LITTLE LEAGUE SOFTBALL: Floyds Knobs advances to final 3 of regional tourney

Josh Cook, The Evening News and the Tribune, Jeffersonville, Ind.
·4 min read

Jul. 29—WHITESTOWN — The Floyds Knobs Major All-Stars are two wins away from a regional title.

They won a pair of games Thursday to advance to the final three of the Central Region Tournament.

Floyds Knobs, which has won four straight elimination contests, will face Ohio at 11 a.m. this morning in the losers' bracket final at the Little League Central Region Complex in Whitestown. If it wins that game, it would face Missouri in the winner-take-all championship at 2 p.m.

To get there, Floyds Knobs triumphed two times Thursday. It edged Beardstown (Ill.) Little League 3-2 in its first game before blasting Central Iowa 10-0 in four innings — behind Emma Warren's perfect game — in its second contest to make the final three.

In its opener Thursday, Floyds Knobs fell behind Illinois 2-0 early before battling back for its third consecutive one-run triumph.

In the top of the first inning Illinois' first four hitters reached base, and the first one scored, against Floyds Knobs starter Lucy Isaacs. Aubrey Duckworth then came in to relieve Isaacs with the bases loaded. She induced the first hitter she faced into a run-scoring groundout (to make it a 2-0 game), then got the next two batters out to escape the early jam.

Floyds Knobs answered right back in the bottom half of the inning, though.

Duckworth walked with one out, then advanced to second when Emory Hegedus reached on an error. Both then moved up a base on Adyson Rohmann's groundout to bring up Natalie Curtis, one of the younger players on the team. She delivered a two-RBI single to left field to tie the game at 2-all.

However, it didn't stay that way for long.

In the bottom of the second inning, Warren walked with one out then scored a short time later on Kynlee Howell's double to center field.

That proved to be all that Duckworth, the team's ace, would need. She allowed just three singles the rest of the way en route to the victory.

For the game, Duckworth allowed six hits while striking out three over six innings. Of the 61 pitches she threw, 49 went for strikes.

On the flip side, her counterpart Khloe Kearns gave up three runs (only one earned) on five hits while walking three and fanning five over five frames.

That victory earned Floyds Knobs a rematch against Central Iowa, which scored three times in the bottom of the sixth inning to beat FK 3-2 in a first-round game Monday.

This time around Floyds Knobs put the game away early, scoring five runs in the first frame and five more in the third en route to the mercy-rule victory.

Floyds Knobs got started fast in the bottom of the first as Lindsay Platt led off with a triple to center field. Duckworth followed with an RBI-single before Hegedus walked on four pitches. Rohmann then doubled to center, scoring Duckworth, before Curtis drove in Hegedus and Rohmann with a triple to right. Moments later, Curtis came home on a wild pitch to make it 5-0.

With one out in the bottom of the third, Maddison Ising and Addison Marcum had back-to-back singles before Isaacs walked to load the bases. Alaina Payne followed with a single to score Ising. After Platt struck out, Duckworth reached on an error that allowed both Marcum and Isaacs to come home. Hegedus then reached on another Iowa error, which allowed Payne to score. Duckworth scored a short time later on a wild pitch.

That was more than enough for Warren, who threw four flawless frames. She didn't have a strikeout, but induced four groundouts and eight flyouts while throwing only 39 pitches, 31 of which went for strikes.

Floyds Knobs will face Ohio, which won its first two games of the tourney before losing 5-2 to Missouri on Thursday, this morning. If it wins that game, Floyds Knobs would take on Missouri, which has outscored its first three foes 32-2, in the title tilt.

The winner of the championship game advances to the Little League World Series, which is scheduled for Aug. 9-15 in Greenville, N.C.

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CENTRAL REGION TOURNAMENT

Thursday's elimination games

At the Little League Central Region Complex, Whitestown

FLOYDS KNOBS 3, ILLINOIS 1

Illinois 200 100 — 2 7 1

Floyds Knobs 210 000 — 3 5 0

W — Aubrey Duckworth. L — Khloe Kearns. 2B — Kynlee Howell (FK).

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FLOYDS KNOBS 10, IOWA 0

Iowa 000 0 — 0 0 2

Floyds Knobs 505 X — 10 9 0

W — Emma Warren. L — Ava Fjelland. 2B — Adyson Rohmann (FK). 3B — Lindsay Platt (FK), Natalie Curtis (FK).