If you felt like there was something missing this year about this time of month whether it was late May of early June then you probably aren’t the only one. To so many of us who either support and go to high school Baseball and Softball games whether at the Region Tournaments or the KHSAA State Tournaments, there is nothing better than going to Lexington or Owensboro, KY for one of those two sports to see the final stages of the high school sports season come to an end.
When I first started covering high school sports, the state tournament was a magical place depending what sport you enjoyed. Baseball was always in Lexington, but my first season covering it was 2005 and in order to qualify to go to Lexington you had to play a sub sectional usually at a predetermined site. The previous season, North Hardin had won the best of three sub-sectional and made it to the Elite Eight and LaRue County won their sub-sectional series and actually made it to the Final Four before falling. With the strength and talent of the Region as a whole I would have thought for sure that a few trips to Lexington were in the cards for the 5th Region Champ.
Boy, was I wrong. For five straight years, the 5th Region champion couldn’t make it out of the Sweet Sixteen Round. That all changed in 2010, when the KHSAA decided that the first round of State games would be played at Forcht Park (Changed from Applebees to later Whitaker Bank). My first trip was in 2010 when Central Hardin was just emerging as the new power player in our Region. There’s nothing like watching a high school baseball game from a much larger beautiful stadium setup and even though it’s a Single A ballpark, it still looks great. The Bruins drew Greenup County that year and despite having a pitching rotation set up for a long series, Central Hardin ended up using three hurlers in that game and lost. Still, it was fun and sights and smells from the Lexington venue still resonate in my memory. Central Hardin would make three more trips there including their 2011 appearance when they won the State Title.
Several years later, Elizabethtown would win three straight Region titles and after that Marion County and LaRue County made appearances. The Knights were a curious Region Champ making their first appearance and like LaRue County in 2003 made it to the Final Four before finally falling.
After that, the KHSAA chose to change the format again with Region Champions playing a single elimination game at a different local thus the six-day tournament became a five-day affair with the Championship game played on a Sunday. I really missed that first day and not having the Baseball first round at Lexington not conflict with Softball state which usually started on a Thursday..
Still, during the first season of the new format, there was a great story at state in Breckinridge County. The Tigers had never been to State and had to overcome a two-day Sub Sectional championship game which lasted two days and was started and finished at two different locals. Breckinridge County continued a magical trip when they survived a wild Elite Eight matchup with Beechwood which was stopped Wednesday Night with a tie score and then finished Thursday Morning with a Tiger win. Crazy storylines were becoming a part of the Breck narrative and just as every State Tourney had at least one surprise story, there are a slew of exciting personalities that make it unforgettable. I actually made it back Saturday morning to watch Tates Creek end the Tigers Dream season. It was sad to see it end, but still it was fun to be there and a part of it.
The KHSAA Softball State Tourney was also another event that I enjoyed covering. For several years, Owensboro’s Fisher Field was where they played it, but for two years (the first two I started covering it) they changed it to Louisville’s Skyview Park in Jeffersontown. My first expereience was during the 2006 North Hardin State Tourney drive when behind pitcher Jennifer Young, they made it to the Final Three before being eliminated by Owensboro Catholic late Saturday evening. But that season really did have a lasting impression with the Lady Trojans magical season, the eventual runner-up team the powerful Lady Aces, who’s starter I believe pitched every game after losing their first early and someone told me later on that she was actually expecting at the time. Also, there was young sophomore that stood 6’0 tall named Kristen Allen, who was a power pitcher and scary to boot. She had a hard fastball. Years later, another pitcher named Montana Fouts reminded me a lot of Allen.
I loved the double elimination format and it best suited high school fast pitch. Also, the fact it was a two day tournament format with a losers bracket which allowed teams another chance to win as long as they didn’t drop two games. In 2008, the Tournament moved back to Owensboro and in 2011, the Tournament went to a three day format which allowed every team at least one nights stay at the State Tourney. For someone like me, who always tried to get something from every team playing that worked best because I always tried to get something of everyone there.
If you’ve been to Softball Tournaments before then you probably love the multiple fields with activity and the fun of trying to see everyone play. Also, just like baseball, there are so many interesting stories with each team and their struggles and victories to get there. I remember in 2010, I watched Green County play Reidland in Game One of the tournament and although they dropped a 2-1 squeaker, I thought they played well in their first EVER state game. Little did I know that they would win three more games that day in the losers bracket and led Mercy 2-0 on Saturday morning before allowing them to tie the game in their last at bat and lose to be eliminated. Even more interesting was that Reidland beat Mercy in the final so the Lady Dragons lost to No. 1 and No.2 by a total of two runs. How’s that for a close loss. What I hated most about that Friday morning was that I knew I couldn’t stay and watch more because I had a prior commitment.
Stories like that were a part of State High School Sports and from 2015 to 2019 the Central Hardin Softball team did their impression of the school’s baseball team by just dominating the 5th Region during that five year period.
As much as I enjoyed the carnival atmosphere of the three day affair, I was just as saddend to hear that would be ending as well as the KHSAA chose to remake the State Tournament as well and for the first time in recent memory, there would be a sub sectional game in the Sweet Sixteen for all Region winners at a predetermined site and then the Elite Eight would take place on the following Friday at UK’s Softball stadium with the Final Four on Saturday and Final on Sunday.
At first glance, the reasoning seemed to be a bit wreckless since we had seen in the past Region Tournaments of both sports had been delayed because of weather issues. Softball had seen four of those in the past fifteen years with 2008’s Championship game finally finished up on a Saturday afternoon at Hart County. Baseball had been less lucky as six times since 2005 had the Region Tourney been delayed. Because of the intricate nature of a pitching staff and field conditions, twice in 2006 and 2015 the Tournament finished on a Thursday night. Once in 2016, it finally finished on a Friday night at Hart County. Twice it took six days to finish on a Saturday in 2012 and 2014 and in 2018 it took seven days. That season, it was scheduled to start at John Hardin, but were only able to get through one and a half games of the first round with them finally finishing game two that Friday at LaRue County. The third game was stopped midway through and finished on Saturday afternoon along with the fourth game of the first round. Because of time restraints, Round two was played that evening finishing late in the night and the championship game between LaRue County and Central Hardin was finally played on a Sunday afternoon making it one of the longest Region Tournaments in history.
I thought how would this logic carry over into the 2019 season if there was a weather issue and sure enough it did. Rain actually forced the postponement of not baseball, but Softball at State and as a result the Elite Eight didn’t start on a Friday, but the following Friday and finally finished up that Sunday. I understand that changing the format is fun for teams and adds enjoyment to the sport, but to guys like me who saw it happening in a totally context, I do miss those days of six day Baseball State Tournaments and the memories I have of that mark certain moments in my life.
For some reason, two years when I was driving back from Owensboro after Day One of the Softball State Tournament, I remember listening to the final game of the NBA Championship series and first listened to and then got to watch the game at home when first the San Antonio Spurs (2014 Tim Duncans last year) and the Golden State Warriors (2015 Stephen Curry’s first title) won the championship.
I remember in 2019 when Breckinridge County had just been eliminated on Saturday’s Final Four State Game by Tates Creek and hanging around long enough to get some great sound bites from several of the seniors on the team. Watching the team surrounded by their friends and family after a loss is always so emotional, but Evan Barr and Kobe Poole gave one of many great interviews afterwards. Sometimes it’s not easy to find the right words after a loss, but the guys reacted to their newly found fame well answering every question and leaving me with a sense that this team might be back next year.
Well, as we all well know that didn’t happen for anyone because high school spring sports was shutdown all over the country. As we try to navigate through all the lost memories and broken dreams, let us try to remember how much we love doing this and how every time of the year around late May and early June we always have a schedule made out for a possible trip to Lexington.
Unfortunately, this summer there are no memories, but that doesn’t mean there can’t be any next year.
