By Ryan Davenport, WSON Sports Correspondent 

The Henderson County Lady Colonels faced off against the Caldwell County Lady Tigers in the Championship Game of the 2nd Region Tournament in Madisonville.

The Lady Colonels would strike first in the top of the 1st inning on a 1 out fielder’s choice to give the Lady Colonels a 1-0 lead heading into the bottom of the 1st inning. 

The Lady Colonels would score 6 runs in the top of the 2nd inning on 2 singles, a 2-run home run, and a ground out to give the Lady Colonels a 7-0 lead heading into the bottom of the 2nd inning. 

Lady Colonel sophomore pitcher Anna Kemp would strike out the side in the bottom of the 2nd inning.

A 2 out RBI single by senior second baseman Anna Willett in the top of the 3rd inning would extend the Lady Colonels lead to 8-0 heading into the bottom of the 3rd inning.

The Lady Colonels would score 4 runs on 2 singles and 1 double in the top of the 4th inning to extend their lead to 12-0 over Caldwell County heading into the bottom of the 4th inning.

 

In the top of the 5th inning, the Lady Colonels scored on an RBI triple by senior shortstop JaMaya Byrum to give the Lady Colonels a 13-0 lead over Caldwell County. 

 

In the bottom of the 5th inning, Lady Colonel sophomore pitcher Anna Kemp struck out 2 of the 3 batters in the inning as the Lady Colonels would come away with a 13-0 shutout dominate win over the Caldwell County Lady Tigers in 5 innings to win the Lady Colonels their 3rd straight 2nd Region Championship. The Lady Colonels improve their record to (30-5) on the season while the Lady Tigers end their season with a (18-13) record.

Lady Colonel’s junior catcher Hallie McCracken was 2 for 2 with 1 RBI while senior first baseman Kendal Hargrove was 2 for 3 with a double and 1 RBI on the night. Freshman designated player Mackenzie Burczyk was 2 for 3 with a double and 1 RBI while senior shortstop JaMaya Byrum was 2 for 4 with a double and 2 RBI’s on the night.

 

Lady Colonels sophomore pitcher Anna Kemp pitched the 5 innings while only allowing 3 hits and 0 runs while only walking 1 batter and recording 12 strikeouts on the night. 

 

As a team, the Lady Colonels scored 13 runs and recorded 13 hits, 12 RBI’s, 3 doubles, 1 home run, 0 errors, and 11 stolen bases on the night.

4 Henderson County Lady Colonel players were named to the All 2nd Region Team, senior Anna Willett, senior Kendal Hargrove, junior Taylor Troutman, and sophomore Anna Kemp all pictured above. 

 

Player of the game for the Lady Colonels was junior center fielder Taylor Troutman. I asked Taylor how she felt like she performed in the game and how her team played and she responded with this, “It was a really good game. We had fun together and we wanted to break a record where we are the first team in the (2nd) region (ever) to not allow any runs and I think beat a team by 10 runs (or more) so it was really good and I loved playing together.”

 

Henderson County Lady Colonels head coach Shannon Troutman talked about his team’s performance on winning another 2nd Region Championship, “They played good. We played quality softball all postseason so far and I’m very proud of them. They’ve managed to lock in and really play some good softball. I challenged them going into this, you know I told them earlier I don’t think anyone has ever, that I can find, in a region tournament not allow a single run and won every game by run rule. I don’t think that has ever happened.”

 

The Lady Colonels will take on the 11th Region Champion, the Great Crossing Lady Warhawks on Friday night, June 2nd, at 8:00 P.M. in the Opening Round of the 2023 State Softball Tournament in Lexington at John Cropp Stadium.