MOREHEAD – Things were trending in the right direction for the Fleming County softball team headed into postseason play.

The Lady Panthers had won 11 of 15 and defeated first round opponent Bath County the second time around playing each other.

But Bath bombed away on Saturday, hitting four home runs and coming away with a 10-5 victory over the Lady Panthers.

Jesselin Miller hit two, Taylor Hodson and Kennedy Thomas the others.

“I thought we were teeing up on the ball and seeing it well. We traditionally hit Caroline pretty well, nothing taking away from her because she’s a great pitcher, but for whatever reason we just hit the ball and see it really well,” Lady ‘Cats coach Kenny Williams said.

It started in the first with the long ball, Thomas leading the game off with a dinger. Miller followed later in the inning to give them a 2-0 lead.

The Lady Panthers answered in the first with RBI doubles from Gracie Newsom and Faith Adolf to tie things back up at two. Fleming added another in the second as Sadie Price led off with an RBI triple that was followed by a Taylor Marshall RBI groundout to give Fleming the 3-2 lead.

Bath had stranded five runners through three innings of play, but made sure in the fourth it wouldn’t happen again. Lady Panthers pitcher Caroline Price, their workhorse all season, lost a little bit of control to start the frame as she hit a batter and then was greeted by a two-run shot from Hodson, making it 4-3 Bath.

A walk followed by two errors then loaded the bases for Miller. The Lady ‘Cats catcher drove a pitch to dead center and just cleared the outstretched glove of Mallory Donahue over the fence for the grand slam, opening the game up with a Bath County 8-3 lead.

“It was a big momentum shift. Make some errors in the field and have some judgement calls from the umpires, just really shifted our momentum it was hard to dig from behind that hole,” Lady Panthers coach Tanna Seuferer said.

Price would be pulled for Sidney Argo.

“Caroline hung a couple pitches and left a few pitches up in the zone to those hitters and they’re going to hit it hard and they did,” Seuferer said.

After the Lady Panthers added a run in the fourth to get within four, Argo worked out of a bases loaded jam in the 5th to keep Fleming within striking distance, trailing 9-4.

Fleming added another but missed chances for the second straight inning to add multiple runs, striking out with two on in the fourth and Courtney Arrasmith getting thrown out at third to end the fifth after a Sadie Price RBI single, making it 9-5.

A scoreless sixth led way to another Bath County run in the seventh as pinch-runner Kassidy Thomas was ruled safe at a play at the plate, the umpire ruling catcher Faith Adolf obstructed Thomasl to get to the plate. That was the fourth of odd series of events at the plate during the game, the first a debate on a second or third strike to a batter, a foul tip caught below the waist for an out and a batter ruled out for being out of the batter’s box while trying to slap the ball. All instances were ruled against the Lady Panthers favor.

After the debate, the Lady Panthers season ended in the bottom of the seventh as they were able to get a couple runners on, but McKenna Moore got her seventh strikeout of the game to end it.

The Lady Panthers battled back to get to 13-14 on the season after a 2-10 start, getting a team effort that was helped by timely hitting and solid defense to get them to this point. Saturday wasn’t meant to be as they committed five errors and left seven runners on base.

They’re hoping to use the momentum from the second half of the season into next season as they lose just three seniors, Faith Adolf, Kennedy Perkins and Taylor Marshall.

“We just said as a staff is it really stinks to lose those three, but what we have coming back is pretty solid,” Seuferer said.

Bath County moves on to the 61st District Championship on Monday, taking on Rowan County, the Lady Vikings defeating Menifee County 16-1 in three innings in the first game of the day. Those two will meet at 6 p.m., back at Rowan County.

The Lady Vikings won the first two meetings during the season, 9-1 on April 17 and 8-6 on April 22. The win also gets the two to the 16th Region Tournament that will start on May 25 at Boyd County.

“It’s the first time in my nine or 10 years of being here that you feel like it can be anybody’s ballgame. I told the girls you take the stats and all that out of it, we’ve played with every team in the region. If it’s our day, it’s our day, we make a run. Got to win this one to get there so we did that,” Williams said.

LADY ‘CATS 10, LADY PANTHERS 5

BATH COUNTY—200-610-1—10-12-2

FLEMING COUNTY—210-110-0—5-11-5

2B – (BC) Moore (FC) Adolf, Newsom

3B – (FC) S. Price

HR – (BC) Miller 2, K. Thomas, T. Hodson

RBI – (BC) Miller 5, Hodson 2, K. Thomas, Moore, Karrick (FC) Marshall 2, Newsom, Adolf, S. Price

R – (BC) K. Thomas 2, Caldwell 2, Moore, Day, Hodson, Alderman, Thomas (FC) Newsom 2, Argo, Arrasmith, S. Price

LOB – (BC) 12 (FC) 7

WP – Moore. LP – Price.

Records: Bath County 22-9, Fleming County 13-15

BATH COUNTY 7, FLEMING COUNTY 1 (BASEBALL)

OWINGSVILLE — Bath County defeated Fleming County for the third time and ended their season in the first round of the 61st District Tournament at the Bath County Sports Complex.

The Panthers were four-hit in the contest by Chandler Otis, who also struck out four and walked two.

The Wildcats jumped on Fleming early in taking a 4-0 lead after two innings of play. The Panthers got one back in the fourth on a Jacob Werline RBI single scoring Jonathan Maher. Bath quickly put things out of reach in the bottom of the fourth as two walks, a hit by pitch and a wild pitch helped score two runs on the same play.

The loss ends Fleming County’s season at 7-21. Bath County moves on to the 61st District Championship on Monday against Rowan County. The Vikings defeated Menifee County 10-0 in five innings earlier in the day.

FLEMING COUNTY—000-100-0—1-4-0

BATH COUNTY—130-300-x—7-8-2

HARRISON COUNTY 10, ROBERTSON COUNTY 6 (BASEBALL)

CARLISLE — The Black Devils put a scare into the No. 1 seeded Thorobreds but came up short in the end in the first round of the 38th District Tournament at Nicholas County.

Four runs in the fifth tied the game up at 6-6 before Harrison answered with four runs in the bottom of the inning to reclaim the lead.

Robertson was aided by six Harrison County errors in the contest, the final two to get them back in it and all tied up. Robie Mullins three-run homer in the bottom of the fifth gave the Thorobreds the cushion they needed the rest of the way.

The loss ends Robertson County’s season at 9-12, their most wins in a season in over 20 years, according to the KHSAA website. Wyatt Cooper was 1-for-3 on the day, ending his season at 39-for-58 from the plate and a .672 batting average, the third highest batting average in a season in KHSAA history with a minimum of 50 at-bats.

Harrison County went on to beat Nicholas County on Sunday, 11-1 for the 38th District Championship. The Bluejackets knocked off Pendleton County 2-1 on Saturday to get to the final. Both teams will now head to the 10th Region Tournament, that starts Saturday at Montgomery County. The Thorobreds earn a No. 1 seed while the Bluejackets will be a No. 2.

ROBERTSON COUNTY—002-040-0—6-7-1

HARRISON COUNTY—401-140-0—10-11-6

PEEBLES 9, REEDSVILLE EASTERN 0 (SOFTBALL)

RIO GRANDE — The Lady Indians claimed a Southeast Division IV District title as they shutout Reedsville Eastern on Saturday at the University of Rio Grande.

Madison Pierce pitched a three-hitter and struck out 10 batters and Brycelyn Short drove in three runs as the Lady Indians took control of the contest early and often in the win. Avery Storer added two RBI as Peebles churned out 10 hits in the contest.

A four run second inning was followed by a three run fourth to get the Lady Indians well on their way to regionals.

Next up comes Portsmouth Notre Dame in the regional semifinals played at Pickerington Central on Wednesday at 2 p.m.

PEEBLES—040-301-1—9-10-0

REEDSVILLE—000-000-0—0-3-0

Fleming County’s Sadie Price slides into home safely past the tag from Bath County catcher Jesselin Miller. The Lady ‘Cats came away with a 10-5 victory in the first round of the 61st District Tournament, Saturday, in Morehead. (Evan Dennison, The Ledger Independent)
https://maysville-online.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/web1_Fleming-Bath-5.jpgFleming County’s Sadie Price slides into home safely past the tag from Bath County catcher Jesselin Miller. The Lady ‘Cats came away with a 10-5 victory in the first round of the 61st District Tournament, Saturday, in Morehead. (Evan Dennison, The Ledger Independent)
Lady ‘Cats crush 4 HRs, end Lady Panthers season

Evan Dennison

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