Statistically, Allen County-Scottsville’s Jae McReynolds is one of the best hitters on the Lady Patriot softball team. The freshman outfielder is batting .412, second on the team to Taylor Stamps (.435). Yet Monday, in the quarterfinal round of the Region 4 softball tournament at Western Kentucky University, it wasn’t a key hit that proved to be the difference in the Lady Patriots 1-0 over Logan County. It was her eyes.
McReynolds led off the home-half of the
seventh inning with AC-S and Logan County locked in a scoreless tie. Knowing
that reaching base safely would be huge, McReynolds battled threw a 14-pitch at
bat. After falling behind in the count (1-2), Reynolds fouled off the next
pitch. After taking ball two, McReynolds fouled off three consecutive Logan
pitches to stay alive. A called ball three brought the count full. McReynolds
again fouled off three pitches. As Logan pitcher Sydney Lee delivered her 14th
pitch, McReynolds made the split-second decision to not swing. Ball four was
called. McReynolds had down her job.
“I knew (with two strikes) I had to make contact,” McReynolds said afterwards, “Our season was on the line.”
McReynolds’ ability to reach to start the inning enabled the Lady Patriots to go to the “small ball” game---the strategy of moving runners into scoring position by the bunt. Senior KaeLee Stafford moved McReynolds by putting the ball in play on a bunt. Senior Jordan Anderson followed, lifting a deep fly ball to right field. Anderson’s fly out enabled McReynolds to tag and move to third base---a pivotal move to place the winning run in a position to score on anything from an infield hit to a passed ball to a fielding error.
Senior Taylor Stamps stepped to the plate. With Stamps being one of two Lady Patriots with hits in the game, Logan County coach Mark Allen instructed the plate umpire to internationally walk Stamps. Not only would the Lady Cougars not have to deal with AC-S’s leading hitter, the Logan infield would have a force play at second or at first. The tactic appeared to work to perfection when senior Lady Patriot Kassi Bullington hit a sharp roller to Lady Cougar shortstop Brea Croslin. The Class of 2020 player who has verbally committed to the University of Illinois fielded the ball, hesitated a split second, and elected to go to first base rather than a shorter throw to second. Her throw was wide to the left of first base---enabling Bullington to reach first and McReynolds to race home for the walk-off win.
“This was one of the best wins I have been associated with since I have been coaching,” coach Robert Bunton noted. “Both teams played great. It was a matter of that one inning when one team would be able to get a run across.”
AC-S’s late-game heroics capped a contest in which the Lady Patriots had a pair of scoring opportunities. In the third, McReynolds’ bunt single was followed by Stafford reaching first on what was credited as an error by Logan County catcher Kennedy Nichols. Following ground outs by Anderson and Stamps, a walk by Bullington loaded the bases for Lady Patriot slugger Madi Gregory. Lee would record her only strikeout of the game to end the AC-S threat.
An inning later, the Lady Patriots looked to
get on the board again. Pardue walked. Her courtesy runner would move to second
as Bailey Ausbrooks reached on a Croslin error. McReynolds moved the runners up
a base before Stafford flew out to end the threat.
Logan County’s main scoring threat came in the third. Following two-out singles by Shelby Gettings and K.J. Page, Croslin walked to load the bases. Pardue bared down and struck out Lee—one of four K’s that Pardue hurled in the game---to escape the trouble. Logan last chance to score came in the seventh. Rosie Kerchenski doubled but was left stranded as Pardue struck out Presley Harris.
Pardue
finished the game throwing 91 pitches of which 60 were strikes. In addition,
Pardue forced Logan batters to hit into 13 ground ball outs.
“We made some huge plays,” Coach Bunton added. “They had runners in scoring position and we were able to get a ground out, a strike out, or a fly out. That helped us to keep the momentum.”
Bunton also praised Pardue for her efforts.
“Kris-Anne pitched an excellent game,” Bunton said. “She worked the plate pretty good and did what she had to do to get the win.”
AC-S (24-10-2) will face South Warren (21-7) in the Region 4 semifinals. This will mark the second consecutive year that the Lady Patriots and Patriots have met in the semifinals and the fourth time in the last five years that the two schools have played in an elimination game in the tournament.
District
Championship
A year removed from a heartbreaking 1-0 lost to Barren County in the finals of the District 15 tournament, AC-S turned the tables. An 11-hit afternoon plated seven runs as the Lady Patriots defeated the Trojanettes 7-2 to claim the program’s 19th District title in 24 seasons.
“This means a lot since we lost the heartbreaker last year,” coach Robert Bunton said. “The loss last year stuck We were chomping at the bit to bring this district championship home.”
The Lady Patriots raced to an early 2-0 lead. In the home-half of the first, Gregory launched a two-run homer to right-center field. The blast gave AC-S starter Kris-Anne Pardue a cushion to work with going forward.
“All season we have struggled to hit the ball early,” noted Pardue. “It was awesome to see us coming out early and get some runs on the board.”
The AC-S offense added three runs in the third with Pardue helping her own cause. After Gregory singled to reach base, Pardue lined a double. Gregory raced around to score the game’s third run. Ausbrooks plated KayLee Bullington (courtesy runner for Pardue) moments later with a single. McReynolds followed with a double before Stafford’s groundout scored Taylor Gregory, the courstey runner for Ausbrooks.
Barren County added two runs in the top of the fourth before AC-S answered with single runs in the bottom of the fourth and fifth.
Pardue allowed four hits in tossing the complete game. The senior right-hander threw 111 pitches, 67bof which were strikes. Pardue started with a strike to 15 of the 29 batters she faced, struck out four and walked two batters.
Offensively, Gregory went 3-4 at the plate, again finishing a triple away from the cycle. McReynolds enjoyed a 3-3 night. Pardue and Ausbrooks each ripped two hits.
“We got into a couple of jams today but we got out of them,” Bunton added. “We also hit the ball better today than last year’s game. We were able to put the hits together. Kris-Anne kept Barren off balance and our defense stepped up.”