No place like home: Bedford North Lawrence softball earns right to play host at semi-state

NEWBURGH — Bedford North Lawrence's softball road warriors are coming home, and they're bringing the Castle Regional trophy with them.

The Class 4A fifth-ranked Stars (28-2) made four treks to the Floyd Central Sectional last week because of rainouts. Then they made the 200-mile round trip to Newburgh Tuesday to challenge Castle on its home field to settle regional supremacy. Now they finally get to return to host the Bedford semi-state Saturday after closing out the Knights, 8-1, in front of a big crowd at Lockyear Field.

"We're going home, we're going home," said BNL head coach Brad Gilbert, sounding a bit like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. "It's something we've talked about since we learned we'd be hosting, and then we brought it up from the first day of preseason through the spring and the first day of the season.

"I'm just so happy and excited for these girls to get to play a semi-state on their home field."

Castle came into the contest with a 26-8 record, but long-time coach Pat Lockyear had to concede that BNL had the upper hand on his club.

"We ran into a better team," Lockyear said. "They were certainly better tonight. We played them earlier in the year (the season opener, a 5-4 win for BNL) and it was a closer game and had we cleaned up a couple of mistakes, it was winnable. But they jumped on us early and it got out of hand pretty quickly. They have a great team."

Semi-state spectacular

It is BNL's second consecutive regional crown and third in school history. The Stars will play Game 2 Saturday at 1 p.m. against Shelbyville (23-5), which turned back Whiteland, 4-0, to win the Shelbyville Regional.

MaxPreps No. 1 nationally ranked Roncalli (30-0) meets Pendleton Heights (25-6) in the opener at 11 a.m.., with the championship game set for 7 p.m.

It will be a spectacular gathering of talent at the BNL complex, including the Stars' superb right-hander Annie Waggoner (20-2, 1.17 ERA) and freshman sensation Ava Ratliff (who pushed her single-season record for home runs to 21 Tuesday, and also now owns the season marks for hits (50) and RBIs (53).

Roncalli has nationally recognized and Team USA U18 pitcher Keagan Rothrock, who is24-0 with an ERA of 0.79, 331 strikeouts in 142⅓ innings pitched. The team also has eight players hitting .400 or better.

Shelbyville is led by Karissa Hamilton, who has 10 home runs and is hitting .543, while sophomore pitcher Cheyenne Eads is 14-4 in the circle.

Pendleton Heights will bring senior Caroline DeRolf and her .484 batting average, while junior Eliza Findlay is 18-4 to pace the pitching staff.

"It will be four great teams coming in here, so it's going to be great softball, and we hope to have a big crowd to make it a great atmosphere," Gilbert said. "We're just so thrilled to be hosting it at our place.

"But it's not like we're happy to just be here because we're having it at home. We want to win it."

Ratliff rattles Knights

BNL came out hitting immediately. With two outs in the top of the first inning, Ratliff got a fastball up in the zone and she punished it. She sent a home run to left that landed out where people thought their cars were safe to park.

It rattled Lockyear and the Castle contingent. Lockyear chose to intentionally walk Ratliff in her next two at bats and the Knights paid dearly. The first time came in the third inning after Lauryn Anderson had singled.

Courtesy runner Tori Nikirk was on base when Lockyear issued the four-finger sign, sending Ratliff to first. Junior Braxton McCauley, a major player in her own right with a full-ride offer from Purdue, took the move personally and absolute smoked a line-drive double to the gap in left-center.

Aliza Jewell followed with a two-run single to center, and it was on, almost like one of the old Batman series shows. Here's Carsyn Alvey: Blam! single to right-center. Here's Maddy Bennett: Splat! single to center. Here's Carlee Kern: Pow! RBI single to left.

The Stars pounded out six hits and left the frame with a 5-1 lead. McCauley welcomed the opportunity to render some justice.

"I was like, 'Okay, you're going to regret it,' " she said. "I knew it was going to happen eventually, that they weren't going to pitch to her. I didn't like it, but I had to be within myself and not try to do too much. I just wanted to hit it low and hard. It felt really good. My cheeks are tired from smiling so much."

Gilbert said teams can expect that kind of treatment.

"That's just the way our team is built," he said. "You can pick your poison. If you don't want to pitch to Ava, then we have people behind who are great hitters and they're going to make you pay."

Lockyear knew as much, but just wasn't sure which poison would be most lethal.

"Ratliff is such a great hitter, and she'd hit two on us at Bedford, and then sent one out into the parking lot in her first at-bat, so what do you do?" he said. "I think the HR kind of shook us a little bit and set the tone, so I walked her the next two times and it went even worse for us.

"They have tremendous and hit the ball so hard depth. Give them credit, the kids behind her did a great job."

The Knights tried it again in the fourth, but McCauley scorched a grounder that misplayed and Jewell launched a soaring RBI double to left center. Alvey followed with a sacrifice fly that made it 7-1.

BNL's final run came on a laser of a home by Alvey leading off the seventh. The ball was blistered and skipped off the top of the fence and over to make it 8-1.

Waggoner wills win

Waggoner did the rest. She allowed just five hits and struck out 10, none bigger than when she caught Castle's top slugger, Jackie Lis, looking with the bases loaded in the bottom of the fourth.

"That was big, a big call (a full-count strike on the outside corner of the plate)," Lockyear said. "She doesn't strike out looking very often. But Jackie got hurt this season and missed 13 games, and I truly don't think she's quite back yet."

Gilbert was proud of how Waggoner battled.

"Annie pitched well and the defense was really good," he said. "She seemed a little tight at times (evidenced by a season-high four walks), but she made some big pitches when she had to have them.

"And now we're coming home. I'm so proud of these kids and not just for winning tonight, but for how hard they worked to get here, and now they get to experience what all that hard work will do for you. They get to enjoy some very special success and I'm thrilled for them."

Madison Beckhart went 2 for 4 for the Knights (26-9).

Bennett was 3 for 4, Alvey went 2 for 3 with two RBIs, and Jewell was 2 for 4 with three RBIs for the Stars, who finished with 12 hits while tying the school single-season record for wins, set by last year's regional champions.

Contact Times-Mail Sports Writer Jeff Bartlett at jeffb@tmnews.com, or on Twitter @jeffbtmnews.

This article originally appeared on The Times-Mail: Regional champs! Bedford North Lawrence to host semi-state softball