Make it four championships in five years for Daviess County.
The Lady Panthers rode another dominant performance from Emily Stanley, who stymied Apollo’s offense en route to an 8-0 victory in Wednesday’s 9th District softball tournament title game at Shifley Park.
Stanley went the distance in both tournament victories — she had pitched less than nine innings in the regular season since making a full return from injury — and largely kept herself out of jams in either contest.
She only allowed four hits against the E-Gals (15-13), and the Lady Panthers (21-12) backed her up with solid defense and hot bats.
“It’s not so much the win, but I think it’s the way we played,” said DC head coach John Biggs. “I can’t say enough for Emily. For her to hold that offense that has put up some pretty good numbers against us in the other two games, that was unbelievable. Of course she didn’t do it all herself, but those last two innings she was kind of gutting it out.”
The Daviess County offense also continued to roll, and for the second consecutive game they used a handful of soft hits that turned into big innings.
“With our ability to hit with some power, defenses have to respect that,” Biggs said. “It kind of opens up the field a little bit for some of those balls to drop in there.”
Millie Roberts had another solid day at the plate, and her double to lead off the game turned into a quick run for the Lady Panthers. Her courtesy runner Sophie Simone later scored on a double by Savanah Northern.
It proved to be the only run they needed, but Daviess County added four more with a two-out rally in the third inning and three more for extra insurance in the seventh.
Roberts led off the third with a single, and Simone scored on a hit by Emma Young. With the bases loaded, a single by Stanley dropped in and wasn’t fielded cleanly, allowing three more runs to score.
Stanley helped herself again in the seventh by driving in Young, and a two-out single up the middle by Seana Leidfried drove in two more.
Apollo had trouble getting much going offensively and only pieced together four hits throughout the game. They did load the bases in the fifth inning but weren’t able to convert, and the E-Gals went down in order each of the last two frames.
Biggs is happy for the victory, but with a spot in next week’s 3rd Region tournament already having been locked up, he was just glad to see another solid effort.
“I was more concerned about the way we played,” he said. “(Tuesday) night’s game, you win that one and advance. This one, it’s building on that momentum.”
Both teams advance to the region tournament at Hancock County with first-round games on Monday. A full schedule with times and opponents has yet to be determined. No matter who they play, Biggs said the Lady Panthers will be ready.
“The last couple of weeks, we’ve been playing our best ball,” he said. “The group has had confidence all year. It hasn’t been an easy road, but we’re going to go into the regional tournament feeling pretty good about ourselves.”
DCHS 104-000-3—8-9-0
AHS 000-000-0—0-4-2
WP: Stanley. LP: Julian. 2B: Northern, Roberts, Young (DC).
The All-9th District Team was announced after the game.
Player of the Year: Millie Roberts, Daviess County
From Apollo: Brooke Brown, Madison Julian, Madison Shemwell, Lauren Whitehouse
From Daviess County: Savanah Northern, Emma Young
From Owensboro Catholic: Hannah Carter, Camille Conkright, Danielle Henning, Isabella Henning, Hadley Phelps
