Late Heroics Lift Lady Knights

The opening game of the doubleheader turned into a nail-biter as Kentucky Christian erased an early deficit to walk it off in the final inning.

St. Mary-of-the-Woods jumped out quickly, plating four runs in the first inning and adding another in the second to take a 5–1 lead. The Lady Knights responded in the bottom of the first when Kylie Mathes delivered a two-RBI single to right field to bring Kentucky Christian within striking distance.

After several scoreless innings, the Lady Knights chipped away again in the fifth. Mathes struck once more with another two-RBI single, cutting the deficit to 5–4 and setting up the dramatic finish.

Before the comeback could happen, Kentucky Christian's defense delivered one of the biggest plays of the game in the top of the seventh inning. With St. Mary-of-the-Woods threatening, the Lady Knights turned a beautiful double play to end the inning and keep the deficit at just one run.

That momentum carried into the bottom half of the inning. Kaylen Case scored when Alyssa Curtis reached on a play that allowed her to advance to third. With the tying run now home and the pressure building, the Lady Knights executed a perfectly called bunt, bringing the tying run across the plate and keeping the inning alive.

Moments later, Adrianne Chmielewski delivered the final blow with a clutch RBI single to center field, completing the comeback and securing the 6–5 victory for Kentucky Christian.

Mathes led the offensive effort with four RBIs in the game.

After the game, head coach Mark Ritchhart praised his team's resilience.

"I'm incredibly proud of the way our team competed today," Ritchhart said. "We got behind early, but the girls never lost their composure. The double play in the seventh was huge defensively, and then executing the bunt in the final inning shows the kind of disciplined, team-first softball we want to play."