LOUISVILLE – A gutsy call to change pitchers even with the team leading 3-1 after four innings paid big dividends for the Bullitt East Lady Chargers on Wednesday in the championship game of the Sixth Region Softball Super Regional.
Bullitt East head coach Bruce Pierce had been running the idea of the big switch through his head since his team had moved into the title game two days earlier with a 15-0 win over Butler. He just never told either starting pitcher Ryleigh Waltrous or first baseman/back-up pitcher Mackenzie Mingus.
The exchange of shifting from a hard-throwing right-handed freshman to a left-handed junior with a collection of off-speed pitches was perfect for the situation. Mercy, one of Kentucky’s traditional powers, plays a lot of strong competition with high-velocity pitchers. The Jaguars never made the shift on Wednesday as Mingus faced only 10 batters to get nine outs. The only baserunner for Mercy over the last three innings came from a one-out walk in the seventh inning.
Mingus ended the game striking out Mercy pitcher Olivia Colebank, the team’s lead-off batter, leaving the Jaguars’ two best hitters in the on-deck circle and on the dugout steps. That preserved the 3-1 score that Mingus inherited when she took over the pitching duties.
The win advanced the Lady Chargers’ to the Kentucky State Softball Tournament. Bullitt East will play on Thursday against the champion of the 11th Region (to be decided on Thursday). The game time is not yet set.
This will be Bullitt East’s first trip to the state tournament since the 2012 campaign. Back then, the state tournament was double elimination and the Lady Chargers, coached by Ricky Hoffman, went out in two games including a loss to Mercy. The next season realignment moved the Jaguars into the Sixth Region.
Wednesday’s game was also Bullitt East’s first time in the championship game since the 2021 season. Mingus watched that game from the stands as she was part of the program, but not on the varsity team. In fact, present third baseman Mollie Johnston had been the Lady Charger pitcher in that game.
Mingus did not really have time to be nervous as she had not expected to be pitching at that moment.
“I was not really nervous,” she said after the celebration on the field. “My adrenaline was up so much. I might have been shaking a little bit, but I do better under pressure.
“It was just kind of the way it worked out,” she said of getting to pitch three innings. “I had warmed up before the game, but Ryleigh is often good for the entire game. I was ready to step in.”
Mingus had come on in relief work 14 times during the season. She has a 2.89 ERA while Waltrous’ ERA is 1.88.
Waltrous was pitching well. She had allowed only three hits and the one run in the top of the fourth inning was earned. The pitch count was manageable at 72 with 43 being strikes.
Pierce just wanted the change of pace.
“I did not tell the team,” the coach said of his plans. “I did not want to work her up. I had told the coaching staff that we knew that we were going to need to use her. The situation called for it and we made the change.
“We took the pressure off a freshman and put it on a junior who had done it,” the coach added. “I knew the longer the game went on that Ryleigh would put more pressure on herself. She did a phenomenal job when she was in there.”
Bullitt East had eight hits in the win, but the team did leave the bases loaded twice. In the end, all three of the runs crossed the plate in the bottom of the second frame. The bottom of the line-up set the table and the top of the order feasted.
One of those bases loaded situations had come in the first inning. That meant that Emma Thompson, the team’s number seven batter, started the second inning and she battled to a full-count before walking. Payton Holt, the hero of the regular season meeting when she hit a walk-off home run for a 3-2 Lady Charger victory, singled this time with Thompson advancing to third. Carly Bryant was the next to hit and during the senior’s at-bat Holt stole second.
Bryant ended up popping out, but that brought the top of the line-up to the plate in junior Alivia Cooper. The Lady Charger catcher took a ball and then drilled a shot between the center and right fielder that got to the fence on one bounce. Two runs scored easily with Cooper sliding head first into third with a triple.
Courtney Bass, a senior, then hit a ball deep to right field that easily allowed courtesy runner Kylee Willis to dart home from third.
Bullitt East had the eight hits from seven different players. The only batter with two hits was Johnston.
The pitching and the offense did its jobs, but so did the defense. The Lady Chargers did not have an error in this game and there were a handful of key plays, including Bass roaming into the grass behind second base to haul in a soft liner. Johnston twice came down the third base line and made off-balance throws to get runners out.
“You have to expect a game at this level that it will come down to some defensive plays,” Pierce said. “We did that in this game. I still felt we had the firepower to create a more comfortable lead than we had.”
Mercy beat Bullitt East in two games last season. The Lady Chargers beat the Jaguars twice this season.
“These are two good teams,” Pierce pointed out. “These are two good defensive teams and two good offensive teams. You knew it would be a battle.”
Bullitt East will enter the Kentucky State Softball Tournament at John Cropp Stadium on the University of Kentucky campus on Thursday with a 24-5 record.