Trailing 2-1 in the top of the sixth and behind 0-1 in the count, Owensboro Catholics Anna Hamilton launched a pitch over the centerfield wall for a three-run homer and a 4-2 lead. In the blink of an eye, the Lady Aces had found a way to finally score off of Apollo’s Mollie Julian, who up until that point had been virtually unhittable. After adding an insurance run in the top of the seventh, Owensboro Catholic pitched their way out of a jam in the bottom of the inning to win 5-2.
“Every time we play Apollo, it is always a nailbiter and a great game,” Owensboro Catholic head coach Jeremy Phelps said. “I think we are very alike in the way are teams are built. It just came down to a play here and there. This team battled through it.”
The Lady Aces got to Julian early in the top of the first, scoring a run off of a Hamilton single. An inning later Apollo responded when Liza Page hit an inside the park home run to tie it. From there, Julian didn’t allow another base runner to reach until the sixth inning, striking out eight over that span.
“We have faced her twice this year so we knew a lot about Mollie, but she pitched a great game out there,” Phelps said. “Her off-speed pitch was good, and she kept us off balanced all game.”
Apollo took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the fifth after Page scored on a passed ball. After the Hamilton homer, the Lady Aces added another run in the top of the seventh on a Gracie Dukate double.
In the bottom of the seventh, Apollo started to rally after Emersyn Bullington and Page singled, but Keelan Wettstain grounded into a double play and Arianna Ramirez flew out to end it. Julian threw a complete game, allowing four earned runs over seven innings, striking out seven.
For Owensboro Catholic, Railey Scott also threw a complete game, allowing one earned run over seven innings, striking out three.
“She battled,” Phelps said. “She had to take over that lineup. I don’t mind the five walks. There were many times I called pitches off the plate. The way she pitched, she battled the entire game, even when she was missing her spot, she was working on it. She brought it back, and every time, she does that, she has been a great asset to our team this year.”
Apollo head coach Stephen Julian was complimentary of the Lady Aces starter after the game.
“We had opportunities,” Julian said. “We had no outs with people in scoring position and we just didn’t score as many as what we should have. So, hats off to Railey over there; she pitched a great game.”
Owensboro Catholic is back in the 9th District Championship game for the sixth straight year and face a different beast in Daviess County.
For Apollo, they are losing one senior to graduation and are returning a young and experienced roster.
“We’ve got a bright future if everybody sticks around, continues to work, and gets a year better,” Stephen Julian said. “It will be hard to replace Abie Butterworth at first base and her senior leadership.”
Daviess County overcomes slow start
Having not played for eight days, Daviess County showed some rust early in their 9th District Tournament game against Owensboro, with the bats struggling early to get going. In their stead, Kamryn Timmons was borderline untouchable – striking out 14 over seven shutout innings in their 8-0 win.
“Early offensively, we weren’t patient, and you could tell we hadn’t played a game in eight games,” Daviess County head coach John Biggs said. “Our defense and pitching kept us in the game until our bats came alive. We made some adjustments and had some balls drop. Our aggressive baserunning gave us some opportunities to score.”
Timmons struck out five of the first nine batters she faced and didn’t allow a single player to reach over that span. Molly Hancock doubled home Taylor Sowders in the top of the fourth to break the scoreless tie. An inning later, the Lady Panthers’ offense started to return to form – Danielle Beckwith, Sadie Morries, and Shelby Bennett all singled home runs to push the lead to 4-0.
In the bottom of the sixth, Daviess County doubled their lead thanks to Annie Newman driving in a pair, a Molly Hancock fielders choice, and Newman later scoring on an error.
The Lady Devils’ Addison Hill broke up the perfect game in the top of the fourth with a walk, and an inning later, they had their best scoring opportunity of the afternoon. Kaysi Burden singled with two outs, and Hayley Sikes reached on a fielding error. After a wild pitch advanced both runners, Timmons struck out India Allgood to end the threat.
“We played well and were in the game until late,” Owensboro head coach Quincy Moorman said. “We played solid defensively early and made some tough plays. A couple of balls didn’t fall our way, and the momentum shifted a little. We struggled putting anything together offensively. Timmons is tough to hit, so we tried to put some bunts down and put pressure on their defense.”
For the sixth straight year, dating back to 2019, Daviess County is set to face Owensboro Catholic in the 9th District Championship. It has been an entirely one sided rivalry, with the Lady Panthers 5-0 over that span.
For Owensboro, they finished the season 11-16 and are losing five seniors to gradution.
“Overall, I feel like we had a good season,” Moorman said. “Obviously it didn’t end the way we would have wanted, but we were in just about every game we played. We won a couple of district games, which the program hasn’t seen in over 10 years. Even though we lost five seniors and a large part of our offense, we have some young talent coming up, so we have high expectations going into next season.”
