Bryan Station solves Douglass to win school’s first district softball crown.

During the regular season, everything that could go wrong for Bryan Station against rival Frederick Douglass did go wrong in a pair of losses that left Defenders head coach Hector Urbaneja scratching his head.

“I told them I had mixed feelings,” Urbaneja said of his team talk Wednesday ahead of the 42nd District softball tournament championship game against the Broncos on the Defenders’ home field. “Fifty percent, I wanted revenge. I wanted to beat (Douglass) real bad. But the other 50 percent was that I didn’t know if (we) were ready for that revenge because both times (we) beat ourselves.”

This time, with the school’s first-ever 42nd District title on the line, Bryan Station (18-11) overcame a couple of mistakes and made their own breaks in a 2-1 win over Douglass when it mattered most.

“We had energy from the get-go,” Urbaneja said. “I told them if they have 100 percent energy, we’re going to be champs.”

Kynedi Birdsong led off the second inning with a solo home run she rocketed over the left-field fence for a 1-0 lead. The stiff breeze blowing in from center field didn’t have a chance to knock it down.

“When she hit it, I said, ‘That’s gone!’” Bryan Station pitcher Karsyn Rockvoan said.

An inning later, Rockvoan followed up Tiahna Bowman’s triple to right field with a grounder to short to try to get her teammate in for a 2-0 lead.

It worked thanks to Bowman’s quick decision-making once she got in a rundown between third base and home plate.

“I saw (the Douglass first baseman) out of the corner of my eye get off of first base and I kind of already knew she was going to throw to home plate,” Bowman said. “So I, obviously, stopped and I waited for the throw to go down. When (the Douglass catcher) threw it (to third) I just took off and went home.”

A couple of Bryan Station errors in the fourth inning led to Douglass’s lone run. Aaliyah Long’s fly ball into the wind was dropped by the left fielder. Long took second base on the play and stayed there until Jarynn Bowman’s two-out grounder to third drew an errant throw to first. Long scored to cut Station’s lead to 2-1.

Rockvoan took care of the rest. The Defenders’ sophomore ace didn’t allow a Douglass hit until there were two outs in the seventh inning. She struck out her 11th batter of the night to end the game.

“I just had to trust my defense,” Rockvoan said. “I felt like coming into this game, everybody was hyped and everybody was ready to take them on.”

As runner-up, Douglass (17-14) will also advance to next week’s 11th Region Tournament. That’s a significant turnaround for a program that went 11-12 last season.

“Kudos to Bryan Station. Rockvoan was on point today,” Douglass coach Jason McGuire said. “Our goal was to win districts and we came up a little short, … but I’m super proud of this team.”

Since the current alignment of teams was established in 2006, Scott County had been the only team to ever win the 42nd District softball championship, a span of 17 seasons. Bryan Station finished runner-up for six of those, including the last two in a row.

Birdsong, a senior, summed up what it means to be the champs at last.

“Honestly, it means so much for me to enjoy this for my last year with my team,” she said. “I wouldn’t have a better group of girls to do this with. We’ve had our ups and downs, but I really appreciate them.”

Lexington Catholic claims 43rd District title

Sparked by a five-run third inning and a dominating pitching performance by Abby Hammond, Lexington Catholic defeated Lafayette 8-1 at Paul Laurence Dunbar to snap the Generals’ two-year hold on the 43rd District championship.

“The key was being patient at the plate and playing good defense behind our outstanding pitcher,” Lexington Catholic coach Emery Emmert said.

Lauren Moore began Lexington Catholic’s third inning with a walk. That was followed by back-to-back singles by Kayla Mattingly and Lauren Kelley. Kelley’s hit scored LexCath’s first run. After an intentional walk to Hammond, seventh-grade catcher Aevea Mosley-Franklin knocked in another run with a single. A fielder’s choice made it 3-0 for the Knights. Hammond and Mosely-Franklin each scored on wild pitches to put LexCath up 5-0.

The Knights (23-2) tacked on three more runs in the fifth inning thanks to a two-run single by Moore and an RBI single by Payton Coomer.

Hammond’s no-hitter was broken up by a solo home run from Kavery Myrick in the sixth inning. Hammond, a Kentucky commit, allowed only one more hit and struck out seven.

“We’ve been (in the district finals) four years in a row and it was satisfying to get it back,” Emmert said. “Now, we’ve just got to turn ourselves toward the region tournament. Hopefully, we’ll get back to that championship game again.”

Lafayette (19-15) will also advance to and host next week’s region tournament where the champions and runners-up from the 41st, 42nd, 43rd and 44th districts will battle it out for the 11th Region crown and a lone state tournament berth. The draw was scheduled Thursday afternoon.

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