Louisa, Ky. — The defending 15th region champion Lawrence Co. Bulldogs are off to a 2-0 start after defeating Floyd Central and Russell to open the 2025 campaign.
2025 Lawrence Co. Softball
Sitting L to R Braylee Triplett, Ella Smith, Gracie Preece, Bree Jones, Abby Maynard, Taylor Blevins, Leah Blackburn
Standing L to R Sophie Spillman, Aleah Gillispie, Baleigh Blackburn, Brinley Baisden, Addison Bowen, Jada Patton, Addalyn Woods, Emmalyn Kitts, Lexi Crum, Millie Sammons, Madison Nix
Lawrence Co. 9 Russell 0 ( Tuesday )
Taylor Blevins and Gracie Preece homered to lead the Dawgs to a 9-0 victory over the visiting Red Devils.
Blevins improved to 2-0 in the circle, tossing all seven innings, striking out eleven, allowed three hits, drove in three runs and scored once. Preece also drove in three runs and scored once, Ella Smith had two hits including a double, had two RBI’s and scored two runs, Emmalyn Kitts had two hits, one run batted in and scored a run, Jada Patton doubled and scored a run, Lexie Crum doubled, knocked a run in and scored once, Abby Maynard doubled, Bree Jones singled and scored a run, Brinley Baisden scored a run.
Lawrence Co. 11 Floyd Central 0 ( Monday )
Taylor Blevins went five innings and scattered three hits to get the win and also singled and drove in a run as the Bulldogs opened the season with a mercy rule home District victory over the Jaguars.
Emmalyn Kitts doubled twice, drove in three runs and scored once, Bree Jones scored three times, had two singles and drove in a run, Abby Maynard doubled and drove in three runs, Leah Branham singled and scored two runs, Jada Patton doubled, scored twice and had 1 RBI, Ella Smith singled and drove in two runs, Baleigh Blackburn scored twice and Addison Bowen scored once.
2025 Bulldog Seniors
Gracie Preece, Bree Jones, Abby Maynard
The Bulldogs will return to action with four games beginning Monday March 24th vs Prestonburg, at Betsy Layne on Tuesday, at Prestonsburg Wednesday and host Shelby Valley on Friday.
Lawrence Co. Head Coach Sam Sparks
COACH’S COMMENTS
“… We’ve got a good cohesive group of girls that really work well together. They are all good teammates and all have worked really hard. We have mixed and matched throughout our scrimmages and put people in different spots. We have also thrown five different pitchers so far. Our hitting is a little bit behind but I think that will come pretty quick once we start playing some games. We have a good mixture of experience and youth. We are trying to mesh them together but I think we will be a work in progress early on.”
“… We lost five really good players from last year’s team. And that will be hard to replace, the three seniors were special with Dani Crum, Abby Nelson and Jayla Maxie certainly miss them along with Brooklyn and Hallie Adkins who transferred out. We will try to fill those spots the best we can.
“…We have a lot of young talent that just need reps. The three seniors are solid with Bree Jones, Abby Maynard and Gracie Preece who all saw a lot of action before Gracie got hurt. With her coming back healthy it’s like getting a transfer. Hopefully she can stay healthy for a the entire season. Junior Taylor Blevins is very experienced in the circle with 64 career wins which is getting close to the school record. Junior Ella Smith will also see time in the circle and play in the outfield, junior Braylee Triplett will see some time as well who has great control and can keep teams off balance, good sophomores and a very talented freshman group with the likes of Jada Patton, Addalyn Woods who is injured right now and Emmalyn Kitts. We have some really talented kids up and down our roster.”
