No regional title comes easy, but the Boyle County softball team’s newest championship trophy was particularly hard to come by.

An inexperienced team that labored through an unforgiving schedule was rewarded this week with the regional title that might have seemed to be a distant possibility at midseason.

Boyle was well under .500 when the postseason began and had not won more than two games in a row all season before it strung together three wins in the 12th Region Tournament.

The Lady Rebels capped their championship run Sunday with a 10-4 victory over Pulaski County in the regional final at Southwestern.

They captured their eighth regional title – all since 2012 – and Boyle coach Brian Deem, who has been there for all of them, said it definitely had a different feel than the other seven.

“Yeah, this one’s special,” Deem said. “Not to take away from any of the others, but this group, as young and inexperienced as they are, literally got put through a gauntlet of a schedule. And for them to stay on board with what we were trying to do and continue to believe in us (makes this) a special moment, and I couldn’t be any happier for these kids.”

Boyle played a first-round game Thursday in the state tournament against 16th Region champion Rowan County after capturing its first regional title since 2022, when the four seniors on the team were freshmen.

“We weren’t on the field (in 2022) but we still had our roles to play. And now we’re here, we’re going back and we’ve worked for it. We’ve really earned this,” said Boyle center fielder Havannah Maddox, who had a home run and four RBIs in the championship game.

Sophomore Abby Peavler, who pitched all three games of the tournament that was spread out over seven days due to rain and graduation conflicts, said the seniors were on her mind.

“They’re the main reason I worked for this, because I knew they deserved it so much. My whole team deserves it,” Peavler said.

Maddox said that’s indicative of the way this group of players played for each other and for the team, and she said that served Boyle well in the regional tourney.

“We weren’t scared,” she said. “We knew who we were coming up against, good teams. But we knew that we had worked so hard this season, and we’ve played such a hard schedule, so at the end of the day we played for each other and we played without fear.”

That schedule took a heavy toll on Boyle (12-18), which lost nine of its first 12 games, entered the postseason with an 8-17 record and lost in the 45th District final.

The Lady Rebels might be the first 12th Region team to take a losing record to the state tournament since fast-pitch softball was introduced in 1995.

Deem’s schedules always include a number of quality opponents, and this slate was at least as challenging as any typical Boyle schedule.

It was a heavy lift for a team that lost only three seniors last year but remained young, with five underclassmen in the starting lineup at the regional final.

Boyle were ranked seventh in the region in a preseason coaches’ poll, and none of its players were ranked among the top 10 in the region in that poll.

The Lady Rebels took their lumps, including some run-rule losses, but Deem said he didn’t have to tell them now why those trials were beneficial.

“I think they’re smart enough to figure it out,” he said.

Maddox admitted there were times early in the season when it was hard to picture the celebration they enjoyed Sunday.

“There were definitely tough games where it was hard to see past the trees, but once we could really see the big picture I wasn’t worried,” she said. “I knew that we could do it. I knew that we would work for it.”

Boyle began the regional by dethroning defending champion Mercer County 6-1, then edged host Southwestern 4-3 before pushing past Pulaski in the final.

Peavler threw every pitch in all three games, striking out 37 batters to give her 55 strikeouts in 30 postseason innings. She was named the tournament’s most valuable player.

“(Mercer) was one of my best games, probably in my whole career. (Southwestern) put up a fight, and I just worked my butt off getting my spins down. And today I was definitely off, but when I got out of the first inning I talked to my teammates and my coaches and they pushed me through that struggle.”

Pulaski (15-17) matched Boyle’s two first-inning runs after Peavler hit three consecutive batters with pitches and then gave up two singles.

Ashlen Young put the Lady Rebels back on top in the second with a two-run home run to center field, but the Lady Maroons’ Bella Ellis matched that with a two-run homer of her own.

Boyle finally took control in the fifth inning when Miley Finley singled home a run and Maddox launched a two-run homer to left field that made it 7-4.

“It was electrifying,” Maddox said. “It was so amazing.”

Boyle hasn’t been known for its power this season, with only nine home runs in 27 games prior to the regional, but the Lady Rebels homered four times in their three regional games.

A three-run sixth inning that included an RBI single by Addie Cannon and consecutive sacrifice flies by Finley and Maddox gave them some breathing room.

They had nine hits and took advantage of four Pulaski errors in the title game, and Peavler said it raised her spirits to see the offense come through.

“That lifted me a lot,” Peavler said. “There was a smile on my face.”

The Lady Rebels had 20 runs on 24 hits in three regional games.

“We have swung the bats better this last week than we have all year, and they’ve finally gotten to the point that they are no longer afraid of failure,” Deem said. “Success comes from failure, and we’ve had our fair share of failure. But the reality of it is it’s paid off. They got to the biggest stage, they relaxed and did their job and found ways to put the bat on the ball and get big hits.”

 

All-Tournament Team

 

Boyle County – Abby Peavler (MVP), Miley Finley, Katherine LeMonds, Havannah Maddox, McKenzie Shelton

Garrard County – Emily Hounshell

Mercer County – Karleigh Sutton