BROOKSVILLE, Ky. — The Bracken County Lady Bears hosted the Robertson County Lady Devils in their final game of the regular season on Wednesday.
Bracken County came into the contest looking to bounce back after a 10-0 loss to Pendleton County on Tuesday, hoping to end the regular season on a high note and roll into the 39th District championship game next Monday with winning momentum. The Lady Devils entered hoping to compete and bring an end to a five-game losing streak before facing the Harrison County Fillies in the 38th District semifinals next week.
In the top of the first, leadoff batter Allison Miller walked before stealing her way to third. Mackenzie Collins also walked, with a pair of wild pitches sending both Miller and Collins across home plate to score. After another walk from Bracken County pitcher Tajsia Little to Robertson County’s Zoey McKay, Rees Hargett stepped into the circle for the Lady Bears and picked up two quick strikeouts.
“We’ve been trying to work bugs out all season, and hopefully we’ve got them worked out before district and region,” said Lady Bears head coach Jamey Johnson. “We started Tajsia, a seventh grader. She’s pitched several innings for us this season and she’s done really well. I was trying to get her tuned in for district and sometimes, pitchers either have it or they don’t. Same thing with batters; they’re either hitting or they’re not.”
In the bottom half of the inning, Bracken County leadoff batter Kyndall Johnson flew out to McKay at shortstop, followed by a single from Jenna Colvin. A sacrifice fly from Jordan Ahrens then sent Colvin home to score, but a ground out from Hargett to Grace Wright at first brought an end to the inning before the Lady Bears could pull ahead.
“The girls did really, really good. They worked hard together and they made plays,” said Lady Devils head coach Harley Flack.
A pop out from Miller to Addyson Tucker, followed by two strikeouts from Hargett held the Lady Devils scoreless in the top of the second, leading 2-1. Bracken County then picked up eight walks and five singles in the bottom half of the inning, pulling ahead to lead 12-2. Another scoreless inning for Robertson County sent the Lady Bears back into the batter’s box in the bottom of the third, with four walks, a pair of singles and a double driving three more runs in, Bracken County taking the victory 17-2 in three innings.
“I was very impressed with Maddi Case, she did really well for me in right field. The rest of the kids, they worked pretty hard together too,” said Coach Flack. “We struggle when we make a mistake, we get rattled and we don’t do real well after that.”
With this win, the Lady Bears sit at 16-19-1 on the season heading into next week’s 39th District tournament. Having gone 3-0 against district opponents, Bracken County secured the No. 1 seed, earning a bye in the district semifinal and an automatic bid to the 10th Region tournament.
“It’s one of those things, we beat Mason County and ended up short gaming them, but that means nothing. I tell the girls all the time you can’t go based on the last win. In the All “A” state, we had lost to Belfry earlier in the year. They short gamed us and then we turned around and beat them in the All “A” state,” said Coach Johnson. “You can’t hold on to the past, Mason County’s gonna come in here ready. Hopefully our girls are hungrier and we go in as a winner in the region.”
Mason County and Augusta will take the field at Bracken County in the 39th District semifinal round on Monday, May 18 at 5:30 p.m.. The winners of that game will then advance to the championship game against the Lady Bears at 7 p.m.
The 2026 10th Region softball tournament will then be held the following week, also at Bracken County for the first time in program history.
“It’s big, we’ve done a lot of work here on the field. There’s a lot more that we need to do. No rain has made it rough on grass growing and things like that. It’s good to be able to host it on your field. We take a lot of pride in our facilities and what we have. We make the best of it and hopefully we can provide a good tournament atmosphere,” said Coach Johnson.
ROBERTSON COUNTY
R: Miller, Collins
IP: Flack 1.0, Ashcraft 1.0
K: Ashcraft
BB: Flack 6, Ashcraft 5
BRACKEN COUNTY
H: Colvin 3, Tucker 2, Sutton 2, Hargett, Johnson
R: Colvin 2, Tucker 2, Sutton 2, Hargett 2, Johnson 2, Burton, Ahrens
RBI: Colvin, Tucker 2, Sutton 2, Hargett, Johnson
2B: Tucker
SB: Colvin 2, Burton 3, Gieglein 2, Johnson 2, Clark
IP: Hargett 2.2, Little 0.1
K: Hargett 7, Little
BB: Hargett, Little 5
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