PREP SOFTBALL: Could 17th District Tournament be as wacky as the regular season was? (05/19)

By NATHANIEL BRYAN nbryan@thenewsenterprise.com ELIZABETHTOWN — If the regular season was any indication, this week’s 17th District Softball Tournament could be just as wacky. Consider the following: n For the first time, none of the 19 regular-season district games were decided by the mercy rule. n Less than a third of those games were decided by four or more runs. n Six games went to extra innings or were decided in the final at-bat, including both meetings featuring the top-seeded North Hardin Trojans (19-12 overall, 7-1 district) and the second-seeded Central Hardin Lady Bruins (19-13, 7-2). n For the first time, the third-seeded Fort Knox Lady Eagles (19-15, 4-5) are not playing on the first day. “I think it’s going to be a lot different,” said veteran Fort Knox coach Rick Thompson. “We’ve always played the first day. Now, we get to actually sit back and take in a game.” n The fourth-seeded Elizabethtown Lady Panthers (11-18, 2-6) had host North Hardin tied going into the bottom of the sixth inning and took Central Hardin to nine innings. n And the fifth-seeded John Hardin Lady Bulldogs (11-17, 1-7), last year’s runner-up, nearly beat North Hardin on the road despite being no-hit and took Central Hardin to extra innings. “I think the girls are excited. It is a fresh start,” said John Hardin coach Andrew Hundley. “We’ve competed with everybody in the district and have had the chance to win against just about everyone. We have to finish. We have to play seven innings. That’s kind of our motto now and I hope we can stick with it.” The annual event gets underway at 6 tonight as the Lady Bulldogs take on tournament host Elizabethtown in the lone quarterfinal. Elizabethtown beat the visiting Lady Bulldogs, 9-0 on April 18 behind a no-hitter from junior Kristen Todd coupled with one of the Lady Panthers’ top hitting performances of the season. The Lady Panthers completed the regular-season sweep of the Lady Bulldogs with a 5-3 win in Radcliff six days later. John Hardin enters tonight on a bit of a hot streak, having won 3-of-4. The lone loss came to North Bullitt, a team that has a Division-I prospect at catcher and also beat Central Hardin and Elizabethtown. “We’re starting to hit the ball a lot better. We’ve been juggling the lineup a lot the last couple of weeks,” Hundley said. “We’ve moved some hitters into key spots. We’re not striking out as much anymore, we’re putting the bat on the ball and (junior pitcher) Jenna (Gachassin) is doing what she does best and is keeping us in the game.” The John Hardin-Elizabethtown winner advances to play North Hardin at 5 p.m., Tuesday. North Hardin won all four of its combined meetings with Elizabethtown and John Hardin, downing the Lady Panthers, 7-2 in Radcliff on April 21 and 10-3 in Elizabethtown on April 30. Tuesday’s 7 p.m. semifinal pits Central Hardin against Fort Knox. Central Hardin notched a 2-0 victory over the host Lady Eagles on April 24 in the teams’ only meeting. Weather kept the teams from meeting again, meaning both squads took a win and a loss on their district record for not completing their eight-game mandated district schedule. Central Hardin has lost only once to Fort Knox since the turn of the century, but Central Hardin coach Mark Martin said that particular statistic won’t mean much once the first pitch is hurled Tuesday. “Fort Knox is scary because they can score some runs,” he said of the Lady Eagles, who scored 60 more runs than any other district team. “I don’t think it’s a trap game, but I do think it’s a dangerous game, but we’ve known that since we played them the first time. And we knew even before that game that Knox was a lot better this year. I don’t know if there’s as much pressure as there is on us, but I do know they’ve had such a good year and their kids expect to do well.” The game is one of the biggest in Fort Knox history. If the Lady Eagles beat Central Hardin, they are assured of their first region tournament berth in school history. “And that’s exactly our goal,” Thompson said. “Our goal was to get 20 wins and to get to the region. We fell short of 20 wins in the regular season, but if we can win Tuesday, we’ve still accomplished what we’ve wanted.” Tuesday’s winners will meet in Wednesday’s 7:30 p.m. championship game. Regardless of who wins that night, both finalists advance to next week’s eight-team, single-elimination 5th Region Tournament at Hart County High School in Munfordville. Nathaniel Bryan can be reached at 505-1758