Back-to-back state titles were not meant to be as the Henderson County Lady Colonels softball team fell to the Assumption Rockets, 4-2, in the KHSAA state championship game on Saturday afternoon at John Cropp Stadium.
“I’m super proud that we made it all the way back to the state championship game and played a heck of a game really,” said Head Coach Shannon Troutman. “The bats were just a little bit off. It’s no individual person’s fault. It just happened to us in a pretty crucial game.”
The Rockets struck first with a run in the top of the second inning. They had bases loaded with no outs, but Anna Kemp was able to limit the scoring to just one run.
The Lady Cols quickly responded when Kemp walked and the courtesy runner Addison Duncan came in to score on an RBI double by Lilly Bennett to tie the game in the bottom of the second.
Henderson went right back into a 2-1 hole in the third. An error with two outs by Azayah Hall allowed the Rockets’ Lauren Satterly to reach base. She stole second base and scored on an RBI single by Jaelynn Oaks.
Assumption added two huge insurance runs in the top of the seventh when Grace Sander hit a two-out, two-run single down the left field line to give her team a 4-1 lead.
Henderson made noise in the bottom of the seventh. Mackenzie Burczyk led off with a single, followed by a walk to Kemp. After a ground out by Braylin Risley, Bennett collected her second RBI with a single to the outfield to cut the deficit to 4-2. In the next at-bat, Duncan was thrown out at home, and then another groundout by Hall ended the game.
Kemp tossed seven innings, but suffered the loss moving her record on the season to 22-4. As her career comes to a close, she will surely be remembered as one of the all-time greats in HCHS history.
“Anna Kemp will go down as the most decorated pitcher in Henderson County history,” said Troutman of his star player. “Her work ethic is crazy. She’s the ultimate competitor. She loves big moments.”
It has been a remarkable run for Lady Colonels, with five consecutive trips to the state tournament. With last year’s state title in between, this was the Lady Cols’ second runner-up finish in three years. The Lady Cols lost to Ballard in the championship game two years ago. Henderson County finished this season 34-7.
The head coach attributed this season’s success to the way his team bonded together before tournament play.
“You want your team to be playing their best ball come postseason and I’ve been lucky enough to have it happen three years in a row,” stated Troutman.
Named to the State All-Tournament team were freshman Lilly Bennett, sophomore Saniya Shields and senior Kemp.
The state runners-up will bid farewell to five seniors including Addison Duncan, Ava Eblen, Sarah Mackey, Ann Michael Utley and Kemp, who will play at the University of Southern Indiana next season.
They will return eight starters and a lot of maturity, according to Troutman. He’s hopeful that the system in place will allow them to get back to the state tournament again next year.
Henderson tops Scott County in the final four
The Lady Cols reached their third straight championship game by defeating the Scott County Cardinals on Friday morning.
Henderson County wasted no time getting ahead of Scott County in their semifinal matchup. In what was expected to be a low-scoring affair, the Lady Colonels jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the top of the first inning, as they batted around.
Cardinal pitcher Ada Little, who is headed to the University of Georgia, hit Ayden Bennett with the first pitch of the game. Bennett then moved to third base after a steal and passed ball, allowing Maggie Grogan to bring her home with an RBI single.
Little struggled with control for the entire inning. She also hit Burczyk, walked Kemp, and then threw a wild pitch to let Grogan score. Lilly Bennett delivered a big two-out, two-run single and later scored, herself, on Little’s third wild pitch of the inning to give the Lady Cols a 5-0 lead.
Henderson would add three more runs in the third inning on a sacrifice fly from Jersey Gardner and a two-run single by Shields to push the lead to 8-0.
Scott County finally got on the board in the bottom of the third when Mackenzie Leidecker hit a double that plated two.
The Lady Cols wrapped up their scoring in the fifth inning. Shields added another RBI to finish 2-5 with three RBI. Burczyk added to her school record RBI total, by collecting two more on a single, giving her team an 11-2 advantage.
The Lady Cardinals threatened to do damage in the bottom of the fifth inning, but Kemp was able to escape a bases-loaded jam.
With a comfortable lead, Burczyk replaced Kemp in the circle to start the sixth inning. Scott County was able to push one run across before exploding in the seventh.
Matching Henderson’s start to the game, the Cards managed five runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to make things a little too close for comfort. The Lady Cols’ normally stellar defense made two errors in the inning before Kemp returned to get the last two outs of the game, giving her team the 11-8 victory.
Kemp threw 5.2 innings with six strikeouts to get the win. Little pitched all seven innings. While she did strike out 11 hitters, she also allowed 11 runs, walked six, threw five wild pitches and hit five batters.
