Corbin baseball and softball win district titles Tuesday

Tuesday was, indeed, a good day to be a Corbin Redhound.

The Lady Hounds softball team came into this year’s 50th District tournament ready to take care of business, and take care of business they did. First they defeated Williamsburg 9-0 on Monday night (see our May 24 print edition for full details), and then they topped South Laurel Tuesday 10-4 to become district champs in 2017.

“I was very, very pleased with our performance,” said senior catcher Sarah Beth Price after the exciting win. “This is what I hoped for, and now we just have to move on to region and do our best.”

“I am so excited,” added fellow senior (and former South Laurel Lady Cardinal) Sienna Lawson. “I’ve won a district championship before, but doing it with this group of girls makes this one mean the most to me.”

Finally, senior Mollie Daniel commented, “This is my greatest experience with Corbin softball so far. Over the past four years we have really been working on this legacy that we want to leave, and this is part of that. We’re just really excited.”

As for how Head Coach Dana White was feeling after having a bucket of ice water dumped over her head, she said, “I’m feeling amazing, but this means more to the players than it does to me. The only way to have an amazing team that is going to go out there and win is to have players that want it more than the coach does, and we have that this year. It’s been an amazing atmosphere to coach in, and I’m just so blessed to be a part of this team.”

The Lady Hounds will now shift their focus to this year’s 13th Region tournament, which they will be entering with an overall record of 20 wins and eight losses. The News Journal will provide more details on the upcoming region tourney as soon as they become available.

In Tuesday baseball action, the Corbin Redhounds were also able to defeat South Laurel, successfully defending the 50th District crown that they won a year ago.

This game was all tied up at 4-4 at the end of regulation, meaning extra innings would be required to determine a winner. Corbin prevented any Cardinal runs in the top of the eighth, and then they were able to load the bases in the bottom of the inning with two outs on the board. With a full count, freshman Ben Phillips was walked, bringing home the championship winning run.

“I’m proud of the guys for battling all the way through,” said Redhounds Head Coach Cody Philpot. “Tonight was fun for all of us. That was a high level game with a lot of big moments on both sides. If you think about a championship ball game, the atmosphere that we had tonight is what you want. I’m just so happy for our guys.”

The baseball Hounds will now begin thinking about their upcoming region tournament, which they will be coming into with an overall record of 25 wins and seven losses. Be sure to pick up the May 24 print edition for full details of the first round action that led up to Tuesday’s district title game, and stay tuned for more information on when this year’s region tourney games will take place.

In the 51st District tournaments Tuesday, Lynn Camp softball was able to come away with a 17-6 win over Barbourville, advancing them to play against Knox Central later this week with a championship on the line. That game is scheduled to get underway at 4:30 p.m. Thursday at Union College.

Lynn Camp was not able to get past Barbourville in the first round of the baseball tournament, however, falling 9-3 to end their 2017 season with an overall record of 16 wins and 14 losses.