The Oldham County Lady Colonels (14-6) shut out the South Oldham Lady Dragons (11-11) on Friday, April 26 in a 10-0 run-rule win after five innings. The Lady Colonels clinched a spot in the Eighth Region Tournament with the win.
“That’s huge getting a spot in the Eighth Region,” Oldham County head coach Chris Lashley said. “Getting that berth out of the way, that’s always nice. I’m glad they showed it [Friday]. They weren’t nervous coming out of the gate. They just played a good loose game, like they did against Henry County [Wednesday], so that’s good. I wanted to keep growing on that, because this team has a lot of potential, but they all play for each other and have each other’s back. It’s going to be an exciting season.”
South Oldham head coach Mike Schrecker saw some positives from his team in the loss.
“We didn’t play terrible in the field,” Schrecker said. “We made pretty good plays in the field. Our pitching wasn’t bad, they just hit the ball. That’s all there is to it. It’s not like we gave them the game, they took it and earned it.”
Junior Jozie Lashley started the game for Oldham County. She threw a complete five-inning game, allowing one hit to go along with 12 strikeouts.
“[Jozie] was definitely locked in [Friday],” Lashley said. “She was hitting her spots perfectly. She was right on almost all of her pitches. That was really exciting to see her grow. That’s what she’s missing right now is to keep on developing, hitting those spots. It’ll be huge for us as a program.”
South junior Kaylee Fitzner started the game, tossing 2.2 innings with four strikeouts. Eighth grader Cali Downing came in relief, throwing 1.1 innings.
“A lot of the time, the second time through, you see somebody, and you can time them up,” Schrecker said. “They picked up several pitches, and she pitched good. They just hit her.”
Oldham County senior Breckyn Hamm batted in four runs on a 2-for-2 day, including a two-run home run. Senior Kaitlyn Bradbury went 2-for-2, hitting a two-run home run as well.
“It’s not necessarily about the home runs, getting good contact with the ball is what we’ve been working on, getting line drives and home runs will come,” Bradbury said.
Jozie and Fitzner had command of their pitches in the first inning. Jozie allowed one hit to sophomore Addi Schrecker but struck out the other three batters she faced in the top of the first inning. Fitzner walked two batters with one scoring on a wild pitch to give the Lady Colonels a 1-0 lead, but she struck out the side to end the first inning.
Jozie threw a three up, three down top of the second. The Oldham County bats started to click in the bottom of the second inning. With one out, sophomore Bekah Townsend singled, and Bradbury followed with a double.
“I feel like communication really helped us and just passing the bat down and just keeping our excitement going,” Townsend said.
Freshman Lori Edgar loaded the bases with an infield single. Jozie scored a run on a sacrifice fly, and Hamm hit a two-run single to give the Lady Colonels a 4-0 lead. A ground out ended the second inning.
“ ‘Base running took a lot of pressure off our bats,” Lashley said. “Whenever we got on base, we were able to run the bases, that was huge. They came out loose. If they come out loose, they’re a really tough ballclub. If they come out loose and play hard, we’re a really good ball team. If we don’t come out loose and if we don’t play hard, we’re in big trouble.”
Jozie allowed no hits in the top of the third, stranding a base runner with a strikeout. Oldham County’s offense continued to add to its total. Lady Colonel freshman Kayla Cartledge was pinch running on third with one out when Townsend batted her in with an RBI double.
“It just got us going, and we’re just thinking, ‘we can do this’ and just getting that gives us reassurance,” Townsend said.
Bradbury blasted a two-run home run for Oldham County in the next at bat. After an error, Jozie added to their total with an RBI single. Hamm crushed a two-run home run to give the Lady Colonels a 10-0, putting them in position for a run-rule win in the fifth inning. Downing came into the game for South and ended the third inning on a ground out.
Lashley and Downing dominated the fourth inning. Lashley threw her second three up, three down inning of the game. Downing walked one runner but stranded her on a ground out. In the top of the fifth inning, Jozie closed out the game, striking out the side and giving Oldham County a 10-0 run-rule win.
“It definitely means a lot now that we’ve beaten both of our district rivals,” Bradbury said. “Now that we’ve done that, we can still work.”
Oldham County will be on the road against the Bullitt East Lady Chargers (14-5) at 6 p.m. on Monday, April 29.
“We want to keep growing in our pitching spot,” Lashley said. “I want to get Katie [Ladow] more involved pitching wise. She was a district MVP last year. We need to get her going on the mound more where we can rely on her more, and that’s going to be huge. We have a couple of young pitchers. We have a freshman and an eighth grader that are going to start helping pitch too. That’ll be a huge part of us getting going down the stretch. We’re going to run a lot of games in a row.”
South Oldham will also be on the road against the Simon Kenton Lady Pioneers (8-10) on Monday, April 29 at 6 p.m. Schrecker feels like to get back on the track the hitting needs to get to where it was at the start of the season. He knows his team is really young and knows a lot of his players are still growing and developing their game.
“Our season goal is still the same,” Schrecker said. “We’re still going to make it to Ulmer [Stadium]. To make it to Ulmer, we just have to win the first game of the districts, and we’ll probably see OC again. Getting to the regions and winning a game, that’s our goal, it’s still right in front of us.”