The Caldwell County Lady Tigers made the defending All A champs work harder and longer than they did in any of their pool play games Saturday. But in the end, Louisville Holy Cross did just enough to hold on for the 6-3 win Sunday morning in the quarterfinal round of the championship bracket of the All A state softball tournament. Timely hitting for Holy Cross, and five Lady Tiger errors turned out to be the factors in the game.
Holy Cross had rolled through the open day of play, winning all three games over Hancock County, Williamsburg, and Trimble County by 15-0 scores in three innings. Meanwhile, Caldwell County went 2-1 Saturday, beating Russellville 3-0, Whitefield Academy 21-0, and losing to Lexington Christian 4-0.
Holy Cross got on the board early Sunday morning, scoring a run in the bottom of the 1st inning. Holy Cross used a leadoff single, a sacrifice bunt, and another single to get the run across and take a 1-0 lead. They added two more runs in the bottom of the second inning, taking advantage of two Caldwell County errors on the first two batters of the inning, to extend the lead to 3-0.
Caldwell County began to battle back in the 3rd inning, taking advantage of a run scored on a Holy Cross error on a ball hit by Katie Franklin to cut the lead to 3-1. The run was the first scored against Holy Cross in the All A state tournament since the 2016 championship game.
Holy Cross quickly got the run back in the bottom of the inning, scoring after a hit batter, a stolen base and an RBI single, to push the lead out to 4-1.
The Lady Tigers then made their serious run at Holy Cross in the top of the 4th inning. With one out, Allie Felker crushed a home run to left field to make it a 4-2 game. J’Amiee Burke followed with a double. Peyton Young then sacrificed Burke to 3rd base. Karlie Rennison singled to right filed to score Burke and cut the lead to 4-3.
Holy Cross then sealed the game with a pair of insurance runs in the bottom of the 5th inning to get to the final three run margin.
Allie Felker was 2-3 in the game with a home run and an RBI. Karlie Rennison was 1-3 with an RBI for Caldwell County.
In the cirlce, Katie Franklin gave up six runs, but only two of the runs were earned. She allowed 7 hits, striking out three and walking none.
