High School Sports

On first glance, the bottom half of the 5th Region Baseball Tournament bracket appears to be loaded.

Three of the four teams with winning records in the tournament, which will be held at Central Hardin, are in bottom half of the bracket. All three teams have 24 or more victories.

Defending region champion Central Hardin, the 17th District champion, meets the 19th District runner-ups Nelson County Cardinals (12-20) at 6:30 p.m. Monday. The Bruins (29-4) beat Nelson County, 12-0 on May 14.

LaRue County completed its decade-long 18th District Baseball Tournament sweep.

And go figure, the Hawks capped it off by winning their 10th consecutive district championship by 10 runs. There were 10s all around.

Junior Slade Owens had three hits and four RBIs, junior Kyle Sheeran broke out of a hitting funk and junior pitcher Wesley Kessinger untangled himself out of a handful of jams as LaRue County defeated Green County, 11-1 in six innings in Wednesday night’s championship game at Hart County.

Brigitte Skaggs had the Green County Lady Dragons on the ropes.

The LaRue County freshman pitcher had struck out nine batters through 6 1/3 innings, keeping the Lady Hawks in the game against the four-time defending 18th District Softball Tournament champions at Hart County High School on Tuesday.

Then came the seventh inning.

Second-seeded LaRue County committed two costly errors – including one that led to the game-winning run – as top-seeded Green County rallied for a 3-2 victory to win its fifth consecutive district title.

If Friday really was their last night playing in a LaRue County uniform, twins Lyndsay and Valerie Whitlock went out in style.

The seniors, both in the starting batting order for the first time in eight games, reached base seven times in a combined eight plate appearance and each scored three times as the Lady Hawks ended the regular season with a 9-3 win against the Elizabethtown Lady Panthers.