addison Carter singled past shortstop making the score 4-1 and they needed it as the Lady Dragons weren’t through.
After Bella Johnson popped out in the top of the seventh, Lily Beard and Allie Burris both were aboard with one out and with Caulk, who had pitched a great game herself for Green County came up as the tying run, the game was far from over.
Smith shut them down first getting Caulk to ground out and then Katie Church to pop up to the catcher for the final out.
When Avery Strader squeezed the final out, the Lady Bruin dugout erupted. It was a celebration for a group of girls who had never been in this situation before. True. Both Strader and second baseman Aylssa Gent were both varsity members of the 2019 team (even though they didn’t play much), but like the others like Alanna Jones, Lynlee Britian, Kayla Hardesty, Allie Link, Payton Campbell, Adison Carter, Smith and Watkins it was a totally new experience and after losing their 2020 season and the disappointments in 2021 and 2022 it must have felt like total redemption.
Afterwards, the senior class of Gent, Strader, Jones, Britian and Hardesty credited both the coaching staff and their challenging schedule to their success this season along with the two previous seasons as a driving force towards this season and the final prize.
Afterwards, the girls gave coach Goodman the customary Region Title Gatorade Bath, which was as very well executed as any hit and run the Lady Bruins ran this season. Although coach must have known it was coming (he’s already been through six of them). He also knows a little bit about rebuilding a title team as this group of five, which just graduated this weekend and are now preparing for life after high school will be also getting ready for something just as big for their first trip and game in the KHSAA State Tournament at Cropp Field in Lexington, KY next Friday at 9:00 pm.
In one week, possibly two, Goodman will begin looking ahead to next season as a different group of girls will be ready to take over, but at least for now Gatorade baths and trophy poses are the rage for a bunch of girls which finally got what they had dreamed about ever since they began their first varsity practice in 2021 and what the redemption must finally taste like.
