The Lyon County Lady Lyons were as close to dominant as a team could be over the weekend in Owensboro at Jack Fisher Park at this year’s All-A Classic state softball tournament. Once the rains let up Saturday, the Lady Lyons were ready to go from the first pitch and cruised to a berth in the championship game late Sunday afternoon.
How solid were the Lady Lyons this weekend, well, let’s just look at some of the numbers and what took place over a 25 hour period, and, let’s start with that. Thanks to the weather delaying play on Saturday, the Lady Lyons won SIX games in 25 hours. A couple of breaks that were built into the schedule of the tournament did not get to happen so that tourney officials could get every game played.
Also, give the All-A folks credit, they did everything they could do to make sure that every game of this event got played, after having last year’s tourney canceled due to COVID-19. And big kudos to the City of Owensboro for putting in the turn infields. If not for that, this year’s tourney may have been canceled or at least rescheduled to a different time.
Once the games got started, the Lady Lyons got rolling quickly and never looked back. Check out these numbers.
Over the course of the tournament, the Lady Lyons outscored their opponents 67-19. Not only did the offense crank it out, but the pitching staff of Kaelyn Conger, Tori Schenk, and Lilly Perry pitched three shutouts, one for each of them, over the six games.
And, how about the offense. In addition to averaging just over ten runs a game, the Lady Lyon bats pounded out 78 hits during the tournament, an average of 12 ½ hits per contest.
As for the teams they beat in the tournament, they took down 3rd Region contender Owensboro Catholic, not once, but twice, coming from behind in the title game the second time.
Two of the games expected to be tough contests for the Lady Lyons turned out to be anything but. Saturday night, they obliterated five-time defending champion Holy Cross, winning the game 16-6 and knocking out 24 hits.
Many people thought Sunday’s semifinal game with Raceland would be a down-to-the-wire affair. WRONG. Lyon County scored 14 runs over their final three at-bats, and had 17 hits for the game, rolling to a 16-6 win.
The two games against O-Cath were the toughest for the Lady Lyons in the tourney. The first game was closer than the 5-0 score indicated. It was a 1-0 game until, with time running out, Calista Collins hit a grand slam to seal the win.
The rematch in the title game was a “knockdown” battle. Coach Jason Collins had advised his team that at some point in the tournament, a team was going to “hit back.” That was the Lady Aces in the final. Still, the Lady Lyons, when push came to shove, found the way to get the win and the state title.
As I said, they were about as close to dominant as a team could be in a state tournament situation, and that is why that championship trophy now resides in Eddyville.
