By Michael Lindsay
The Stone Memorial Lady Panthers are softball district champions for the first time since 2009 following Friday’s 5-2 victory against #1 overall seed Livingston Academy.
“We said at the beginning of the year that our goal was to win the district tournament,” said Stone Memorial head coach Brittany Bilbrey. “We had some setbacks in the regular season, but we kept our focus on this tournament and on what we needed to do. I told them before today’s game that they get to write the ending to this story, and that’s what they did.”
Livingston swept the regular season series against Stone Memorial, but the Lady Panthers swept their two district tournament matchups in the winners’ bracket semifinal on Thursday, 6-4, and the championship game on Friday, 5-2.
“We took them as learning experiences,” said Bilbrey on the regular season games. “We knew what we needed to do on our side. When we got the chance, we kept emphasizing to trust ourselves at the plate and to hit the ball where it was pitched.”
The Lady Wildcats overcame Thursday’s semifinal loss to Stone Memorial and defeated White County on Friday in the consolation bracket final, 12-2, before falling in the district championship game to Stone Memorial later that night.
Lady Panther sophomore pitcher Kenzie Jackson earned the complete-game championship victory as she struck out 6 batters while allowing 3 hits and 0 walks. Jackson went 2-2 with a double, a stole base and 2 runs scored at the plate. Center fielder Karlie Overly went 1-3 with a double and 3 RBIs in the win.
Stone Memorial opened with a run in the bottom of the first inning as Cadence Cox drove in Ashley Whittenburg to give the Lady Panthers a 1-0 advantage.
“Coming out in the first inning with our pitcher on the mound was big,” said Bilbrey. “Kenzie did a great job of keeping everything under control early and was able to manage that the rest of the game.”
Overly extended Stone Memorial’s lead to 3-0 in the bottom of the third with a two-out double to center, scoring two runs. Livingston got on the board in the top of the fifth as Reece Collins scored via error to cut her team’s deficit to 3-1.
Stone Memorial tacked on two insurance runs in the bottom of the fifth via grounders by Eva Worsham and Overly to make the score 5-1 Stone going to the sixth inning.
Livingston scored a run in the top of the seventh inning before the Lady Panthers shut the door on the comeback attempt to win the District 7-3A championship, 5-2.
Up next for both teams are the Region 4-3A tournament semifinals on Monday. Stone Memorial will host DeKalb County while Livingston will travel to District 8-3A champion Watertown.
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