‘Locked in’ Kentucky softball commit helps Lexington Catholic knock off No. 1 South Warren

Lexington Catholic’s Abby Hammond doesn’t rest on her accomplishments or dwell on past mistakes.

That’s probably why the junior Kentucky softball commit remains one of the state’s best players two years after she earned Gatorade player of the year honors in helping the Knights reach the state championship game as a freshman.

“Softball is such a mental game … moving on from mistakes, like when I throw a bad pitch or there’s an error in the defense, it’s just being able to put that behind me,” explained Hammond, who leads the Knights with .583 batting average while also having a 15-2 record and state-leading 0.62 ERA as their pitcher. “I can learn from it later, but I have a job to do with the next batter. That’s been really important for me.”

A year ago, Lexington Catholic faced 4th Region powerhouse South Warren in the Lafayette Five Star General Tournament in Georgetown with Hammond giving up a three-run home run to the Spartans’ Layla Ogden in the eighth inning of a 5-2 defeat.

On Saturday, now No. 1 South Warren and No. 6 Lexington Catholic met again in this season’s Five Star back at Great Crossing Park.

This time, Hammond struck the decisive blow, a solo home run in the top of the sixth inning to help the Knights take down the Spartans 1-0 in a game shortened to six innings by tournament time constraints. Hammond’s seventh homer of the season was only the second hit off South Warren starter Courtney Norwood, who struck out 12.

“I was just trying to get a barrel on the ball and get a base hit to let the people behind me get me in,” Hammond said. “But, you know, sometimes it works out that way.”

South Warren (25-2) boasts one of the state’s most powerful offenses and had yet to lose to an in-state team. Hammond limited the Spartans to three hits and held the state’s top two home run threats — McLaine Hudson (16 homers) and Ogden (12) — hitless.

“Abby did a masterful job of keeping them off base and keeping them off balance,” Lexington Catholic coach Emery Emmert said.

Ogden, a .438 hitter, represented the potential winning run at the plate with a runner on first in the bottom of the sixth and two out. LexCath’s seventh-grade catcher Aevea Mosley-Franklin chased down a foul pop up for the final out. Mosley-Franklin also had a difficult foul-pop catch of Ogden earlier in the game.

“It’s just having confidence and faith that what I’ve done in the past with practice and games has all prepared me well to face that kind of an order — because they, top to bottom, every single one of those hitters, can hit it out of the park 300 feet,” Hammond said. “Having confidence going up there and trusting my defense was really important.”

Hammond’s seven strikeouts Saturday included the 1,000th of her career. She’s been LexCath’s ace since eighth grade.

“It’s exciting, but I go back to the support from my coaches,” Hammond said. “I go out with my dad (assistant coach Michael Hammond) every single day and he just sits on a bucket, probably in fear (although) he’s probably past that at this point because I’ve hit him so many times. I couldn’t do it without him, my coaches, my teammates.”

Hammond also stressed that there’s still work to do. The Knights aim to reclaim the 43rd District title and 11th Region championship after being denied both last year. LexCath lost 2-0 to Lafayette in the district finals and 3-2 to Great Crossing in the region finals.

Making her college commitment to UK last September has relieved some pressure, but it’s also motivated LexCath’s opponents.

“Now, it’s just other people watching you and seeing you’re committed and wanting to say they got a hit off you,” Hammond said. “That’s another part of the mental game. I have to stay locked in.”

The Knights (15-2) will need to be focused Monday at home against Lafayette. The unranked Generals stunned the Knights 11-1 on April 8. That’s part of the learning curve of each season, Emmert said.

“The great thing about losing is that it makes winning that much more fun,” he noted. “If all you did was win, it would be just like walking down the street. It wouldn’t feel so good. Every year it seems like we take a big loss. And then it’s always motivation for us to get to work.”

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