After the tournament was delayed three days due to weather, you just had a feeling that the championship game of the 2nd Region softball tournament was going to be an “interesting” affair. While there were three weather delays, one due to heat, and two due to rain, the only thunder of the afternoon Saturday came off the bat of Christian County’s Tyler Shemwell who blasted a two-run walk off home run in the bottom of the 9th inning to send Christian County to the state tournament with a 5-3 win over the Caldwell County Lady Tigers.
The win puts Christian County in the state softball tourney for the first time since 2012.
Christian County got to the lead early in the contest. In the bottom of the first inning, Pickle Winkler and Emmy Blane led off the game with back-to-back singles. Lexie O’Daniel drove in Winkler with a sacrifice fly to left field to put Christian County in front 1-0.
The Lady Colonels appeared to have seized control of the game in the bottom of the 5th inning on RBI singles by Emmy Blane and Tyler Shemwell, putting Christian County in front 3-0.
In the circle, Hannah Sumner had things rolling her way, holding Caldwell County hitless through the first four innings. The Lady Tigers first hit was a single by Peyton Young in the top of the 5th.
Caldwell County finally found their bats against Sumner in the top of the 6th inning, scoring three runs on five hits to tie the game at 3-3. The big hits in the inning were an RBI double from Madi Choate, and a two run single off the bat of J’Aimee Burk.
Regan Hancock came in to pitch for Christian County and got the final out of the inning to end the threat.
It looked like Christian County was about to go back in front in the bottom of the 6th, but Katie Franklin came up with huge strikeout of Emmy Blane to end the inning with Christian County having the bases loaded.
Neither team was able to get anything going in the 7th inning or in the 8th inning.
In the top of the 9th, the Caldwell County Lady Tigers used a pair of singles to get runners on 1st and 2nd with two outs. However, Regan Hancock got Mashea Glover to fly out to end the inning.
In the bottom of the inning, Caldwell County retired the first two batters for Christian County.
Caldwell County’s defense only made two errors in the game, and the second one played a big role in how the game ended. Christian County’s Lexie O’Daniel hit what looked to be a routine grounder to end the inning, however, the Lady Tigers mishandled the ball, allowing O’Daniel to reach 1st base, and setting up Tyler Shemwell’s heroics.
Tyler Shemwell ended up 2-5 with a home run and 3 RBI’s. Emmy Blane went 2-5 with an RBI.
For Caldwell County, J’Aimee Burk was 1-4 with 2 RBI’s while Madi Choate went 1-3 with an RBI.
In the circle, Regan Hancock closed out the game for Christian County, going the final 3 1/3 innings, giving up no runs on four hits, striking out three and walking none. For Caldwell County, Katie Franklin went the distance, giving up five runs, only two of them earned, striking out six and walking one.
Christian County will begin play at the state tournament Thursday evening at 7, when they take on Marshall County at Jack Fisher Park, in Owensboro. The two teams met early in the season, with Christian County winning 4-3 on a walk off RBI by Hope Jones.
