So close they could almost taste the victory, the Logan County Lady Cougars instead experienced the sour taste of a season-ending defeat in the
Fourth Region Softball Tournament at Western Kentucky University Memorial Day.
Logan led 3-2 going into the bottom of the sixth inning, but in the next at-bat Barren County scored the go-ahead run on the last pitch before a
two-hour, seven-minute defeat rain delay.
The Lady Cougars weren’t quite as sharp when play resumed and never got another runner on base.
The Lady Trojans won 5-3 and advanced to Tuesday’s semifinals against Warren East, an 11-0 winner over Clinton County earlier in the day.
In fact, this was the only competitive game of the opening round. Recording 10-0 wins were Allen County-Scottsville over Russell County and
Greenwood over Todd Central.
There were several close plays that didn’t go Logan’s way its game. Among them:
*Centerfielder Jordan Schafer almost made a running catch of Katie
Crews’ long fly ball in the first inning. Instead as the ball bounced off the
tip of her glove, she and leftfielder Aeron Smith got their legs tangled. After a long delay, Smith stayed in the game but limped considerably except
when she was running the bases.
*Also in the first, Michelle Belt almost slid into third base before being forced on a deep ground ball hit by Brooke Yokley. Barren could not have
thrown Yokley out at first, but the inning ended.
*In the sixth inning, pitcher Jordan Melton got ahead of number nine hitter Molly Bellamy 0-2, but Bellamy singled in what proved to be the winning
run.
*After the rain delay, Barren’s Amber Chapman was called safe on a bang-bang play at first, keeping the inning alive and loading the bases. Then
Melton’s pitch too close to take was called ball four, driving in an insurance run for Logan.
Also crucial to the outcome was a gamble that didn’t pay off for the Cougars. In the fourth inning, Lindsey Moore had doubled and gone to third on
a passed ball. When Emily Croslin hit a grounder to third, Moore tried to come home but was thrown out at the plate by five feet. Had she stayed at
third, she would have scored on Schafer’s solid single as the next batter.
Still Logan took the 3-2 lead in a super fifth inning. Erica Meguiar led off the inning with her second straight hit. Smith reached on an error by
the pitcher, the third straight time she had been on base, including one hit. She later scored with the help of a throwing error by the catcher. Sheena
Bilicki then singled in Meguiar with the first run. Yokley took a swing at a 3-0 pitch to force Bilicki at second, but Moore battled pitcher Haley
Vernon until she drove in Yokley with the go-ahead run.
Melton gave up five runs on 10 hits and just 3 walks. She struck out 5.
The Lady Cougars got 8 hits, 2 each by Meguiar and Moore and one each by Smith, Belt, Bilicki and Schafer.
The Lo Jo
Changes are in store for the Lady Cougars. School officials confirmed Monday that both head coach Toby Turpin and top assistant Adam Webster have
resigned as coaches.
Meguiar, who batted .750 in postseason play, is expected to announce her choice of colleges at which to play in the next few days. Yokley was to
meet with a college coach Tuesday to talk about her future. Schafer has been selected to be a cheerleader at WKU.
Seniors Moore and Belt were also key components of the team, which won the first district championship in school history this year and reached the
regional semifinals the past two seasons.