When Apollo’s starting pitcher Mollie Julian posted her third consecutive scoreless inning to start the 3rd Region Championship game, she knew she was operating at a different level. The junior left Daviess County’s high-octane offense baffled, striking out seven and allowing one earned run over seven innings.
Her performance mixed with Tyler Hall’s solo homer sparked the E-Gals to a 2-1 upset over Daviess County, securing the program it’s first 3rd Region Championship since 2018.
“This is very very special. I can’t be prouder of the girls,” Apollo Head Coach Stephen Julian said. “This is very fantastic. …I’m just so proud of them. We talked all year. We got embarrassed against them in the first game and after losing to them in the second game 5-0, I told the girls they are beatable.”
Daviess County’s Storey Hume and Apollo’s Mollie Julian exchanged zeros through the first inning, before Hall launched a no-doubter over the left field fence in the bottom of the second.
“That was huge,” Stephen Julian said. “We told them today, ‘it’s David versus Goliath, and here we are. Let’s throw the first punch, survive the storm and see what happens.’ We threw the first punch and survived the storm, and here we are, victorious.”
Apollo doubled their lead in the third when Emersyn Bullington scored on a Keelan Wettstain fielder’s choice. Daviess County cut the lead in half in the top of the fourth, when Briley Henry scored on a Hume groundout.
From there, Julian only allowed one baserunner over the last three innings, a Henry sixth inning double.
“Mollie is Mollie,” Stephen Julian said with a laugh. “I can’t be prouder. I know what she is capable of and she spins it really well. She is just tough to square up, and you saw that tonight. To hold them to one run is phenomenal and that team over there is amazing.”
Hume allowed two earned runs over six innings for Daviess County, while Henry finished 2-3 with two doubles.
“We never gave up. We battled up there and kept battling,” Daviess County Head Coach John Biggs said. “We were good enough in the circle and defensively to give ourselves a shot. All hats off to Mollie in the circle, she did a great job at keeping us off-balanced. We were patient at times and sometimes we weren’t patient. We had some hard hit balls right at them, but when it comes down to it, we didn’t pressure them enough offensively.”
This loss snaps Daviess County’s run of six straight 3rd Region Championships, dating back to 2019. The Lady Panthers are losing nine seniors to graduation, with many of them heading off to play college ball.
“I couldn’t ask any more from these kids. What that group was able to accomplish, the way they played, and the things that they were able to do on and off the field,” Biggs said. “That’s never been matched here at Daviess County. And, like we told them, that’s the most important thing. We hate that it ends like this, but the things they were able to accomplish, the things they were able to do, and the leadership we received from the nine seniors, and the camaraderie of the entire group was amazing.”
Apollo now awaits either LaRue County or North Hardin, who are slotted to play tonight at 6:00 p.m., in the opening round of the State Tournament scheduled for next Thursday at 1:00 p.m. ET.
“We just need to take it one game at a time and one pitch at a time,” Stephen Julian said. “We just need to go up there and compete and see what happens.”
