Darren Doyle, story:
The Wildcats had little trouble with the Grayson County Cougars last night on the road as they picked up their third district win of the season and moved to one game over the .500 mark.

Led by 8th grader Hunter Wilson, both on the mound and at the plate, the Wildcats took advantage of Grayson's pitching struggles early. Three hit batsmen, two walks, and two base hits in the first inning allowed the Cats to take a 3-0 lead and they never looked back.

Senior Gavyn Minyard blasted a two-run shot to center in the second inning, which was followed by a solo shot from Wilson as the Cats took a 6-0 lead.

Wilson pitched the complete game, going 7 innings, giving up one earned run on 4 hits, 4 walks, and 4 strikeouts. He also led the Cat offense, going 3-4 with a homerun, a double, and a single. Minyard was 2-4 with a homerun and single and John Michael Meredith was 1-4 with a single.

Edmonson County is now 9-8 on the season, 3-2 in the district, and face Grayson County again tonight, this time at home with first pitch scheduled for 5:30PM.

Edmonson Voice Report:
The Edmonson County Parks and Rec Youth League baseball and softball programs celebrated their annual Jamboree event at the HWY 70 Sports Complex on Saturday, April 23, 2022.

Parks and Rec Program Director John Kiernan said a total of 26 total teams were able to take advantage of a beautiful day on Saturday while they competed and played games.

Kiernan said the event got started that morning with Jeremy Hight singing the National Anthem. Honored this year was ECHS Head Baseball Coach Michael Meredith, who served several years in youth league programs for Edmonson County Parks and Rec.

"This year we discussed who we wanted to honor and everyone agreed that that without a doubt, it would be Michael Meredith," he said. "Michael has been apart of the league since his oldest son was in little league. He was on the baseball softball board for six years, serving four of those years as our president. He was always the one that would sacrifice his time to step in and cover anything that needed to be done. Michael is a great coach, was a great president, and is a really great person--and that’s why we wanted to honor him. We wanted to show our appreciation for all the devotion he put into this program through the years."

Kiernan said there's a long list of folks that helped to make the day a success, including 3B Inflatables. owned by Jon Vincent and Cody Vincent, who partnered with Parks and Rec and the Edmonson County Family Resource Center.

"We also want to thank Woody Woodcock and his son Ronnie, who set up their grill and cooked hotdogs and hamburgers," said Kiernan. "We also thank our umpires, Scott Lindsey, Dez Simcoe, Greg Hudson, Nick Williams, and Evan Stice. And last, but not least, our board members--Caleb Hogg, Amber Webb, Megan Coates, Ethan Stice, Samantha Peebles, and Leann Tunks. We couldn’t do this without all the board members umpires and volunteers."

Darren Doyle, story and photos:
The Edmonson County Lady Cats had an up-and-down couple of days as they traveled to Murray, KY to participate in the 2022 Spring Break Bash Friday and Saturday, April 8th and 9th.

Friday's games were called due to wet field conditions on Friday after several members had already arrived at the team hotel in Murray. Temperatures failed to get out of the 40s on Friday as the Lady Cats were greeted by snow flurries and high wind that afternoon.

After scrambling Friday night with multiple schedule changes with tournament officials, Edmonson County was eventually set to take on Murray High School during Saturday's first game. The games were held with what is known as a "75 minute drop-dead" time limit."

While both pitchers kept each of the other teams at bay, Murray struck first on the offensive side with a solo homerun in the 5th inning. Up until that point, ECHS freshman pitcher Julie Norris had not given up a single hit.

Norris went 6 innings, giving up 5 hits and no walks while striking out 8. She gave up 3 earned runs.

Lady Cat catcher Annie Kiper doubled in the top of the 6th, then stole third and scored on an errant throw to tie the game, 1-1.

Edmonson County then took the 2-1 lead when senior Alexa Henderson hit her 7th homerun of the season, a solo shot to left field.

With the time limit running out, Murray was able to reach base in the bottom of the 6th on a double, and then score on another double to tie the game. The third consecutive double by the Lady Tigers in the inning was all that was needed to win the game 3-2 as time expired.

Henderson paced the Lady Cats on offense with a homer and a single. Kiper went 1-4 on a double and Kaylee Ann Sanders went 1-4 with a single.

Murray's Kylie Chapman gave up 4 hits, 2 earned runs, and walked none, while striking out 8.

Edmonson County is now 2-7 on the season and will take on Crittenden County later tonight.

Darren Doyle, story and photos:
The Edmonson County Wildcats enjoyed a memorable win tonight over the Russellville Panthers as they won 7-3 at Bowling Green Ballpark.

Russellville had booked the game at the home of the Hot Rods during the off season as a special occasion for April 1st. It just so happened that the Wildcats were booked as the opponent for this game, and as a result, they were able to play on a field on which not many teams get to play.

A couple of errors for the Wildcats helped the Panthers get on the board in the top of the first as Russellville lead 2-0. Eighth-grader Hunter Wilson led off in the bottom of the the first with a single. He stole second and then scored when senior Gavyn Minyard doubled. A hit-by-pitch and an error on Russellville allowed a couple more base runners, which led to another run after Cole Bullock hit a sacrifice fly to tie the score at 2 each.

Pitcher Andrew Talley settled in for the rest of the game and paced the Wildcats on the mound, going the distance while allowing no earned runs, 6 hits, and three walks, while striking out 10.

Leading the offense was Michael Mills (3-3), Gavyn Minyard (3-4, 1 RBI), and Cole Bullock (2-2, 3 RBIs). Bullock, Talley, Minyard, and Daren Alexander all notched doubles against the Panthers and Mills earned a triple on a hard slide into third.

ECHS Head Coach Michael Meredith said the atmosphere took some getting used to for a team full of young players, and it showed early.

"We were nervous, we played nervous and we were very anxious at the plate," he said. "But we were able to do some good things and earn the win. It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a lot of kids, so I'm grateful and thankful for the opportunity to play at a facility like this, it's just I was hoping we would shake off the nervousness a little better, but that's part of it."

Meredith discussed Talley's strong performance on the mound.

"Andrew threw a great ballgame. He struggled during his last outing so this was big for him. I didn't feel like the two runs Russellville got in the first were on Andrew. He threw strikes all night long and I'm proud he showed he can be another go-to guy on the mound. He was really looking forward to tonight when I told him he was going to start and he went out there and done the job."

Meredith said after losing 9 seniors and being somewhat inexperienced, the goal is still to defend the district championship.

"The first game of the season, we put 5 guys out there with very little varsity experience, and we struggled early," he said. "But we're cleaning things up a bit and we've won 5 in a row. We just want to keep getting better, and that's working on the little things to make us better. We played really good defense over the last few games. We had a couple errors tonight, but I credit that to nerves. I mean, heck, I was nervous, too, so I get that. But moving forward, we just want to continue to get better."

Edmonson County is now 5-2 on the season and is scheduled to play in the Warren County Invitational next week during spring break.